Verse 3.14.179

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.179:

मात्राणां हि तिरोभावे परिमाणं न विद्यते ।
कुमार्य इति तेन स्यात् कुमार्यां भेदसम्भवात् ॥ १७९ ॥

mātrāṇāṃ hi tirobhāve parimāṇaṃ na vidyate |
kumārya iti tena syāt kumāryāṃ bhedasambhavāt || 179 ||

179. If femininity means the merging or dissolution of the qualities (mātrāṇām), its extent (parimāṇam) does not exist (that is, cannot be determined). One would always have the form kumāryaḥ because there can be infinite differentiation in kumārī.

Commentary

It is now stated that even by adopting the view that gender is the condition of the guṇas, the difficulty would not be overcome.

[Read verse 179 above]

[It might be said that, according to the view that gender is the condition of the guṇas the number of a word would depend upon the condition of the guṇas. But the difficulty is that in this view what is called femininity is the merging or dissolution of the qualities rūpa, rasa etc. and that number depends upon the changing condition. But it is impossible to determine the extent of the changes even in one thing and one would be compelled to have always the plural everywhere, because in what is constantly changing, there are always many changes. If, by ignoring all this multiplicity of changes, one looks upon the whole thing as one, then this view would not be different from that of the universal and there would always be the singular number. Thus kumāryau, kumāryaḥ would be inexplicable. Nor could a word like kumārī be in apposition to a word expressive of dravya or be connected with a verb, because the feminine suffix would be expressive of a mere attribute, namely, femininity.]

The vārttika given in answer to this objection (Vā. 6, M. Bhā. H, p. 200, 1. 1.) is now going to be explained.