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

Page 258

Indirect Knowledge
233
The Buddhist holds five types of vijñāna corresponding to the five senses. These vijñānas are not material but subjective. They are known as caittas, the mental products. To the above list we can add the faculty of intellect or consciousness (manas, indriya āyatana), Nonsensuous objects (Dharma āyatana or dharmas) and Nonsensuous consciousness (manovijñāna dbātu), which are not material but included in the list of dhātus. Thus, according to the Buddhist there are six seases, out of which five are material and the sixth immaterial (arūpin); and six vijñānas which are purely psychical. The Buddhist does not take into consideration the outer gross material structures.
In Jainism the senses are described as mark of the JIva as well as the instruments of cognition. In the first sense they are related with entomology and in the second case with epistemology. The five senses in the former sense are known as five types of life (prāna) possessed by animals according to the stage of their biological evolution. The Jaipa divides the living beings into five classes (jātis) on the basis of the number of senses possessed by them. These classes consist of the one-sensed animals, two sensed animals and so on upto the five-sensed ones. In the field of epistemology the senses are instruments of perception. They have two types--the material structure (dravyendriyas) and the psychical function (bhāvendriyas).
Dravyendriyas
The senses as material structure are effected by the corresponding Nāmakarman. They are physical and made of the same stuff as that of the body. The Jaina does not regard a particular physical element as the cause of a particular senseorgan as the Nyāya holds. As a matter of fact the Jaina does not hold the earth, water etc. as the elements. They are them-selves compounds or bodies made from the combination of atoms. In the atomic state they are simply pudgala and canpot be differentiated as earth or water etc.