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JAINA THEORIES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGE
when, for instance, we treat an actor, who is enacting the role of a king on the stage, as the king for the moment.
While recognising the importance and the relative validity of this ‘occurrent' aspect in the life of reality we are not expected to lose sight of the continuant' character of reality.
An over-emphasis on the fleeting aspect of concrete reality has, according to nayavādin, led the Buddhist to treat this partial truth as the sole foundation of his conception of reality.
Sabdanaya (the standpoint of synonyms) Among the remaining three paryāyanayas or the modal standpoints sabdanaya is the first verbal viewpoint. Besides referring to this specific viewpoint the term 'sabdanaya” is also employed as a collective designation for all the three viewpoints, including the present one, because of the fact that all the three are mainly concerned with verbal problems. In order to distinguish the present verbal standpoint from the other two similar viewpoints we may specifically designate the present one as the viewpoint of synonyms since it is largely concerned with synonymous words'.
The present standpoint of synonyms refers to the function of synonymous words which, despite their differences in
1. For an elaborate criticism of the various schools of Buddhism,
as illustrating this nayābhāsa, see TBV, (on STP, I, gā. 5), p.317 ff. śabdaḥ samabhirūdhaivambhūtau te sabdabhedagāḥ / Tattvārthasāra, kā. 42. tasmădeka eva paryāyaśabdānāmartha iti sabdaḥ / Nyāyāvatāra (P. L. Vaidya's edn.), p. 80. See also NKV, kā. 14, TSV, p. 274, kā. 87 and Nayavivarana, kārikās 90-91.
