  Now a stipulation or decree is claimed to consist in the decree-maker’s having a certain mental state, viz. a ‘desire’ or ‘will’ (icchā) of the form specified. Thus, the meaning relation is analysed in terms of mental states and their contents, and not as a new type of relation. Who is the decree-maker? The Manual of Reason states that it is God, but most later Naiyāyikas drew a distinction between words which have belonged ‘endlessly’ in the language (introduced by God) and words introduced by an explicit human stipulation (e.g. the technical terms in Pāṇini’s grammar).