Jain Journal 2004 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 51

252
JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XXXVIII, NO.4 APRIL. 2004
8. Siddhapadasya vrddhāḥ : Sometimes the meaning of a word may be gathered from the utterances of well-known people.
Although we have different ways by which we acquire the meaning of a word, the problem is still shrouded in obscurity. P.V. Kane in his SD. has explained this phenomenon in the following manner:
"When a child begins to learn a language, he first understands the meaning of words in a lump and not of each word separately. When he hears the direction “bring a cow' addressed by one old man to another, and sees a cow brought by the man, he understands that the direction meant the bringing of a body with a dewlap etc. He then has no distinct idea of the meaning of the two words gām and ānaya. Afterwards he hears two sentences 'tie the cow' and 'bring the horse' and sees the cow fastened and the horse brought. He finds that in the former of the sentences, a portion, namely gām, is common to the sentence gām ānaya, but another portion (ānaya) is omitted and something else inserted (badhāna). As in the case of both the sentences (gām ānaya and gām badhāna ) the same body was dealt with, he naturally associates the portion gām with the body (cow). Thus he ascertains that the word go has a convention in respect of cow. The ascertainment of the convention leads him to understand that the primary meaning of the word go is cow.” (pp. 39-40).]
Tātparya says that every sentence must have a meaning which is intended to be conveyed by a sentence. If the hearer understands that intended meaning, the purpose is served. But in the following verse speaker's intention and normal significance are different. The verse says.
kim gavi gotvaṁ kim agavi ca gotvam. yadi gavi gotvañ mayi na hi tat tvam/ yadi agavi ca gotvam yadi vadasi tvam.
bhavati bhavan eva samam eva gotvam/ “Does cowness reside in cow only, or can cowness reside in non-cow? If cowness resides in cow only, then it does not reside in me; but if you say that cowness lies in non-cow also, then cowness may be equal in you and in me as well."
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