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JAINA THEORIES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGE
Purandara denote, according to the conventional approach (rudhiḥ, upacārah) of sabdanaya, the same individual whereas they do not do so if their difference in their etymological derivation is taken into consideration.' Indra, for instance, signifies one who is 'all prosperous' and the other two names signify one who is the all powerful' and the destroyer of the enemies respectively.
"Hence the difference in the roots” as a critic remarks in this connection "must mean a corresponding difference in the terms and therefore in their meanings.” Had it not been for this standpoint a jar (ghața), in the opinion of an old writer, would become indistinguishable from linen (pața).
The truth of this viewpoint is based on the following two principles in the Jaina philosophy of 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
1. sabdanayo hi paryāyabhede'pi arthabhedamabhipraiti, samabhirū
Ņhastu paryāyabhede bhinnānarthānabhimanyate/ JTBY, p. 22. Devasūri also confirms this: tannaikārthavacino dhvanayaḥ santi, rudhiḥ punaravicāritatadarthanamiti samabhirūdhah/ Nyāyāvatāra (P. L. Vaidya's edn.) This writer contrasts rudhita-sabdas (conventional words) from vyutpatti-sabdas (words based on their etymological derivations). See ibid., p. 74. śacīpatireko'pyartha indanaśakanapuradāraṇabhedāt bhidyate / indatitindrah/ saknotīti sakrah/ puram dārayatīti purandara iti/ Tattvārthasūtra (with Bhāskaranandi's Sukhabodha, ed. by A. Shantiraja Sastry, Mysore, 1944), p. 25. Cf. ye nirabhidhānā vartante arthāḥ teşāṁ śabdāt pārthakyena vastutvasiddhiriti cet na, nirabhidhanarthābhāvāt.../ tataś ca sarve'rthā vidyamānasvavācakāḥ, arthatvāt, ghațārthavaditi pramāņāt..!
