Jaina Philosophy of Language

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 66

(40) : Jaina Philosophy of Language sound due to its spreadable nature reaches to the sense of hearing and strikes to the listener for word meaning. According to Jaina philosophers, the sound-waves are material as well as spreadable by nature. Though the Mīmāṁsakas too, regard word as all-pervasive (lokavyāpi) but their contention is quite different from Jainas. They hold that the word is never generated, it is all pervasive by nature, whereas Jainas hold that the word is generated and then after, due to its spreadable nature pervades the universe and reaching to the end of the universe it vanishes.
Thus the Jainas, by considering word as material and waveformed have given to word a scientific foundation. The modern scientists regard words as the same. So for as the audibility of language is concerned, the scientists maintain that the matters of speech variform are uttered in the form of word-sound by the efforts of living beings. In other words, the living beings, by their physical efforts, vibrate the matters of soundwaves spreaded over the universe and these waves reaching to the listener become audible. With regard to the meaning grasped through audition of words, it is worth to know that the speaker and hearer both carry the similar word and sound symbols pertaining to objects of the extemal world in their minds. When the hearer hears the word-formed soundsymbols of the speaker, then there emerges the image of the object in the mind of the hearer and on the basis of these images he comprehends the meaning
So for as the cognition of the meaning obtained through reading the written language by sense of sight is concerned, Jainas contrary to Naiyāyikas and in accordance with Buddhists, hold that the sense of sight is non-contactile. Defining the process of cognition of word through writing and reading Jainas say that first of all, the author is inspired to express his thoughts and then he writes the word symbols of those thoughts on paper or any other writing materials. The cogniser first looks upon the word symbols then after, on the basis of previous experience, he identifies those objects for which word symbols are used and accordingly he cognises the meaning. Jainas hold that in the whole process, the mind plays an important role. They have considered mind as non-contactile. In the linguistic cognition the mind considered as avyavahita (direct) and senses as vyavahita (indirect) cause of cognition. In fact, the more a living being is spiritually developed, the more he has capacity to transform