Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

SR No.: 011088
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society
Total Pages: 248
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 148

BANERJEE : ANEKĀNTAVĀDA AND LANGUAGE
131
hours, no sense will be apprehended. It is not absolutely necessary that the words must be uttered together. In a printed book we have no utterance and yet we apprehend the sense because the words occur in Juxtaposition." (Kane, SD. p 35). So these three i.e., yogyatā, äkāňkşā, āsatti or sasnidhi are said to be the causes of the knowledge of the meaning of a sentence (vākyārtha jñāna).
At a later stage, Tātparya is also added to the conception of a sentence. In the Parama-laghu-mañjüşā of Nāgesabhatta (17th century A.D.), tātparya is also included in the definition of a sentence.
śābdabodha-sahakäri-kāraṇāni ākāňkşā-yogyotā'satti
tätparyāņi.
Tātparya is another element which is the cause in helping the meaning of a word.
The rhetorician Viśvanātha says that in considering compatibility and expectancy, the words ātmā and artha are to be construed as ākāňkşā and yogyatā respectively.
tatrākānkşa-yogyatayor ātmārtha-dharmatve'pi padoccaya dharmatvam upacārāt (Vștti under SD. II.I).
Although expectancy is a property of the soul and compatibility is an attribute of things, both of them are spoken of in the text as the properties of a collection of words in a secondary sense. (Kane, SD. p. 35)
Akāňkşā literally means "a desire to know". Desire does not inhabit in the words, nor in the sense. Desire is the property of the listener. So ākäňkşā is ātmadharma, yogyatā really subsists in the thing as signified by the words. Words and things are closely connected. Asatti is an attribute of words---- when one utters the words in juxtaposition, the meaning is conveyed.
Having defined a sentence which is a collection of words, it is now time to define a word.
varņāḥ padań prayogārhān anvitaikārtha-bodhakāḥ "A word means letters so combined as to be suited for