Saptapadarthi

SR No.: 002654
Original Sutra Author: Shivadityacharya, Jinvardhansuri
Author: J S Jetly
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2003
Total Pages: 122
Language: Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Philosophy
File Size: 5 MB

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of Nivrtti outlook became a common ideal both among the thinkers of the earlier Upanişads as well as among the śramaņa thinkers. However, the śramana thinkers-Jainas and Bauddhas rejected the authority of Vedas and the superiority of Brāhmanas by birth. And their repugnance to animal-sacrifice as a form of worship made them socially distinct and proved an antagonistic force with which the powerful and well-established Vedic sects had to contend.
Here it may be noted that references in the earlier Buddhist Pitakas and Jaina Agamas as well as in Aśoka's inscriptions to Sramana-Brāhmana do not indicate any enmity but imply that both are regarded as respectable. It is only in Patañjali's Mahābhāsya which is later than Aśoka that we find the compound Sramana-Brāhmanam suggesting enmity. This may be the result of a contest of centuries between Šramaņas and Brāhmaṇas.
Whether we accept this protestant-theory of the origin and rise of the Śramaņas or the theory of their independent pre-Vedic origin, one thing is clear that there was a great ferment of śramana-thought in or about the period of the earliest Upanisads and Aranyakas, i. e. about 800 B. C. As we have said above the history of Jaina church also does not start with Mahāvīra but it goes as far back as. Pārsva, i. e. 800 B. C.
The Jaina Āgamas which are the earliest source for the life and teachings of Mahāvīra point to one fact very clearly and that is that the Jñātaputra Vardhamāna had to make his way through a crowd of śramana and Vedic 'Titthiyas or 'Tirthikas'. Another point which becomes clear from Āgamas is that Vardhamāna's method was to harmonize and assimilate as much of different contending sects as was consistent with his main ideal of Moksa. This peculiar trait of Mahāvīra's method seems to be responsible for giving his school the name and character of Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda. The essence of these Vādas lies in harmonizing the different ways of thought by regarding them as so many different points of viewing reality and grasping the truth. This character of Jainism explains why throughout its history it has always studied carefully the religio-philosophical ideas of other schools and developed the Anekānta doctrine in relation to the growth of various Darśanas.
Thus due to Anekānta viewpoint the Jaina Āgamas show reflections of the thought of many contemporaneous sects!. There we find that Vaiseșika view was
1. Vide, Bhārati a research bulletin of the College of Indology, No. 3, pp. 110 and onwards.
(B. H. U., Varanasi).