अपदश — Citing the Ground: Authority and Reason

Apadeśa means "pointing to the ground". The three authorities appear to define it in two different ways. For Kauṭilya it is "thus said he": the attribution of a view to its author. His example sets out four positions on the size of the king's council of ministers — twelve according to the school of Manu, sixteen according to Bṛhaspati's, twenty according to Uśanas's, and "according to capacity" according to Kauṭilya himself. For Suśruta it is "by this reason": "sweet taste increases phlegm." For Cakrapāṇi it is "the statement of a reason for establishing what has been asserted", with Caraka's rule that water, land and time are successively harder to guard against, the reason being "because of being harder to avoid". This article argues that the two senses — citation of a source and statement of a reason — are one device, since in a śāstra both the authority and the cause are grounds on which a statement rests, and the Vaiśeṣika sūtra lists apadeśa among the synonyms of hetu. Three objections are answered: that the two definitions contradict each other, that citing authorities is a fallacy of appeal to authority, and that apadeśa duplicates hetvartha. It concludes that apadeśa is the device of provenance, and that Kauṭilya's single example is a model literature review: four views, each attributed, the author's own last and distinguished from the rest. Series: तन्त्रयुक्तिविमर्शः · Tantrayukti Studies, TY-2026/10. Loci: AŚ 15.1.21–22; Su. Utt. 65.15. Online version: https://sanskritmanthan.in/a/ty-10-apadesha