Asiddha Hetu Illustration – UGC NET Question

In an asiddha hetu, the middle term is not established as a property of the subject, so the very first condition of a proper hetu fails. The statement “the sky is fragrant because it is a lotus” presupposes that the sky has the property of being a lotus, which is obviously false. Since the subject does not possess the alleged hetu, no inference can legitimately proceed from it. This makes the hetu unproved in the pakṣa.

Option A:
Option A is the classic valid smoke–fire inference, assuming smoke is actually present on the hill; in that case the hetu clearly qualifies the pakṣa and is not asiddha.

Option B:
Option B correctly shows a middle term, “being a lotus,” that is entirely absent from the sky, so the reason fails at the level of pakṣadharmatā and becomes a textbook asiddha hetu.

Option C:
Option C presents a widely accepted reason, because pots are made of clay and that property supports their breakability; here the hetu is well established in the pakṣa.

Option D:
Option D uses a standard Nyāya argument that produced things are non eternal; “produced” is acknowledged as a property of sound, so the hetu is siddha rather than asiddha.