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BANERJEE : ANEKANTAVĀDA AND LANGUAGE
nisiissamo tuyaṭṭhissāmo amamtaṇī āṇavaṇī jāyaṇī taha pucchani ya pannavani paccakkhāņi basa bhāsā icchanuloma ya aṇabhiggahiya bhasa bhāsā ya abhiggahammi boddhavva samsayakarani voyaḍamavvoyaḍa ceva pannavani nam esā bhāsā ņa esā bhāsā mosā.
"Oh venerable one (bhante)! [when one says] we shall reside (asaissamo), we shall lie (down) (saissamo), we shall stand (up) (ciṭṭhissamo), we shall sit (down) (nisiissāmo), we shall stretch (tuyaṭṭhissamo), the forms of language (pannavani bhāsā) [i.e. one of the twelve kinds of expressions] (bhāsā) such as, [1] addressing (amamtani) [2] ordering (āṇāvaṇī), [3] prayer (jāyaṇī) as well as, [4] questioning (pucchani), [5] advice (pannavani), [6] refusing (paccakkhāni), [7] consenting (icchāṇulomā), [8] irrelevant (aṇabhiggahiya). [9] relevant (abhiggahammi boddhavvā), [10] doubtful (samsaya karaṇī), [11] explicit (voyaḍā) or [12] indefinite (avvoyaḍā) do these forms conform to the type of understanding (i.e. paņṇavaṇī advice) or are they never false (na esa bhāsā mosā)? Mahavira's reply
was
ṇa esa bhāsā mosā "They are not false."
141
In fact, these questions of Goyama to Mahāvira is related to sentences of a language. In a language, the utterances of human beings can be expressed in manifold ways of which some twelve forms are mentioned by Goyama. Our unit of speech is the sentence and the sentence is the expression of our thoughts and ideas in the form of judgment which either affirms or negates our statement. Whatever things come to the mind of a speaker, he tries to convey his opinion to the hearer. It is said earlier that in communicating one's idea in a sentence, the idea must possess compatibility, expectancy and juxtaposition, and this will lead a sentence to logical judgment. If a sentence mirrors a judgment, it must conform to the logical law.
