to combat his opponent. He begins with the Buddhistic system.
The form of the dialogue is unique in literature being that of enigmas
and the latent meaning is in a queer way hid under the appearance of
puerile and heterogeneous combinations of things.

Vandin opens the controversy by saying that as the number of each of
these is one, so one only intellect is the lord, leader and guide of the
senses.

27. There is a Vedic revelation that two birds live together on a tree as
friends--one of these eats the fruits and the other looks at the former.
From this it is manifest that two are the lords, leaders, and guides of
the senses. That there is a second faculty besides the intellect is also
proved by the fact that in sleep when the intellect is inactive that
faculty continues in action, for if it were not so we could not remember
having slept, nor connect the state after awaking with that preceding
sleep. Accordingly by citing the number two Ashtavakra assets that
besides intellect there is another faculty--consciousness that these two
are jointly the lords, leaders and guides of the senses and that they act
together as Indra and Agni, etc.

28. By citing the number three Vandin means to say that as it is Acts
that produce the three kinds of born beings, etc., so Acts are supreme
and that everything else be it intellect alone, or intellect and
consciousness together is subservient to Acts.

29. Ashtavakra here advances the thesis that even if Acts be supreme
still when the (fourth) or Supreme Being becomes manifest to the soul, it
stands in no further needs to Acts.

30. By bringing in the quinquennial series, Vandin wishes to assert that
the five senses are competent to cognise their respective objects and
that besides these senses and their objects there is neither any other
sense to perceive nor any other object of perception. He also cites the
authority of the Veda according to which the Apsaras (or consciousness)
have five "locks" on their hands--i.e., five objects of perception.

31. Besides the five senses Ashtavakra contends for an additional sense
namely the Mind and accordingly cites the number six.

32. Vandin admits the existence of the six senses but says that the soul
experiences happiness and misery through those as well as through the
intellect.

33. Ashtavakra advances an eighth element, namely, the knowledge of the
ego.

34. Each of the three qualities (existence, foulness and ignorance) of
prak