Nyaya And Jaina Epistemology

Author(s): Kokila H Shah
Publisher: Sharadaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 98

COMMON SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE....
element which is the distinctive feature of a verbal judgement is conveyed through the particular juxtaposition of words and not through a primary and significative power of words (abhidhā or laksaņā)”. 39
The Naiyāyika-Jayanta concludes that tātparya is a separate vritti of the words which conveys the syntactic relation of the word-meanings. 40 Prof. Kuppuswami Sastri says "that the mutual relation of the word-meaning is conveyed by a process of suggestion”.41 Sugestion is interpreted to mean impression through suppression. All schools of thought have to accept a kind of suggestion. Individual words give their own isolated meanings and mutual relation of meanings is conveyed by suggestion. The Naiyāyikās call it tātparyavștti or Neo-Naiyāyikās call it samsargamaryāda. In this connection it is remarked that "Tātparya or the speaker's intention or the general purport of the utterance has to be accepted as a motivating factor in verbal comprehension but there is no need to assume a separate function of words called tātparyavrtti that is why it has not been accepted as such by later writers”.42
The essential features of the Nyāya theory of the import of propositions should be noted. According to Nyāya, only a determinate judgement is conveyed by a proposition. It consists of a subject and a predicate subject is substantive and predicate is the adjective which is reffered to the subject. On this analysis, the subject is called determinandum and predicate determinant. so far, a sentence corresponds to a proposition in western logic but there is no need for copula according to Nyāya. Copula is not an essential part of the proposition. This view is also held by some modern logicians like Bradley and Bosanquet. Naiyāyikās go to the extent of saying that the implied verb in a sentence stand for no
Nya.-6