History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s2.34

c17.s2.34

Dr. Barua expresses gratitude to Professor Bhandarkar for his discovery of the true meaning of this passage, and gives a rather imaginative paraphrase of it. "Professor Bhandarkar," he writes, "has rendered a great service by rectifying a fatal error in the interpretation of Utpala's commentary, which led such veteran Sanskritists as Professors Kern and Bühler to suppose that the Ājīvikas were the worshippers of Nārāyaṇa, i.e. Bhāgavatas. But now thanks to Professor Bhandarkar no one doubts that Utpala's meaning was just the contrary. The Ājīvikas and the Bhāgavatas furnished him with a typical instance whereby he could illustrate *upalakṣaṇa*, a figure of Rhetoric used in characterizing what a word does not denote. ‘Ājīvikagrahaṇam ca Nārāyaṇaśritānām,’ i.e. to accept one as an Ājīvika is not to denote a worshipper of Nārāyaṇa."