“Bhishma continued, ’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 is particularly is that 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, constitute a complete and intelligible sentence.[1693] The words I shall utter will be fraught with sense, free from ambiguity (in consequence of each of them not being symbols of many things), logical, free from pleonasm or tautology, smooth, certain, free from bombast, agreeable or sweet, truthful, not inconsistent with the aggregate of three, (viz., Righteousness, Wealth and Pleasure), refined (i.e., free from Prakriti), not elliptical or imperfect, destitute of harshness or difficulty of comprehension, characterised by due