Verse 2.399

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.399:

विनियोगादृते शब्दो न स्वार्थस्य प्रकाशकः ।
अर्थाभिधानसम्बन्धमुक्तिद्वारं प्रचक्षते ॥ ३९९ ॥

viniyogādṛte śabdo na svārthasya prakāśakaḥ |
arthābhidhānasambandhamuktidvāraṃ pracakṣate || 399 ||

399. Without its application, a word does not convey its meaning. That is why it has been declared that the relation between a meaning and the word is through ukti, that is, application.

Commentary

The function of the word in conveying its meaning is now considered.

[Read verse 399 above]

[The following are the points in the Ambākartrī on this verse. The power of a word to convey its meaning is called abhidhā. Some consider this abhidhā to be different from pratibhā, others not. Pratibhā when conveyed by the words ukti and viniyoga is a vāgdharma, a property of tvords. When conveyed by the words anusandhāna and abhisandhāna, it is a manodharma. When conveyed by the word praṇidhāna, it is a property of the vision. Here the word pratibhā is used in a sense different from its usual one. It only amounts to the conscious use of a polysemic word in one of its meanings. In other words, it becomes a synonym of ukti and viniyoga. What is conveyed in this verse is that when a polysemic word conveys a particular meaning in a particular context, it is due to the deliberate application of that word in that meaning by the speaker. This is called viniyoga or ukti.

Two new words are used in this verse: ukti and viniyoga and they seem to have the same meaning, namely, the use, by the speaker, of a word deliberately in a particular meaning. Puṇyarāja understands them in this way and for him, ukti or viniyoga is necessary in the case of words having more than one meaning: Iha eka evaśabdo bahvarthaḥ, he says at the beginning of his all too brief remark. The Vṛtti also seems to speak about the deliberate use of a word in a particular meaning by the speaker. The relevant words of the Vṛtti are: Tatrānenāyaṃ vaktavya ityubhayor vācyavācakayoḥ parigrahaṃ kṛtvā buddhisthaśabdo buddhisthe yatra viniyujyate pravanīkriyate satyapyanekārthatve tatrāsya sāmarthyam avacchidyate. What the Vṛtti says amounts to this: when a word has more than one meaning, the speaker mentally chooses one of them and decides that it should be expressed by the word: anenāyaṃ vaktavyaḥ. The word in the mind is applied to the meaning which is also in the mind: buddhisthaśabdo buddhisthe yatra viniyujyate. Then the capacity of the word to convey that meaning is brought out fully: tatrāsya sāmarthyam avacchidyate.]

The fact that conscious and deliberate application of a word to a meaning is necessary does not make the relation between word and meaning man-made. It is eternal.