Shad-Vikara

The sixfold modification — the six changes the ancient lexicographer Yaska lists as characteristic of everything material. Used in Vedantic argument as the negative profile of atman: the atman is said to undergo none of them.

Overview

Yaska (c. 5th century BCE), compiler of the Nirukta and one of the earliest Sanskrit lexicographers, catalogued the six modifications every material thing undergoes:

1. jāyate — is born (comes into existence)
2. asti — exists (that which was not, now is)
3. vardhate — grows (development)
4. vipariṇamate — transforms / matures (reaches a plateau)
5. apakṣīyate — decays (aging)
6. naśyati — dies (destruction)

Gita 2.20 is read by Shankara as systematically denying all six of atman. Aja (unborn) denies jāyate. Na mriyate (does not die) denies naśyati. Śāśvata (undecaying) denies apakṣīyate. Purāṇa — “though ancient, ever fresh” (purāṇo ‘pi navaḥ) — denies vardhate. Nitya denies asti-in-the-change-sense. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (read grammatically as a change-verb by Shankara) denies vipariṇamate. This is why the verse’s apparent repetition is not a fault (punarukti) but a systematic traversal: the atman is explicitly denied every one of the six moves a body makes.

This gives the Vedanta student a tight negative mantra: whenever an instinctive thought says “I was born, I am changing, I will die,” the shad-vikara list tells you exactly which modification you have re-mis-attributed, and 2.20 tells you why none of them applies.

Related concepts

• atman — denied all six modifications
• anitya — the category of things that do undergo these modifications
• mithya — what submits to shad-vikara is mithya
• vikara — the general notion of modification; shad-vikara is the specific six-part schema

In the Gita

• 02-20 — the verse read as systematically denying the shad-vikara of atman

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 8 [20:07]: Yaska the lexicographer and the shad-vikara list introduced.
• Ep. 8 [22:10]: Shankara’s reading — 2.20’s adjectives deny each of the six in turn; no repetition (punarukti); a systematic traversal.