Text 2.40

यत् सोऽर्थान्तर-युक् तथा । अर्थोऽपि व्यञ्जकस् तत्र सहकारितया मतः ॥ २.२०bcd ॥

yat so'rthāntara-yuk tathā | artho'pi vyañjakas tatra sahakāritayā mataḥ || 2.20bcd ||

yat—since; saḥ—that (the literal meaning); artha-antara-yuk—which has another meaning (an implied meaning); tathā—is like that (suggestive^[1]); arthaḥ api—even the meaning; vyañjakaḥ—suggestive; tatra—in it (the word) (or at that time) (or in poetry); saha-kāritayā—on account of being the companion; mataḥ—is considered.

Because a word that has an additional sense is suggestive, even the meaning of the word is said to be suggestive, since it goes hand in hand with the word.

yasmād arthāntarāśrayaḥ san śabdo vyañjakas tasmād artho ’pi sahakāritayā tatra tathā, śabdasya tatra prabalā śaktir iti vyañjanāyās tan-mūlatayā bhaṇitiḥ.

Because (yat = yasmāt) a word that contains an additional sense is suggestive, even the literal meaning is suggestive at that time since the literal sense accompanies its word, that is to say the word has much power in that matter. Such is the discourse of Suggestiveness based on Denotation (abhidhā-mūlā vyañjanā).

Commentary:

The drift of the sūtra was already stated in text 2.4. The purpose of the above text is to clarify that the term śābdī vyañjanā (Suggestiveness based on a word) does not exclude the importance of artha (the meaning of that word). Similarly, the term ārthī vyañjanā (Suggestiveness based on a meaning) does not mean that the word used is not important. It is a question of predominance. Suggestiveness is called śābdī when the suggestive word cannot be replaced, even with a synonym, without altering the implied sense. Ārthī vyañjanā is the topic of the next chapter.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

In his elaboration, Mammaṭa writes: tatheti vyañjakaḥ, “The word tathā means vyañjaka (something suggestive)”(Kāvya-prakāśa 2.20).