syād etat doṣāśrayasya karturabhāvo 'pi kathaṃ siddha ityatas tadabhāvas tadgrāhakapramāṇapañcakanivṛttyā pratipādayati kartā tāvad ityādi /
[If] this [objection] should arise: "How is the absence of an author, who would be the substratum of defects, established?", therefore [the text] explains this absence through the elimination of the five means of knowledge [that might establish such an author], beginning with "kartā tāvad."