Jaina Philosophy of Language

SR No.: 001601
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 2006
Total Pages: 168
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Language
File Size: 10 MB

Page 67

Jaina Philosophy of Word : (41) the matters of speech variform in language as well as capacity of getting cognition of meaning from uttered and written word. Our linguistic communications depend upon our physical and spiritual development which Jainas have taken for granted as the result of kşayopaśama (destruction-cum-subsidence) of Nāma-karma (body-making karmas) in their own terminology. The more a person will be able to destruct and subside his nāma-karma, the more he would be empowered to communicate and comprehend the language. Is the word changed into language, material?
Generally, the Jaina philosophers have regarded word as pudgalaparyāya (mode of matter). The treatises like Uttaradhyayana, Tattvārthasūtra, etc. have considered word as material. Undoubtedly, the word sound is a mode of matter but the word transformed into language, which is able to communicate the meaning, cannot be regarded material or nonliving in absolute sense. Because, according to Jainas the language is originated from living beings. At the same time, it is also accepted that śabdātmaka-bhāṣā (alphabetical language) is made of efforts. Since the words originated from efforts (prāyogika) are those, which are produced by living-beings with the help of non-living matter, hence the word cannot be regarded non-living in absolute sense. The word sound even if it is mode of matter, it is never originated without the efforts of living-beings. For the cognition of meaning and communication of language, a rational being is essentially required, thus the language is not the result of nonliving matter. It is the result of combination of both living and nonlivings. Word symbols and alphabets are the physical constructions indeed, but the cognition of meaning is not possible without the rational living beings. Jainas, on one hand regard the perfect soul or liberated one (Siddha) as bereft of language (abhāsaka) and on the other hand, they regard the pure matter also bereft of language. The language is the result of the efforts made by living-beings but the living being must be embodied or corporal. Till the hearer and speaker both are not intellectual, it would be impossible to draw meaning from word symbols or other symbols.
The function of language is to get cognised and to make other to cognise, and this capacity is only in intellectual living beings. Thus, the language is the medium of communication of conscious world. Its apparatus are non-livings (jada) but it is used only by living beings.