Jain Journal 2001 04

SR No.: 520142
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 92
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 35

THE FIRST CAUSE : SYNCRETIC VIEWS OF
HARIBHADRA AND OTHERS
RAMKRISHNA BHATTACHARYA
The doctrines of Svabhāva (inherent nature), Kāla (time), Niyati (destiny), Yadṛcchā (accident), Bhūtāni (elements) and Puruşa (God or ātman) belong to the 'prehistory of Indian philosophy. The locus classicus is the following verse of the Svetāśvatara Upanişad, 1.2 :
kālah svabhāvo niyatiryadrcchā bhūtāni yonih purusa iti cintyam/ samyoga eşām na tvātmabhāvād
ātmā 'apyanisaḥ sukhaduḥkhahetoặ// Apart from a few verses of dubious authenticity, absolutely nothing is known about these doctrines, each of which is proposed as the first cause (jagatkārana). With the rise of the orthodox philosophical systems such as the Sāmkhya, Nyāya, Mimāmsā, etc. on the one hand, and the heterodox systems (the Jain, Buddhist and Cārvāka/Lokāyata) on the other, the earlier doctrines must have gradually receded into the background.
However, all of them did not die out. A number of works composed both before and after the Christian era refer to all or some of them in passing. Sometimes they are merely alluded to, sometimes also refuted.
Interestingly enough, while the advocates of each doctrine claimed monopoly for the particular school they adhered to, there were also others who believed that all (or at least more than one) of these doctrines were collectively, though not severally, to be admitted as the first cause. The author of the Svetasvatara apparently rejected both approaches.2
1.
V.P. Limaye and R.D. Vadekar (ed.), Eighteen Principal Upanişads, Vol. I, Poona : Vaidika Samsodhana Mandala, 1958, p. 283. For cintyam, there is a variant reading, cintyā. The editors point out that the word, yadrcchā occurs here for the first time (cf. Gītā, 2.32, 4.22). The author of the Svetāśvatara first refers severally to Time, Inherent Nature and the rest, followed by an alternative approach : if the union (samyoga) of these may be thought to be the primal cause. He concludes with the remark that it cannot be so since the self is there and it cannot be the cause of joy and sorrow.