Page Text
________________
A Comparative Study 181
invariably followed by corresponding changes in the latter.
Jain atheism has some common features with that of the Cārvākas. The supposition of God as a creator is unnecessary, according to the Cārvākas, since the world comes into existence by the spontaneous combination of material elements. It is by the natures and laws inherent in the material elements that they combine together to form the world. According to the Jains, neither perception nor inference can prove God. The substances by their interaction produce new set of qualities. The diversities of the world are due to cooperative conditions inherent in the nature of things. If things can function only in obidience to the will of God, there is no reason why they should be endowed with distinct attributes. Such arguments have something in common with the Cārvāka theory which tries to explain the world as a mere mechanical or fortuitous combination of elements,
Jainism and Sāmkhya
It is not unlikely that Jainism and Buddhism borrowed some of their philosophical characteristics from the Samkhya which is probably the oldest of all the philosophical speculations of India. But despite its hoary antiquity, which has been proved by numerous references to the Sāmkhya in ancient literature, we know practically nothing of its original form in the absence of any authoritative early Sāmkhya text. Apart from the medieval and late medieval commentaries, what we are concretely left with are only two treatises - the Sāmkhya Kārika of about 500 AD and the Sāmkhya-sūtra of about 1400 AD. These works and also their commentaries are burdened with Vedantic elements, and hence absolutely undependable for the understanding of the real nature and original contents of the Sāmkhya. Its non-Vedic origin may be substantiated by the fact that (1) the Sāņkbya conception of Prakrti as the material cause of the universe is incompatible with the Vedantic conception of Brahman, that (ii) greatest care is taken in the Brahmasūtra to refute the Sāmkhya philosophy which is looked upon as the most important challenge to the Vedic system and that (iii) there had always been a conscious attempt to revise and fabricate the Sāmkhya in the light of the Vedānta.2
1See Part III, Sec. p. 2. *See my IMG, pp. 109-14.
| SR No. | 006569 |
| Book Title | Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Narendra Nath Bhattacharya |
| Publisher | Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi |
| Publication Year | 1976 |
| Total Pages | 242 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 15 MB |