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'Laksanā'
503 understanding them, they consider that some other word is indicative of the intention of the speaker - i.e. 'tātparya-grāhaka'. Thus in the example, say, "gambhīrāyām nadyām ghosah”, (the village is on the deep river), the term 'nadi? or 'gambhīrā' is said to indicate through lakṣaṇā, the bank of the deep river, the other word being taken as indicative of the intention of the speaker. The Sabdaśakti-prakāśikā observes, pp.143 - "gambhīrā-padam nadī-padam vā tatra gambhīrā-nadi-tīra-lakṣaṇam, padántaram tu tatra tātparya-grāhakam iti siddhānta-vidah."
We have noted earlier, in the beginning of this chapter the views of the grammarians, particularly of Bhartshari concerning lakṣaṇā. For Bhartęphari, the unit of speech is a sentence and it is indivisible. So, the meaning of a se cannot be grasped from the knowledge of the meanings of individual words. We have seen that he does refer to the primary and secondary meaning and to distinguish between the two he cites different views.
Thus, for those who accept multiplicity of the meaning of a word, the distinction between the primary and secondary meaning is based on the relative frequency of usage - Read V.P. II. 263 - (Edn. S. Bhate, word Index to... Ed. '92 Delhi) -
"anekárthatvam ekasya yaiḥ śabdasyā’nugamyate, siddhy asiddhi-kṛtā teşām
gauņa-mukhya-prakalpanā.” Those who hold that a word can have only one meaning consider that the word having primary sense and the word having secondary sense, are different, though they sound alike - V.P. II. 257 (Edn. Bhate)
reads : “ekatvam tu sarūpatvāt
chabdayor gauņa-mukhyayoḥ, prāhur atyantabhede'pi
bheda-mārgā’nudarsinah.” Punyarāja suggests that according to Vyādi, the primary meaning of a word is that which is well known and which depends only on its form. Secondary meaning is that which, with the help of context, is established with some effort. The primary is conveyed by the word itself, the secondary, whereas, is different from it and depends on the other words in the sentence on the context.
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