Jaina Epistemology

SR No.: 006738
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Indra Chandra Shastri
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1990
Total Pages: 516
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 21 MB

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Epistemology of Jainas
The reflection is only a via media. Similarly, the object itself stands, in knowledge through its via media of objectivity. The word ‘vyavahāreņa' is significant here. He means by it that the above view can be held in a discursive way only. Actually, the position is quite different.
Kundakunda himself bas stated the actual position by saying "The knower has knowledge for his natvre and all the objects are within the range of knowledge, just as the objects of sight are within the ken of the eye, though there is no mutual inherence"
"The knower, who is beyond sense perception necessarily knows and sees the whole world neither entering into nor entered into by the objects of knowledge, just as the eye sees the objects of sight.
"The knowledge operates on the objects, just as sapphire. thrown into milk, pervades the whole of it with its lustre."2
As a matter of fact, Kundakunda analyses the roblem in two aspects. The knowledge as power and the knowledge as function. As far as the knowledge as power is concerned it is confined to the body only, and we cannot say that objects stand into knowledge. But, as regards the function it is not limited; just as a lamp has its function of illumination beyond the place it occupies; knowledge also covers the entire universe with its function.
It can be further asked that knowledge is either instrument or agent. In both cases its operation is possible only at the spot of its existence. When the soul has a limited size the cognition of distant objects is not possible. This question does pot arise in the case of Sankhya, Vedānta, Nyāya and Mimāmsā, because they hold soul as omnipresent and maintain different theories to establish its real contact with the object.
Kundakunda analyses the question in two view-points of popular aspect (vyavahāra dssti) and that of real aspect
1. Pravacanasära I. 29.