Abhidha

Author(s): Tapasvi Nandi, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 36

[27] Mahimā observes : (pp. 28, ibid) : 'tatra sattva-pradhānāni nāmāni tāni api bahuprakārāņi sambhavanti. jāti-guna-kriya-dravyāņām tat-pravstti-nimittānām bahutvāt.” Thus jāti, guna etc. are the pravstti-nimittas.
'Artha', for Mahimā, is two-fold, viz. 'vācya' and 'anumeya'. The 'vācya' or expressed is the object of verbal functioning and it is this which is termed ‘mukhya' or principal. He observes : (pp. 47 ibid): "arthopi dvividho, vācyo’numeyaśca. tatra śabda-vyāpāra-visayo vācyaḥ. sa eva mukhya ucyate." yad āhuḥ -
"śrutimătreņa yatrāsya
tādarthyam avasīyate, tam mukhyam artham manyante
gaunam yatnopapāditam." - iti. tata eva, tad anumitād vā, lingabhūtād yad arthāntaram anumīyate so'numeyah. sa ca trividhah vastumātram alamkārā rasadayaśca, iti. tatra ādyau vācyau api sambhavataḥ anyaḥ tu anumeya eva iti. tatra padasyārtho vācya eva, na anumeyah, tasya - niramśatvāt, sādhya-sādhana-bhāva abhāvataśca. (V. V. pp. 47 ibid) -
Mahimā classifies meaning into two viz. (i) expressed (= vācya) and (ii) inferred (i.e. anumeya). The former is called 'mukhya' i.e. principal and is collected by word-power (i.e. abhidhā). It is said, "It is believed to be ‘mukhya' i. e. principal sense, the essence of which is collected immediately on hearing (the same, i.e. the word). That which is collected by (a special) effort, is the secondary one.
The latter, i. e. anumeya or inferred sense is that which is either directly collected from the principal sense (i.e. mukhyārtha), or from the meaning inferred from it. This anumeya artha is again threefold viz. (i) vastu i.e. idea or a matter of fact, (ii) alamkāra i. e. a figure of speech and (iii) rasādi, i. e. aesthetic rapture or sentiment etc. The first two could be met with at expressed level also (= vācyau api), while the third type is necessarily only inferred.
Mahimā holds that the direct meaning of a word is always vācya or expressed, because there is no sādhya-sadhana-bhāva between a 'pada' and