, "Though rebuked by the king in these unpleasant,
improper, and ill-applied words, the lady Sulabha was not at all abashed.
After the king had said these words, the beautiful Sulabha then addressed
herself for saying the following words in reply that were more handsome
than her person.

"'"Sulabha said, 'O king, speech ought always to be free from the nine
verbal faults and the nine faults of judgment. It should also, while
setting forth the meaning with perspicuity, be possessed of the eighteen
well-known merits.[1688] Ambiguity, ascertainment of the faults and
merits of premises and conclusions, weighing the relative strength or
weakness of those faults and merits, establishment of the conclusion, and
the element of persuasiveness or otherwise that attaches to the
conclusion thus arrived at,--these five characteristics appertaining to
the sense--constitute the authoritativeness of what is said. Listen now
to the characteristics of these requirements beginning with ambiguity,
one after another, as I expound them according to the combinations. When
knowledge rests on distinction in consequence of the object to be known
being different from one another, and when (as regards the comprehension
of the subject) the understanding rests upon many points one after
another, the combination of words (in whose case this occurs) is said to
be vitiated by ambiguity.[1689] By ascertainment (of faults and merits),
called Sankhya, is meant the establishment, by elimination, of faults or
merits (in premises and conclusions), adopting tentative meanings.[1690]
Krama or weighing the relative strength or weakness of the faults or
merits (ascertained by the above process), consists in settling the
propriety of the priority or subsequence of the words employed in a
sentence. This is the meaning attached to the word Krama by persons
conversant with the interpretation of sentences or texts. By Conclusion
is meant the final determination, after this examination of what has been
said on the subjects of religion, pleasure, wealth, and Emancipation, in
respect of what particularly is what has been said in the text.[1691]
The sorrow born of wish or aversion increases to a great measure. The
conduct, O king, that one pursues in such a matter (for dispelling the
sorrow experienced) is called Prayojanam.[1692] Take it for certain, O
king, at my word, that these characteristics of Ambiguity and the other
(numbering five in all), when occurring together