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CHAPTER ONE
running like a thread into all the three phases of time but the thing that exists at present is alone a thing, similarly the things denoted by words that involve different gender, number, tense etc. are to be understood to be really different. Thinking thus the understanding in question comes to posit a difference in meaning on the basis of a difference in tense, gender etc.
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For example, in a scriptural text there occurs the statement-There was a town named Rajagṛha.' The broad meaning of this statement is that the town named Rajagṛha existed there in the past but does not exist there at present. However, as a matter of fact, Rajagṛha existed there even at the time of the statement in question. But if it was present there at that time, then why was it written 'It was there?' This question is answered by sabda-naya by maintaining that Rājagṛha that exists at present is different from Rajagṛha that existed in the past, and that since the context requires an account of the latter the statement 'Rajagṛha was there' was made. This is an illustration of the difference of meaning based on a difference of
tense.
As an example of the difference of meaning based on a difference of gender take the words 'kua' (Hindi for the Sanskrit kupa-i.e. 'well') and 'kuin' (Hindi for the Sanskrit kūpikā-i.e.. diminutive well). Here the first word is in masculine gender, the second in faminine gender. And the difference of meaning supposed to underlie them too is well known in practice. Again, so many tārās or heavenly bodies are called nakṣatras or specific constellations of stars, but according to sabda-naya one is not authorized to make statements like "That particular tārā is nakṣatra' "That is the nakṣatra magha' for according to this naya since a difference of gender yields a difference of meaning no one thing can be referred to by both the words tārā and nakṣatra or by both the words maghā and nakṣatra.
Similarly, when the same verbal root yields a different meaning when associated with a different prefix-e.g. in the case of the words samsthāna (=shape), prasthāna (=moving away),
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