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PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
requires discrimination, and as a result, secondary meaning 'expert' is sanctioned by usage. In the second example, gangāyāṁ ghoṣaḥ, the primary meaning river is barred, because a ghoşa (a village of cowherds) cannot reside in the river. Naturally, the meaning of the Gangā will be gangātaţa the bank of the Ganges."
Vyañjanā directly means the 'power of suggestion.' Vyangārtha, therefore, means 'a suggested or implied meaning of a word.'
The implied meaning of a word is that meaning which gives rise to another meaning to be understood by persons inundated with the qualities of a genius. This vyangārtha meaning depends upon (i) the speaker, (ii) the person spoken to, (iii) intonation of a language, i.e. the change of voice indicating emotions, (iv) the sentence, (v) the expressed meaning, (vi) the presence of another person, (vii) context, (viii) place and (ix) time. All the suggested meanings which give rise to another meaning is conveyed by the words and so words constitute a contributing factor for the suggestion of the meaning.
Even though these three are the powers of a word, the inner power of a word is vrtti (function) orsakti (power) or sanketa (convention). It should be noted that each word in every language has a power to convey a particular sense. That power of a word is to be grasped from the convention. "When a man ascertains that a particular word has a convention in respect of a particular sense, then only does he recognise the power of the word to express that particular sense" (Kane, S D. p. 39).
How can we acquire the meaning of a word? Viśvanātha Nyāyapañcānana (17th-century A.D.) has given an indication to that effect in the Bhāşā-pariccheda thus: śaktigraham vyākaraṇopamāna-koşāpta-vyäkyäd
vyavahāratascal vākyasya śeşād vivrter vadanti sānnidhyataḥ siddha
padasya vśddhaḥ//
