Text 106

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Text 106:

प्रसिद्धाभिनयस्य चेष्टया प्रतिपत्तिदर्शनात् तद् अप्यनुमानम् एव ॥ १०६ ॥

prasiddhābhinayasya ceṣṭayā pratipattidarśanāt tad apyanumānam eva || 106 ||

Text (106): In as much as we find that it is only one to whom the signification of the gesture is known who has a cognition by means of the gesticulation, that cognition must be regarded as inferential.

Commentary: The Nyāyakandalī of Śrīdhara.

(English rendering of Śrīdhara’s commentary called Nyāyakandalī or Nyāyakaṇḍalī from the 10th century)

We find that when the fingers of the hand are drawn within, it signifies that the man who makes the gesture is calling someone to himself; and when the fingers are put forward ii means that the man is sending someone away from himself and some people regard this gesticulation to be an independent means of knowledge. Against these people the author says: when a man knows that such and such a gesture of the hand—e.g., its contracting or expanding—is meant to convey such and such a meaning, he comprehends these gestures whenever made as signifying calling, sending away and the like and as it is only the person cognisant of the meaning of the gesture who has the comprehension, and no other person, we must regard this cognition by gestures as purely inferential.

Ceṣṭā, ‘gesture’ is regarded as an independent means of knowledge, by the Tāntrikas.