Jaina Theories of Reality and Knowledge

SR No.: 001608
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Y J Padmarajiah
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal
Publication Year: 1963
Total Pages: 444
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Epistemology, & Anekantvad
File Size: 23 MB

Page 373

3
to convey.' We have already met with an expression of this attitude towards the present question under the etymological standpoint (samabhirüḍhanaya") in the chapter on Nayavāda. For instance, the word 'gauh'-we say the 'word' in the singular in conformity to popular usage, we should say, in strictness, a multitude of words-is said to convey a cow (paśu), a vähika, earth (prthivi), heaven (svarga), a point of compass, a word (pada), and 'a ray of light' (kirana). Similarly the English words like play, pound, file, etc. stand for more than one meaning. But the Jaina does not agree with the popular view that the very same word, among such words, can convey all the meanings associated with it by commonsense and listed against it by lexicographers. He believes',
1. Besides indicating this idea Vimaladāsa also points out the consequences of its violation: nanu sarveṣām padānām ekārthaniyame nänärthapadocchedapattiriti cenna, gavādipadasyāpi prasiddhasya tattvato'nekatvāt, sādṛsyopacärädeva tasyaikatvena vyavaharaṇāt/anyatha sakalārthasyapi ekasabdavācyatvāpatteḥ arthabhedena anekasabdaprayogavaiphalyat/ SBT, p. 61.
svargädyanekārthaviṣayatayā
See supra, pp. 321-324, and SBT, p. 61, where the author writes: yathaiva hi samabhiruḍhanayāpekṣayā sabdabhedad dhruvo'rthabhedaḥ tatha arthabhedadapi sabdabhedaḥ siddha eva/ anyathā vācyavacakaniyama vyavahäravilopat/
Four of these meanings are given in the Hindi comm. on SBT, p. 61, and five of them (with the addition of the meaning, a 'word') are given in JPN, p. 117. Vähika, though not given in either work, is widely referred to in Vakyapadiya and other works.
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JAINA THEORIES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGE
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Prabhäcandra puts forth this idea of one word for one meaning in a somewhat different form (substituting that simultaneous inexpressibility of the positive and the negative meaning of a word for a similar inexpressibility of more than one meaning of a so-called synonymous word) in a polemic against a particular theory of the import of words (apohavada). Although the theory controverted is not specifically mentioned