Definitions of negation

The Sanskrit grammatical tradition loves to name and define its terms, often in verses. For example, the privative prefix, which manifests itself as a- or an- (and is cognate with the Greek a- in words like atom), is called naÑ in the Pāṇinian tradition. A concise verse (from the voluminous Śabdakalpadruma) summarizes the various meanings that this prefix can express:

tat-sādṛśyaṃ virodhaś ca tad-anyatvaṃ tad-alpatā |

aprāśastyam abhāvaś ca nañarthāḥ ṣaṭ prakīrtitāḥ ||

The tradition enumerates six different meanings that can be expressed by naÑ:

[1] tat-sādṛśya (“similarity to it”)
This covers examples like anaśvaḥ: a “non-horse”. Now while this term might conceivably used for anything whatsover (like a table or an elephant or a thought-process), it is specifically used for any equid that is not a horse. Thus, a donkey is a “non-horse” that possesses similarity to a horse.

[2] virodha (“opposition [to it]”)

This covers words like apuṇya, a “non-meritorious deed”, where the word means something entirely opposed to the modified word. Thus apuṇya specifically refers to a pāpa, a sin (because that is in direct opposition to a good deed).

[3] tad-anyatva (“being other than it”)

This is supposed to cover the situation where a thing that could be in one state is in a different state. The example I came across was anākāśā bhūḥ,  the “non-sky earth”. This is supposed to mean “earth, which is different from sky” but am not very convinced by it. A different example, which I think works better, would be abrāhmaṇa (used as a tatpuruṣa compound), to mean “a [person] who is other than a brahmin”.

[4] tad-alpatā (“being less than / inferior to it”)

The example I saw for this was anudarā kanyā, literally a “stomach-less girl”, but used to mean “a girl with a small stomach”.

[5] aprāśastya (“non-praiseworthiness”, or perhaps “non-significance”?)

The example I saw for this was amarā devāḥ, “the immortal gods”, more literally “the gods whose death is insignificant”. I am not entirely clear on this category.

[6] abhāva (“non-existence”)
This is what we would expect it to be be. Thus, abrāhmaṇo grāmaḥ would be “a village where Brahmins exist not”.

All the examples are taken from p. 197 of Dr. S. Gangadaran’s Saiva Siddhānta with Special Reference to Sivaprakāsam.