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CHAPTER XI
351 scheme of modal propositions.
In the above account of the four stages in the evolution of the notion of the inexpressible, in Indian philosophy, an attempt has been made to show the relation in which the Jaina notion of the inexpressible stands to the views of certain other schools about the same notion. Incidentally, certain general features like the relativism (sāpekṣatva) and the complementariness of the combining concepts of being and non-being, in the same predication, have also been brought out in the account. Now, the status and the significance of this notion, in the scheme of the conditional dialectic (syädvāda), as well as the manner in which this notion is to be differentiated from the consecutive concept involved in the third predication of the dialectic, are yet to be further elucidated. But such an elucidatory attempt presupposes a knowledge of the Jaina view of the relation between a word and its meaning, since the development of the concept. of the inexpressible is directly based on that view. Hence a brief reference may be made to show how the Jaina treats language as a medium of the meaning of reality.
It is a well-known fact, in Indian philosophy, that Bhartụhari, the author of the great classic on the philosophy of grammar, the Vākyapadiya, puts forth a well-finished, elaborate, and powerful thesis that “the whole order of reality, subjective and objective, is but the manifestation of word"."
1. JPN, p. 111; also cf. Vākyapadiya, with Punyarāja's Comm. (Ed.
by Gangadhara Sastri Manavalli, Benares, 1887), 1.119. The relevant kā, in Vakyapadiya is prefaced by Punyaraja as follows: idānim sabdasyaiva jaganmūlatvaṁ prapañcayati. Then
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