（000） 161 80 “Wordplay”: Emergent Ideology through Semantic elucidation —A Rhetorical Technique in Mah¯ay¯ ana Buddhist formations— 1 James B. Apple This paper examines the use of nirvacana (‘semantic elucida- tion’) in selected examples from self-proclaimed Mahåyåna Buddhist texts to theorize, as well as illustrate, one among several rhetorical tech- niques utilized by early to middle period Indian Buddhist authorial com- munities in the social formation of what comes to be subsequently known and classified as “Mahåyåna.” In the study of cultural formations, emergent ideologies are new beliefs, things which are in the process of becoming more popular but which have not made it. Emergent ideologies are new ideologies that are in the process of establishing their influence. Ideology, if it is func- tioning perfectly, will disguise inequalities and resolve contradictions, so that hegemony is maintained. Emergent ideologies attempt to alter fun- damentally the ownership of the means of production. I wish to suggest in this paper that nirvacana (‘semantic elucidation’) functions to let the emergent ideals of Mahåyåna formations become acceptable and more popular in its nascent phases. Through such processes authorial com- munities, preachers of Mahåyåna or dharmabhåˆakas, alter the meaning of key Buddhist terms and invert the significance of mainstream Buddhist terms toward the vision of the bodhisattva way fermented in Mahåyåna formations. Nirukta or nirvacana, what is commonly translated as “etymolo- gy,” is found throughout classical South Asian literature. For a modern reader’s eyes, the classical Indian usage of nirukta does not seem to be interested in the history of words or in linguistic developement, rather, the primary interest lies in semantic content. The technical terms