Verse 3.3.19

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.19:

प्राप्तिं तु समवायाख्यां वाच्यधर्मातिवर्तिनीम् ।
प्रयोक्ता प्रतिपत्ता वा न शब्दैरनुगच्छति ॥ १९ ॥

prāptiṃ tu samavāyākhyāṃ vācyadharmātivartinīm |
prayoktā pratipattā vā na śabdairanugacchati || 19 ||

19. Neither the speaker nor the hearer can reach through words that juxtaposition (prāpti) called inherence which is beyond the attributes which things expressed have.

Commentary

The author really holds that inherence is not the expressed meaning of any word.

[Read verse 19 above]

[All things like a cow which are expressed by words are characterised by some properties and are mixed up with them. These two things are their limiting factor. But for them, they could not be expressed by words. Inherence has no quality or universal as its limiting factor, according to the Vaiśeṣikas. Thus, it is beyond the range of what is characteristic of all that is expressible (vācya). The capacity to be referred to by a pronoun as ‘this’ or ‘that’ is the sign that something can be expressed by words. This is also absent in the case of inherence. It cannot be understood even from the word samavāya by the speaker or by the hearer. There is no word which can touch its essence. The word samavāya is not such a one, because it is also used to denote an assembly of men. It is only among the Vaiśeṣikas that it is used to denote this category].

Now the Naiyāyika indulges in some casuistry.