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NYĀYA AND JAINA EPISTEMOLOGY
Mimāṁsā. The difference between Nyāya and Jaina view consists in the fact that Jaina view of śabda does not admit sayings of scriptures as necessarily authoritative. as against heterodox Jainism, the orthodox Nyāya rather dogmatically believes in authority of Vedās. Āptavākya may be the statement of scriptures according to Nyāya. Nyāya in spite of being a rationalistic system of thought believes in infallibility of vedās and also bases theistic argument on this view by pointing out that belief in infallibility of scriptures implies an infallible author, that is, God. However, Nyāya realism combines the theory of extrinsic validity of knowledge with the concept of sabda as a distinct source of knowledge and maintains that validity of this source of knowledge must be confirmed extrinsically through verification in experience. In Jainism words of Tirthankaras constitute superhuman authority. Thus, Jainas, though do not believe in authority of Vedās, believe in divine authority of Tirthankaras.
A statement consists of words and sabda as a means of knowledge consists in understanding the meaning of a sentence. Hence the theory of import of words and meaning problem.
Meaning Problem
Agama or knowledge from authority is knowledge derived from words. It is regarded as one of the means of indirect cognition in Jainism.
“Knowledge arising from words which taken in their proper acceptance express real objects not inconsistent with what are established by perception is known as sabda or the verbal testimony”.43
