अधकरणम — Fixing the Subject: the First Step of Any Inquiry

Adhikaraṇa, "subject-matter", stands first in all three classical lists of tantrayukti — the only device on whose place Kauṭilya, Suśruta and Caraka agree without exception. All three define it in nearly the same words: "that matter with reference to which something is said". Their examples, however, work at very different scales: for Kauṭilya the adhikaraṇa of the whole Arthaśāstra is the acquisition and protection of the earth, for Suśruta the adhikaraṇa of a passage may be a single taste or a single doṣa, and for Cakrapāṇi the adhikaraṇa of Āyurveda is disease. This article quotes the three definitions verbatim, tests them for the faults of a definition, and argues through three objections — that adhikaraṇa is merely the "topic", that the examples contradict one another, and that adhikaraṇa cannot be distinguished from purpose (prayojana). It shows that adhikaraṇa is a recursive principle operating at every level of a text, related to the grammarians' adhikaraṇa (locus) and to the Mīmāṃsaka's adhikaraṇa (topical section), and that its modern counterpart is the precise statement of the object, scope and unit of analysis of a study — the step whose neglect causes more failed theses than any other. Series: तन्त्रयुक्तिविमर्शः · Tantrayukti Studies, TY-2026/02. Loci: AŚ 15.1.4–5; Su. Utt. 65.8. Online version: https://sanskritmanthan.in/a/ty-02-adhikarana