Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c7.s2.23

c7.s2.23

He has discussed five *vākya-doṣas* (blemishes of a sentence) — *nyūna* (laconic), *adhika* (having excess of words, etc.), *anarthaka* (senseless), *apārthaka* (misleading) and *viruddha* (contradictory). The reversal of these yields five *vākyaprasaṁśās* — *anyūna*, *anadhika*, *arthavat*, *anapārthaka* and *avirudddha*. Caraka perhaps is indebted to Sulabhā’s categorizations of good and bad conversations as discussed in *Mahābhārata*.