Verse 3378-3379

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

पावकाव्यभिचारित्वं धूमस्यापि न शक्यते ।
वक्तुं तेन यतो धूमस्तन्मतेऽन्यत्र वर्त्तते ॥ ३३७८ ॥
एकवस्तुस्वरूपत्वादुदन्वत्यपि वर्त्तते ।
तत्राप्यनलसद्भावे व्यतिरेकः किमाश्रयः ॥ ३३७९ ॥

pāvakāvyabhicāritvaṃ dhūmasyāpi na śakyate |
vaktuṃ tena yato dhūmastanmate'nyatra varttate || 3378 ||
ekavastusvarūpatvādudanvatyapi varttate |
tatrāpyanalasadbhāve vyatirekaḥ kimāśrayaḥ || 3379 ||

He cannot assert even the infallibility of the concomitance between smoke and fire; because, under his view, smoke exists elsewhere also; in fact, being of the one uniform nature of ‘entity’, it exists in the ocean also; and if fire exists there also, then where would the absence (of the probans) lie?—(3378-3379)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

That the birth of Smoke is related to Fire, and that it is invariably concomitant with Fire is known even to the veriest cowherd; and yet you, by describing the whole world as really one and uniform in the shape of ‘Entity’, are unable to say that Smoke is infallible in its concomitance with Fire; because under your view, in the form of ‘Entity’, it is present in water also.

“Even so there would be concomitance with Fire.”

Answer:—‘If Fire exists, etc. etc.’—If it is admitted that, under the principle of all things being one and the same, the Ocean is of the same nature as Fire,—then, in the proving of Fire, Water could not be regarded as that where the Probandam (Fire) is known to be absent; and thus there being nothing where the Probandum is absent, on what basis would the Probans, Smoke, be non-existent where the Probandum is absent?—(3378-3379)