Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c83.16

v2.c83.16

Starting as a theory of expression, the Dhvani school concerns itself, first of all, with the grammatico-philosophical problem about the function of words and their meaning, or in other words, about the relation of a word to that which is expressed by it. The grammarians, logicians and the Mīmāṃsakas had already laid down that the primary or intrinsic meaning (*mukhya* or *śakya artha*) of a word is *abhidhā*, generally translated by the term Denotation, which gives it its peculiar significance. Thus, the concept of the cow is given by the word ‘cow’ by its power of Denotation. It has been defined as that power of a word which conveys to the understanding the meaning attached to it by convention, without the intervention of any other power. This convention (*saṃketa*) consists in a particular word conveying a particular meaning (*asmāc chabdād ayam artho boddhavya ityākāraḥ śakti-grāhakaḥ samayaḥ*), which is comprehended by observing what takes place in the world (*vyavahāra*). We need not concern ourselves with the question whether this *śakti* is *īśvarēcchā* or *icchā-mātra* (divine or human will); but there are several theories as to where this convention is to be understood, held respectively by the grammarians, logicians, Saugatas and Mīmāṃsakas. The writers on Poetics maintain, after the grammarians⁹, that it has reference either to genus (*jāti*), individual (*dravya*), quality (*guṇa*) or action (*kriyā*).