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In some philosophies, the examination of character (charitra) is paramount. For instance, what is the purity of life in Jainism and Buddhism? How can it be attained? What are the obstacles in it? Questions related to life are addressed by presenting the four-fold structure of interpretation regarding suffering, its cause, liberation, and the cause of liberation, along with the four Noble Truths in Buddhism; that is, the first philosophical aspect concerns substance (yatva), while the second aspect focuses on character (charitra).
Lord Mahavira has given equal importance to substance and character in his examination, as a result, his analysis describes the nature of the world through the definition of living and non-living beings, and on the other hand, reveals the nature of character by elaborating on aspects like influx (asrava) and restraint (samvara). His philosophical inquiry treats substance and character in an equal manner. In this examination, the Lord has emphasized the nine fundamental principles (tattva) as the primary condition of Jainism, and it can be said that whether a renouncer or a householder follows Mahavira's path, even if they do not possess knowledge of those nine principles, they at least have faith in them; in other words, they should firmly hold the belief that "what is said by the Jina is indeed the truth.” For this reason, no other teachings hold as much significance as the nine principles in Jainism. Due to this premise, the reader Umaswati has selected these nine principles as the subject of his father's presented scriptures and has described them in verses, naming this collection "Tattvarthadhigama" in relevance to the subject.