________________
PART I
Jaina Metaphysics and Ontology: An Overview
The papers that are included in the Part I, deal with Jaina Metaphysics and Ontology focussing on some of the central notions and problems that have been discussed traditionally.
M. L. Mehta in his paper entitled "A Nota on the Development of some concepts in Jaina Ontology' traces the development of some concepts like dravya, guna and paryāya with reference to the Jaina treatizes like Uttarādhyayana Sutra, Bhagavatī, Tattvārthasūtra etc.
J. C. Sikdar in his paper Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy gives a comprehensive account of the Jaina concept of matter and compares it with that of Sarikhya, Bauddha and Nyāya-Vaišeşiká schools of thought. He attempts to show that this problem was dealt with by Jainācāryas in a synthetic perspective.
Suzuko Ohira in her paper “ Jaina Concept of Atomic Combination” gives a detailed account of the subject by comparing Jaina theory with the Vaišesika theory and suggests that the Jaina theory of atomic