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The Terminology of the Vedas 11
signifies the meaning of its root together with the modifications effected
by the affixes. In fact, the structural elements, out of which the word is
compounded, afford the whole and the only clue to the true
signification of the word. These being known, no other element is
needed to complete its sense. Speaking in the language of modern logic,
the word is all
connotation,
and by virtue of its connotation determines
also its denotation. A
rurhi
word is the name of the definite concrete
object, or answers to a definite concrete technical sense, not by virtue
of any of its connQtations but by virtue merely of an arbitrary principle.
In the case of a
yaugika
word, we arrive at the name of an object by
what may be called the process of generalisation. We see, taste, touch,
smell and operate upon the object by the multifarious means man
possesses of investigating properties of sensible objects; we compare
the sensible impressions it yields with sensible impressions already
retained in our minds and constituting our past knowledge; we detect
similarities between the two, and thus get a
general
or a
generic
conception. To this generic conception we give an
appropriate
name
by
synthetically
arriving at it from a
root,
a primitive idea or ideas. The
word, therefore, thus ultimately formed, embodies the whole history
of the intellectual activity of man. In the case of a
rurhi
word, the process
is far different. We do not generalise. Nor is, therefore, any synthesis
required there. We only roughly discriminate one object or class of
objects from other objects, and
arbitrarily
place a phonetic
postmark
as
it were, upon it. An individual, to roughly discriminate him from
others, is arbitrarily called John, another, Jones; so an object is
arbitrarily denominated
Khatva,
another
Mala,
and so on. Here, we
only discriminatively specify the object we are naming, without
coming into general contact with it.
A third class of words,
yoga-rurhi,
is one in which two words
are synthetically combined into a compound, denoting a third object
by virtue of the combination of these two words. Such words express
any relation, or interaction of phenomena. The
kamala
stands, for
instance, in the relation of the
born to mud,
the
bearer;
hence
kamala
is
denominated as
pankaja, (panka,
the mud, and
ja
signifying to bear).
Now the author of the Mahabhashya maintains that the Vedic
terminology is all
yaugika.