lx
AMARAKOSA
A person depending on the worship of the gods in a temple for his livelihood is called devoid', devdjwastu devalah. Malli. clarifies with a suitable illustration from a Smrti work that a person who performs worship for his maintenance for a short period cannot be included in this category; a devoid is one who remains in that calHng for a minimum of three years:
i . . . i (p. 627)
Stating that upamd and upamdna are dvistolinga, that which in every relationship preserves its own gender, Malli. gnes two apt verses to illustrate them:
II ?! q?i . . . ^ II (p- 642)
Ingenious are some of the explanations offered by Malli. to justify additional meanings that he sees in the text of Amara which others have either failed to notice or have left to be understood by the reader. The word koraka (bud) is specifi- cally stated to be mas. by Amara in ^ kalikd korakah pumdn ’ but a master of literature such as Magha has used the word in the neuter, ^ marudavanL . . korakdni ’ {Sisupdlavadha^ VIL 26). Malli. cleverly explains that when the gender of a word is easily recognized by its very appearance (Ticpa) any mention by Amara that it belongs to that particular gender is intended to suggest the anityatva (impermanence) of that gender. This is a device well known in the interpretation of the sutra-s of Panini, vyartham sat jndpayati Hence the mas. of koraka is auitya and the neuter in korakdni is justified by Amarals own texti
I (p. 225)
Drawing attention to the statement in the Amaravdrttika that mtariksa (sky or atmospheric region) has a long i sound {anta- riksa) he ingeniously explains it as that region which is ' seen ^ between the earth and the heavens.
