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3
JAINA THEORIES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGE
to convey.' We have already met with an expression of this attitude towards the present question under the etymological standpoint (samabhirūờhanaya”) 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 (pašu), a vähika, earth (pthivī), 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 sarveşāṁ padänām ekārthaniyame nānārthapadocchedāpattiriti cenna, gavādipadasyāpi svargadyanekārthavişayatayā prasiddhasya tattvato'nekatvāt, sāděšyopacārädeva tasyaikatvena vyavaharaṇāt/anyathā sakalārthasyāpi ekaśabdavācyatvāpatteh arthabhedena anekaśabdaprayoga
vaiphalyāt/ SBT, p. 61. 2. See supra, pp. 321-324, and SBT, p. 61, where the author writes :
yathaiva hi samabhirūdhanayāpekṣayā sabdabhedād dhruvo'rthabhedaḥ tathā arthabhedādapi sabdabhedaḥ siddha eva/ anyathā vācyavācakaniyamavyavahāravilopāt/ 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. Vāhika, though not given in either work, is widely referred to in Väkyapadiya and other works. Prabhācandra 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 (apohavāda). Although the theory controverted is not specifically mentioned
