Outlines of Jainism

SR No.: 007012
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi
Publication Year: 1973
Total Pages: 216
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

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JAINISM
language : The first principle is that whatever is knowable is also expressible. That is, knowledge or the meaning of anything in reality, is not possible except through the means of words. The second principle is that, strictly speaking, there can be only one meaning and vice versa. Accordingly, several words which are conventionally supposed to convey one and the same meaning, have in actual fact as many meanings as the number of words found there. That is, this principle does not recognize any synonymous terms but maintains a determinate relation between a meaning and its word (vācyavācakaniyama)."
Evarbhūta Naya : (The 'Such-like' Standpoint)
This is a logical consequence of the etymological approach. In the etymological method we are concerned with the root from which the word itself is derived. The derivative significance is considered by the evambhūta naya as pointing to the performance of an actual function' suggested by the etymology of the word. The meaning of the term evambhūta is 'true in its entirety in the word and the sense'. In an example cited earlier, the individual can be referred to as Purandara only when he is actually destroying the enemies. Similarly, only when the individual is actually exhibiting his prowess can he be referred to as Sakra.
Each one of the nayas is considered to have one hundred subdivisions. Thus totally there are seven hundred nayas. We find two other views also expressed, --- one maintaining that there are only six nayas and the other asserting that there are five nayas only. The first one accepts the six nayas other than the naigama naya, and the second one includes the samabhirūdha naya and the evambhūta naya in the sabda naya.
6 Ibid., pp. 322-23