Roopa Singh
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Philosophy, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, U. P.
E-mail: roopasingh43532@gmail.com
Issue: Volume 2 No. 2 (June 2026) Anubodhan
Received: 19 June 2026 / Accepted: 23 June 2026 / Published: 30 June 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n2.2026.069
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine the doctrine of universals (samanya or jati) developed by the Nyaya-Vaisheṣika school of classical Indian philosophy and its bearing on the long-standing problem of how words relate to their meanings (shabda-artha-sambandha). The Nyaya-Vaisheṣika system defends an unambiguous metaphysical realism in which universals are eternal, objectively existing entities that inhere in particulars through the relation of inherence (samavaya) and are directly received along with the individuals that instantiate them. Building on the foundational discussion in the Nyāya-sūtra of Gautama and its classical commentaries, the paper investigates the three-cornered analysis of denotative meaning offered by the school, namely the relation among the individual (vyakti), the configuration or form (akṛti), and the universal (jati) which a common noun is held to signify. The paper situates this theory within the broader Indian debate on universals by contrasting the Nyaya-Vaisheṣika realist position with the Buddhist nominalist theory of exclusion (apoha) and with Bhartṛhari’s grammatical philosophy of the word. Employing a qualitative, text-based hermeneutic methodology drawing on primary translated sources and secondary scholarly literature, the study argues that the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika theory of universals supplies a metaphysically grounded and epistemologically defensible account of how a finite vocabulary can denote an infinite class of particulars, while also confronting genuine philosophical difficulties regarding infinite regress, the criteria for admitting a universal, and the relation between linguistic convention and ontological reality. The paper concludes that the Nyaya-Vaisheṣika account, despite its difficulties, remains a coherent and historically influential contribution to the philosophy of language and offers a valuable comparative resource for contemporary debates on realism about universals.
Keyword: Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Word-Meaning Relation, Universal, Language, Samavaya, Apoha.
How to cite: Singh, R. (2026). The Problem of Universals in the Word-Meaning Relation: With Special Reference to Nyaya-Vaisheshika Philosophy . Anubodhan, 2(2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n2.2026.069