A Critical Study of Grammarians' Ideologies on Amukhyattha (Subsidiary Meaning) with Special Reference to the Saddasāratthajālinī and its Ṭīkā

Abstract

The world depends on the communication and it is impossible anybody without words. Each and every word we talk has a specific meaning. There are several kinds of meanings for a word. Main meaning and hidden meaning are very common in the usage. But Grammarians are of the opinion that various kinds of subsidiary meanings for combination of words. They have named them as 'upacāra'. 'Upacāra' means the fixing (placing) the one word’s nature to another for there is a similarity between the qualities of two things. On the other hand, combination of two words gives sort of meaning which they don't give the same meaning when separating. Akshapāda, a Sanskrit grammarian mentions ten kinds of subsidiary meanings of words in his 'Nyāya Shāstra'. Other Sanskrit grammarians said that there are thirteen kinds of subsidiaries. According to Pali grammarians, Pañcikāpradeepa, which related to Moggallāna tradition, explains 13 kinds of subsidiaries as explain by the many of the Sanskrit grammarians. But the author of Saddasāratthajālinī like Akshapāda, shows only ten kinds of subsidiaries. Saddasāratthajālinī, which represents the most popular grammar tradition of Sri Lanka and other Pali scholars, is explaining grammar points in phonological view. Therefore, it has mentioned there are two kinds of meanings in a word as the main meaning and subsidiary meaning (Mukhyāmukhyavaseneva – Saddo dvidhā pakāsitā). As well as there is one type of main meaning and ten types of subsidiary meanings called 'Dasavidha upacāra'. These types of subsidiaries help to understand the clear meaning of a word or phrase. Therefore, this research was done by contextual analysis method to identify the importance of subsidiary meaning for a purposive or a meaningful communication.