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A Naya is the standpoint of the Knower
AN EPITOME OF JAINISM.
A Naya, as we have seen, is the standpoint of the knower. A thing can be viewed the from different stand-points. And the Jain
sages are of opinion that there are as many moods of statements, so many are the nayas or view-points of the knower and there are as many nayas, so many are the number of doctrines. The Jain philosophers have thought it wise, therefore, to classify these view-points into seven kinds of which the first is,
(1) Naigam—is the stand-point whence (i) Naigam. the knower takes the most general view
of the thing under consideration without drawing any hard and fast line of distinction between the generic (ATAIRI) qualities and the specific (faña) qualities of the thing. To amplify the import, when by the word mangoe, we understand not only certain properties which specifically belong to that fruit only, but we understand as well the other qualities or properties which the mangoe has in common with fruits in general. The Naya and the Vaisheshika schools of the east and the Realists of the west survey things from this Naigam stand-point.
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