Jaina Theory of Multiple Facets of Reality and Truth

SR No.: 001746
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nagin J Shah
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 168
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Nyay
File Size: 12 MB

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Jaina Theory of Multiple Facets of Reality and Truth
Akalanka's interpretation. According to him, syādvāda is considered nothing but pramāna which covers the whole range of Jaina doctrine or anekāntavāda. 9. Vādideva Sūri (Svet. 1086-1169 A.D.) made a sort of compendium of Jaina logic Pramānanayatattvāloka, which consists of eight chapters and 378 aphorisms, modelling it, in matter and arrangement, after Māņikyanandin's Parīksāmukhas sūtra). But the difference between the two works lies in the following points. The former adds two additional chapters to the latter; chapter 4 dealing with the scriptural knowledge (āgama) in general and syādvāda or saptabhangī-pramāņa in particular, and chapter 7 treating of nayavāda exclusively. Though there are found in the Jaina Āgama texts various kinds of classification of knowledge, Vädideva follows the view of Parīkņāmukha which is again based on Akalanka's opinion, in accepting the two-fold division of knowledge. That is, knowledge is of two kinds viz. direct knowledge (pratyakşa) and indirect knowledge (parokșa): the former consists of mere awareness of an object (avagraha), speculation (Tha), perceptual judgment (avāya), retention (dhāraņā), clairvoyance (avadhi) and telepathy (manahparyāya); and the latter consists of recollection (smarana), recognition (pratyabhijñāna), knowledge producing the cognition of invariable concomitance of probans with probandum (tarka, uha), inference (anumāna) and scriptural knowledge (agama).
The inconsistent use of the terms viz. sabda, āgama and śruta is likely to be derived from the following reason. The Āgama texts comprise a confusion or disagreement in interpreting the notion of knowledge, since two different kinds of classification of knowledge have been prevalent side by side: one is jñāna and the other is pramāna, both being rooted in utterly different sources and traditions. In the Agama texts of later period, however, some efforts were evidently made to adjust the differences, by including one into the other, or by identifying each subdivision of one category with that of the other. Umāsvāti seems
in 1293. This is utterly different from another work of his own, viz. Vitarāgastava (or Vitarāgastotra), consisting of 20 sections (stava), generally of 8 or 9 stanzas each, though both works resemble each other in name.