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JAIN JOURNAL
Vol. XXXV
No. 2 October
2000
SOME SPECIAL ASPECTS OF JAIN PHILOSOPHY
AS A SCHOOL OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
ARVIND SHARMA
As a school of Indian philosophy, Jain philosophy exhibits several striking features which distinguish it out from other schools of Indian thought. Some of these, such as, its materialistic notion of Karma, its concept of time and space, its doctrine of epistemological relativity and its emphasis on Ahimsā5 and nudity are fairly well-known. The purpose of this note is to draw attention to what appear to be somewhat less known unique aspects of Jain thought, to which leading scholars have drawn attention.
II
(1) According to Prof. M. Hiriyanna it is in its conception of jiva that Jainism displays some distinct aspects.
One of the curious features of Jainism is the belief in the variable size of the jiva in its empirical condition. It is capable of expansion and contraction according to the dimensions
2.
See Kalidas Bhattacharyya, ed., The Cultural Heritage of India Vol. I (Calcutta : The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 1958) p. 542
. P.T. Raju, The Philosophical Traditions of India (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972) p. 102. Ibid. AL. Basham, The Wonder That was India (Fontana : Collins, 1975) p. 504: S.N. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy Vol. I (Cambridge University Press, 1957) p. 175 ff. R.C. Zaehner, ed., The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths (Boston : Beacon Press, 1967) p. 264. R.C. Zachner, ed., op. cit., p. 262.
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