________________
50 : Śramana, Vol 66, No. 2, April-June 2015 introduced by Jaina Ācāryas for the valid knowledge of the nature of the object? The answer is that pramāna and naya are concerned with the knowledge of the object fully or partially respectively, but niksepa is more concerned with linguistic use of the words and their meanings. It is a dialectical technique. The utterance of a word expresses the meaning that the speaker intends to in addition to the meaning that accrues to the word. The unintended meanings of the words create confusion and ambiguity in the use of the words. For the knowledge of an object we depend on language, which has its limitations. The language sometimes presents difficulties in understanding the connotation of the word because the real meaning and the meaning, which the speaker intends, may differ. Therefore, the meaning of the words can be considered as of two types: (1) Primary meaning, and (2) Secondary meaning. To make a distinction between the two, it is important to analyze the linguistic function of nikṣepa. This function is performed by four types of niksepa i.e. nāma, sthāpanā, dravya and bhāva. The object of these different forms of niksepa is primarily to dispel errors and misunderstandings about the meaning of the words used to explain the things. The types of Nikṣepa Tattvārtha-sūtra lists four categories of positing i.e. ‘nāma-sthāpanādravya-bhāvatas tannyāsaḥ'?
Niksepa is of four types:
(1) Nāma-niksepa (Namal Positing) (2) Sthāpanā-nikṣepa (Representational Positing) (3) Dravya-nikṣepa (Substantive Positing) (4) Bhāva-nikșepa (Modal Positing) We have one more classification of nikṣepa based on Vargaņās. Accordingly there are six types of Vargaņā-nikṣepa:
