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JAINA THEORIES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGE
Purandara denote, according to the conventional approach (rudhiḥ, upacaraḥ) 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.
2
"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 paryayabhede'pi arthabhedamabhipraiti, samabhirudhastu paryayabhede bhinnānarthānabhimanyate/ JTBY, p. 22. Devasuri also confirms this: tannaikärthavacino dhvanayaḥ santi, rudhiḥ punaravicăritatadarthanamiti samabhirudhaḥ/ 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.
2.
śacipatireko'pyartha indanaśakanapuradāraṇabhedāt bhidyate / indatitīndraḥ śaknotīti sakraḥ/ puram dārayatiti purandara itil Tattvärthasutra (with Bhaskaranandi's Sukhabodha, ed. by A. Shantiraja Sastry, Mysore, 1944), p. 25.
3. Cf. ye nirabhidhānā vartante arthaḥ teṣām sabdāt pārthakyena vastutvasiddhiriti cet na, nirabhidhānārthābhāvāt.../ tataś ca sarve'rthā vidyamānasvavācakāḥ, arthatvāt, ghaṭārthavaditi pramāṇāt../
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