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not related to any and every object. A particular word signifies only a particular object and only that man understands what object is signified by a word, who knows already the meaning of the word. The Vaiseșika's thus point out that the knowledge arising from hearing a word is mediate, depending, as it does, on a previous knowledge of the meaning of the word, which they call Sanketa. The Anumānika or inferential knowledge,--e.g. the reasoning that that hill has fire because it is found to have smoke---is similarly dependent on a previous knowledge of the invariable relation between smoke and fire and the Vaiseșika's accordingly include the Sabda-jñāna or the knowledge from words within Anumana. The Nyāya thinkers of course do not accept this Vaiseșika position, on the ground that the knowledge of an object which we get from hearing its corresponding word is essentially different from inference based on syllogistic reasoning. Both the Naiyāyika's and the Vaiseșika's, however, agree that the word is not unrelated to its object and that they are not essentially related.
VĀÇYA-VĀÇAKA RELATIONSHIP
What then is the relation between a word and its object? It is a relation of Vāçya-Vāçaka. The word signifies the object and the object is signified by the word,—this is the relationship. The significance attached to a word, the fact that a particular word is to signify its corresponding particular object is called the Samaya or Sanketa, and only he who knows this Samaya or Sarketa is in a position to understand an object on hearing its corresponding word. The Naiyāyika's contend that it is the Creator who fixed the Sanketa's of words and revealed these significances of words to the early sages. Mankind has learnt them from these sages and it is the business of scientific grammar to find out and determine the real sense of a word, as fixed by God. It goes without saying that according to the Naiyayika's, there would be besides these fixed words having fixed meanings, a large number of words in every language which are coined by men for practical purposes from time to time.
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