230. Vṛddhakumārīvākya-nyāya
An old unmarried woman is called vṛddhakumārī. In the treatise, mahābhāṣya we find this nyāya described. Devendra, the king of deities appeared before one such old unmarried woman and told her that he is pleased and is willing to bestow upon her a vara. She asked him a vara as follows: “My kids should always be able to partake as much milk and ghee as they want in their diet and they should be able to consume them in golden plates and utensils!” She asked for only one vara. But in that there are a lot many others subsumed! She wants to marry, has to have a lot of kids, there should be an abundance of cattle, foodgrains and wealth in her household! This is the strategy of the vṛddhakumārī. Kāṃsyabhojana-nyāya is also similar in its import.
When a short utterance is brimming with multiple meanings, this nyāya is used to describe such a situation.
231. Vṛddhimiṣṭavato mūlamapi naṣṭam
Someone desiring a huge interest invested in a dubious place and lost the principal amount too. We see examples of this even now. This nyāya is used when someone becomes greedy and loses everything. Here is an example:
“bhakṣyāśayā hi mañjūṣāṃ daṣṭvakhustena bhakṣitaḥ” i.e. A mouse desirous of food entered a snake basket by biting a portion of it and got eaten by the snake”
The nyāya “putralipsayā devaṃ bhajantyā bhartāpi naṣṭaḥ” which we have seen previously also has the same import.
232. Vṛścikabhiyā palāyamana āśīviṣamukhe nipatitaḥ
Someone running away from a scorpion got into the mouth of a snake. Trying to escape something dangerous if one gets caught in a far greater calamity, this nyāya is used to describe it.
“Everything is an illusion, there is nothing which is real”, so says the śūnyavādins (i.e. negationists). Their purpose is that nothing should be liked, nothing should be hated. Because the entity itself is an illusion, so should be shunned. Thus if everything is to be shunned it would lead to vairagya. Thus the ‘nothing’ is essential.
But these śūnyavādins can be countered as follows. If everything is an illusion then what is to be shunned? The question of shunning or accepting something arises only when that ‘thing’ is there. How does it make sense if there is no such ‘thing’?
Thus the śūnyavādins, running away from the scorpion, have become prey to the snake.
233. Vṛścikīgarbha-nyāya
The scorplings (baby scorpions) cut through the stomach of the mother scorpion and emerge. The mother dies in the process. This nyāya is applicable to people who destroy their benefactors to come up in life. There is another example similar called karkaṭakī-garbha, where karkaṭakī means the crab where a similar phenomenon can be seen. The kadalī, i.e plantain, is also given as an example. Once the fruits appear the plantain’s life is over. The fruits become the death knell to the tree. See also aśvatarīgarbha-nyāya.
234. Śatapatrapatraśatabheda-nyāya
The lotus is called śatapatra. This nyāya is about piercing the patraśata, i.e. the hundred petals. If the petals are placed one above the other and a needle is used to pierce them, it can be done in one shot. If we do it one by one, the result is still the same. The speed would be the reason for this effect. Even though there is a sequence it will not be visible.
In alaṅkāra-śāstra (aesthetics) there are two ways, saṃlakṣyakrama and asaṃlakṣyakrama. In the second way the vyaṅgya (oblique expression) though visible, the way in which it manifests is not very evident. Thus due to the pace, if the intermediate steps aren’t evident this nyāya is used to describe such situations.
235. Śate pañcāśan-nyāya
If we have a hundred, then fifty is present in it anyway. A larger quantity will have the smaller one in it. Hundred is greater than fifty. So we need not ask if fifty is present if it is known that hundred is present. If the discussion is about the waters of the ocean then it is evident that salt is present.
There is this verse in the bhagavad-gītā:
यावानर्थ उदापने सर्वतः संप्लुतोदके ।
तावान् सर्वेषु वेदेषु ब्राह्मणस्य विजानतः ॥ 2.46
“If a lake gives us facilities to bathe and use its waters for drinking etc, the same facilities will be provided by a huge reservoir brimming with water. Likewise all the fruits which can be obtained by the vedas can be obtained by a brahmajñānin who has gained the ultimate knowledge”
The levels of ananda available to a man, a king, a deity, Indra (king of deities) and so on is included in the brahmānanda.
This nyāya is also used to describe worldly things like, if there is a king then there will be ministers too, or if Rāma is present Lakṣmaṇa will be with him and so on.
236. Śalabha-nyāya
Śalabha is the moth. It is attracted to the fire. Maybe it thinks it to be some food, tries to approach it and is burnt by the fire. Poets describe it as though not able to tolerate the resplendence the moth rushes towards the fire and meet its end. The poet Māgha in his celebrated work śiśupālavadham makes Uddhava say the following to Śrīkṛṣṇa:
“शलभतां लभतामसुहृद्गणः”
“Let your enemies rush towards you like the moth rushes towards the fire and be destroyed”
237. Śākaṭika-nyāya
Śākaṭika means a charioteer or someone who drives a bullock cart. One such man is going in a forest along with his cart. He is surrounded by thieves. “Give us hundred rupees, if not we will behead you”, shouted the thieves. The man is a farmer who doesn’t even know how to count till hundred; he doesn’t know how much is a hundred worth. He says, “I’ll give you five twenties, please spare my life.” The thieves too don’t understand his words. They insist on the hundred rupees. The farmer replies, “I don’t care even if you behead me, I cannot give you a hundred. I can only give you five twenties!” This is the essence of śākaṭika-nyāya. When people talk about the same entity, but in different terms, causing a misunderstanding where none should exist, this nyāya is used to describe such situations. To give an example, the following statement appears in the text called nyāya-mañjarī. “The ātman is not pratyakṣa (visible), it is aparokṣa (not invisible).” aparokṣa means pratyakṣa.
This is the twenty-sixth part of the multi-part translation of the Kannada book "Sandarbha Sukti" by Mahamahopadhyaya Vidwan Dr. N Ranganatha Sharma. Thanks to Dr. Sharada Chaitra for granting us permission to translate this wonderful work. Thanks to Śatāvadhānī Dr. R Ganesh for his inputs. The original in Kannada can be read here
