Text 2.8

वाचकादीनां क्रमात् स्वरूपम् आह,

vācakādīnāṃ kramāt svarūpam āha,

He sequentially states the natures of a vācaka and so on. This is the definition of a vācaka,

sākṣāt saṅketitaṃ yo’rtham abhidhatte sa vācakaḥ ||2.7cd||

sākṣāt—directly^[1]; saṅketitam—[the meaning] which is assigned (a word is attributed a meaning); yaḥ—which [word]; artham—the meaning; abhidhatte—denotes (directly propounds); saḥ—that [word]; vācakaḥ—is literally expressive.

A literally expressive word (vācaka) is a word that denotes the directly assigned meaning.

yasya śabdasya yatrāvyavadhānena saṅketo gṛhyate sa tasyārthasya vācakaḥ, saṅketaś cāsmāc chabdād ayam artho bodhya itīśvarecchā. tad-grahas tu vṛddha-vyavahārāditaḥ. tathā hi prayojaka-vṛddhena “gām ānaya” ity ukte prayojya-vṛddhe sāsnādimantam arthaṃ sthānāt sthānāntaraṃ nayati sati pārśva-sthaḥ śiśuḥ “anenāsmāc chabdād evaṃ-vidho’rtho jñātaḥ” iti prathamaṃ pratipadyate. tataś ca “gāṃ nayāśvam ānaya” iti tenokte tasmiṃs tathā pravṛtte “tasya tasya śabdasya tatra tatrāsti kaścana sambandhaḥ” iti niścinoti. ādi-śabdād vyākaraṇa-kośāpta-vākyādeḥ.

A word literally expressive of a meaning is a word the assignation of which is grasped without any hindrance, when that meaning takes place. Moreover, the assigned meaning is the Lord’s desire: “This meaning is to be understood from this word.” However, grasping that meaning occurs through the usage done by an elder, and so on.  An illustration of that is as follows: An elder, being told by another elder: “Bring a cow,” brings a thing that has a dewlap, and so on, from one place to another. A little boy is situated nearby. At first the boy establishes this in his mind: “That man understands this kind of meaning from this word.” Later on, when the elder, after being told by the other elder: “Let the cow go and bring a horse,” is doing just that, the boy ascertains: “There is some connection between those words and those things.”

Because of the word ādi (and so on), the assigned meaning is also grasped by means of grammar, a dictionary, the statement of a reliable person, and so forth.

Commentary:

Mammaṭa does not say that the assigned meaning is the Lord’s will. Kavikarṇapūra, following Viśvanātha Kavirāja,^[2] specifies that sometimes a word designates a thing only by the will of humans, thus some assigned meanings, especially some names of persons, do not come from the Lord.^[3]

The example gām ānaya (bring a cow) is taken from Prabhākara’s Anvitābhidhāna-vāda,^[4] so called because that theory says that the denotation (abhidhāna = abhidhā) of a word is syntactically connected (anvita) to another word. Here Mammaṭa and Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa justify the usage of the word vācya artha (literal meaning) to denote the meaning of a sentence, whereas the term tātparya artha (the drift) was obtained in that regard in text 2.3. The Anvitābhidhāna-vādīs say the meaning of the word go (cow) was understood at first only because of its syntactical connection with the verb ānaya (bring). This is a set phrase, therefore, they say, the syntactical connection is an integral aspect of assignation. In other words, despite the fact that the word go is often used without the verb “to bring”, the Anvitābhidhāna-vādīs assert that the literal meaning of a word is inherently syntactically connected to another word in any sentence. In that way the Anvitābhidhāna-vādīs say that the literal meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the functions of the Denotation of each word in a sentence, so that there is no need of tātparya-vṛtti.

Moreover, the word sākṣāt (directly) in this sūtra is not found in this context in most other treatises on poetical theory. Mammaṭa uses it to clarify that he does not accept other aspects of Anvitābhidhāna-vāda. Narahari Sarasvatī Tīrtha explains: evam apy anvitābhidhāna-vāde gaṅgāyāṃ ghoṣa ity-ādau mukhyārtha-vyavahite taṭādāv api saṅketa-sadbhāvāt tatraivātivyāptir ity ata āha sākṣād iti, “Since in Anvitābhidhāna-vāda there is assignation even as regards the sense of ‘shore’, which is screened by the main meaning, in the statement: “the cowherd settlement on the Ganges,” for instance, the definition of vācaka (a literally expressive word) is overinclusive, therefore Mammaṭa says sākṣāt to prevent that” (Bāla-cittānurañjinī 2.7).^[5] Abhinavagupta, whom Mammaṭa admired, agreed with that aspect of Anvitābhidhāna-vāda.^[6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Mammaṭa points out that the word sāksāt is connected with saṅketitah (assigned): sa iti sākṣāt saṅketitaḥ (Kāvya-prakāśa 2.8).

[2]:

sā śabdasyārpitā svābhāviketarā īśvarānudbhāvitā vā śaktir lakṣaṇā nāma (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 2.5).

[3]:

te śabdāḥ. mukhyo vācakaḥ, yas tu saṅketam aiśvaraṃ dhatte, sa mukhyaḥ. aiśvaram īśvara-kṛtaṃ saṅketam, asmad-ādi-kṛtaṃ saṅketam api yo dhatte, tasya dravyatve svārthaṃ prati mukhyatā (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 2.8).

[4]:

Mammaṭa writes: gām ānaya…ity anvitābhidhāna-vādinaḥ (Kāvya-prakāśa 5.47).

[5]:

For instance, Ānandavardhana writes: ayaṃ cānyaḥ svarūpa-bhedaḥ, yad guṇa-vṛttir amukhyatvena vyavasthitaṃ vācakatvam evocyate (Dhvanyāloka 3.33).

[6]:

tenābhidhaiva mukhye’rthe bādhakena pravivitsur nirudhyamānā satī acaritārthatvād anyatra prasarati. ata eva amukhyo’syāyam artha iti vyavahāraḥ. tathaiva cāmukhyatayā saṅketagrahaṇam api tatrāstīty abhidhā-puccha-bhūtaiva lakṣaṇā (Locana 1.17).