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१७२
जैनविद्या एवं प्राकृत : अन्तरशास्त्रीय अध्ययन
qz ffalalegialą44, contends that according to Jaimini the primary meaning of the terın paraṁ is the Supreme Brahman and the secondary meaning is the inferior Brahman. He further adds that between the primary and secondary meaning one readily understand the primary alone. Again while commenting on the aphorism a TTTT49a"**.4) Sankara argues that the words birth and death with regard to the individual souls, are used figuratively while primarily in the context of material bodies inhabitating them. Thus, sankara's interpretation of the aphorisms of the Brahmasūtra, in the light of primary and secondary meanings is indicative of an anekantic element involved in them. In passing, we may add that the Advaita Vedānta school following Sankara has thoroughly developed the concept of purport and primary as well as secondary meaning while interpreting the Upanişdic Mahāvākyas such as 'That thou art etc: For example. Vedantins like Sureśvara, Vācaspati, Vidyānāraṇya, Prakashātman, Dharmaraja, Madhusūdana consider the Mahāvākyas as "That thou art' to be the purport of the Upanişads. They further make distinction between the primary and secondary meaning and try to interpret Mahāvākyas by ascribing either of it to them. Thus, Sureśvara applies Laksaņā to the Mahāvākya "That thou art while Dharmarāja rejects it. 46 We need not enter into further details here. The very sharp differences in the interpretations of Mahāvākyas suggest the indeterminate or anekantic nature of meaning in general.
Finally, we turn our attention to the treatment of the primary and secondary meanings in the Jaina philosophy.
Jainism
The Jaina logicians, rhetoricians, grammarians and philosophers have been discussing different aspects of meaning right from the early centuries of Christian era. For example, in the epistemic and logical theories of Nayavāda, Syadvāda or Saptabhangi, Niksepa etc. deal with the problem of knowledge and meaning thoroughly. The concept of Sabdanaya and arthanaya is indicative of their linguistic views applied to epistemology. Even to present the brief outline of these multifarious endeavours is beyond the scope of this paper. How ever, we shall precisely discuss Kundakunda's position with regard to the prinary and secondary meaning.
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