Jainism in Buddhist Literature

SR No.: 011023
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhagchandra Jain Bhaskar
Publisher: Alok Prakashan
Publication Year: 1972
Total Pages: 326
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 224

( 205 )
their doctrines in a fantastic way, could be refuted in the same way as the Sankhya philosophy, which thinks of the nature of reality as absolute difference (atyantābheda). He then men. tions that the Jainas hold a view : "All is one, and all is not. one sarvath sarvatmakan na sarvam sarvatmakari ).116
Dharmakirti tries to clarify his remark by presenting a traditional example of the Jainas. The Jainas explain their theory of the nature of reality with the illustration of a golden jar ( svarnaghata ), where gold is considered the general, and not the particular, character. Here Dharmakirti points out why the Jainas do not recognize the jar or pot itself as a general character, since Dravyatva is in all of them according to. Jainism.
Dharmakīrti is of the view that the Jaina theory of dual character, viz, universal and particular, is so formulated that the character of particularity is relegated to the background and made less significant. He explains this with reference to the famous example of camel and curd. If the particularity which distinguishes camel from curd or vice verse is not an important factor, he says one may as well eat a camel when he wants to eat curd. He tries by this argument to demolish the Jaina theory as he understood that curd is not only curd by itself (Svara pena ) but also camel in a relative sense (pararapena ). According to Dharmakirti, there cannot be a universal character between camel and curd and even if such a character exists, their mutual difference or particularity is all that matters for both identification and use. 117
Against the Jaina conception of the universal character of a thing, he says : if all realities are sat (being or isness), there would be no difference between knowledge and word (dhi and dhvani ) that imparts a knowledge, which is quite impossible.
Therefore Syādvāda conception in Dharmakirti's opinion is defective, 118 Phalĩakaragupta and Syadvada:
Praikäkaragupta (660-720 A. D.), the well known commentator and a pupil of Dharmakīrti, also refutes the Jain theory