Bādha
By Swami Harshananda
Bādha literally means ‘that which contradicts’.
The word Bādha has several meanings :
- Abhāva or absence
- Pratibandha or obstacle
- Pīḍā or harassment
However, the Nyāya school of Philosophy uses it as a technical term of logic.
In the sentence, "parvato vahnimān dhumāt" (‘The hill is fiery, since there is smoke there’), vahni or fire is called ‘sādhya’ (the major term), parvata or hill is called ‘pakśa’ (the minor term) and dhumāt or smoke is called as ‘hetu’ or ‘liṅga’ (the middle term).
In a situation where the sādhya does not exist in the pakśa, it is called bādha. For instance, in the sentence "hrado vahnimān dhumāt" (‘The lake is fiery, since there is smoke there’) the minor term hrada or lake, which is the pakśa, is ‘bādha’, since it is impossible for the fire, the sādhya, to exist in the lake. The lake obstructs or prevents (bādha = obstacle) fire from existing in it. Many more varieties of bādha are discussed in the works of logic.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore