Jaina Ontology

SR No.: 001565
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1971
Total Pages: 222
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Canon, & Agam
File Size: 15 MB

Page 164

THE AGE OF LOGIC most comprehensive text useful for undertaking a t b tattve study of the. Jaina and non-Saina views on the most burning pinto gdiputat Guesdons. We know that in its chapters II, V and VIII Tattvārthasūtra mostly presents a defence of the traditional Jaina views and the corresponding parts of Tattvārthašlokavārtika too are on the whole free from controversies against rivals. This is so because such controversies have already been entered into in the course of commenting on the chapter I, for otherwise one can easily imagine how Vidyānanda would have argued against this or that rival in this or that part of these later chapters. But even as they stand these chapters of Tattvarthaslokavārtika deserve serious study. For they are written in a language that a logician of the period - and so also a modern student who specialises in that period - would find most easy to follow; (the process of so putting things had already started in Akalanka - to some extent in Pūjyapada even - but it found its consummation in Vidyānanda). However, Vidyānanda's real services were in the field of Anekantavāda, the doctrine of pramānas and an evaluation of the non-Jaina philosophical views; and these we take up next.
(ii) Anekāntavāda Naturally, Vidyānanda's most outstanding treatment of Anekāntavāda came in Aştasahasrī. For in this work he undertook a detailed examination of certain one-sided views on certain most burning philosophical questions. And here these views are clearly identifiable as those upheld by certain well-known schools of Indian philosophy. A note-worthy new addition in this connection was the doctrine of Brahmavāda which had already been taken note of by Akalanka but was subjected to an elaborate criticism for the first time by Vidyānanda. Till the time of Akalanka Buddhists were treated as the main rivals by the Jaina scholars and in a way Vidyānanda too continued the tradition. For Buddhism remains the largest single target of his criticism. But Vidyānanda also took into serious consideration his various non-Buddhist rivals. Thus he frequently criticised Brahmavāda on the basis of an independent study made of it by himself and almost as frequently pointed out to the Vijñānavādi and Sunyavādi Buddhists that so far as their repudiation of the reality of the empirical world was concerned they were being one with the Brahmavadi Vedandist. 43 Similarly, his criticism of Sankhya, Nyāya-Vaiseșika, Mīmāmsā, Sabdadvaitavāda, Tattvopaplavavāda, Bhūtacaitanyavāda was based on a study that was thoroughest possible. All this makes Vidyānanda's studies in Anekāntavāda – for the most part preserved in Astasahasri – a most solid Jaina contribution to the treasure-house of philosophy. Anekāntavāda is a much misunderstood doctrine and its defence at the hands of incompetent persons only makes matters worse. But Vidyānanda's competence was of the higher order and