  (N.B. they would be expressed by the same sentence in Sanskrit; hence the brackets). To say that there is a specific absence of pot in the room is to say that some particular pot is not in the room, but to say that generic absence of pot in the room is to say that any pot is not in the room (i.e. no pot is in the room). The distinction is thus linked to the formulation of universally quantified constructions. Indeed, in Nyāya logical theory, generic absences are used to formulate the pervasion (vyāpti) relation: “where there is smoke there is fire” is contraposed to give “where there is no fire there is no smoke”, and this is expressed by saying that there is a generic absence of smoke in places where there is a generic absence of fire (cf. Ingalls 1951: 54–5). It is clear that (5) and (6) do have distinct logical forms. In the Nyāya technical language, the distinction is made out by saying that the property which delimits the counterpositiveness of the absence (i.e. the pratiyogitāvacchedaka) is this-pot-hood in (5), but pothood in (6).