Tulsi Prajna 1975 07

SR No.: 524503
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mahavir Gelada
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 116
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 7 MB

Page 60

Srutam matipurvam Dwayanekadwadasabhedam
Chap. I, verse 20 and Nivrtyupakarno dravy endriyam
Chapter II, verse 17 Both appear to relate to the senses and their classification. The commentators of the Digambara school appear to be more consistent with current thinking on the subject. The Svetambarās appear to have a slightly different view. May be an earlier view.
Umaswati belonged to the second century Vikrami according to the Digambara school, and the third or fourth century Vikrami according to the Digambara school. Umaswati was a
South Indian.
The Tattvärtha Sutra of Umaswati is not in original work, but a statement of Jain philoso phy. There does not appear to have been any sudden change in the world view of Jains about the time of Umāswāti.
Yet there is a marked contrast between the views regarding the number of senses and the classification of animals, as depicted in Tholkappiyam and as presented in Tattvärtha Sutra both written by scholars in South India.
This wide disparity can probably be best explained in terms of a wider time gap between the writing of the Tholkappiyam and the Tattvartha Sutra. Is it po
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ssible that Tholkappiyam was written before the advent of current Jain thought of the Digambara school into the South? Were the beliefs of the Swetäm baras who might have predominated in the south much earlier, different in some detail from the current ? Could the advent of the Aryans have produced minor changes in the world view of the Jains?
The classification of animals in Tholkappiyam thus appears to be a subject which needs much greater attention of both the scientists and the theologians than it has received.
Abstract. The classification of animals given in Tholkäppiyam is based on increasing sensory response. This is different from the classification in Vedas and Purānās where the classification lays stress more on the origin, than on the capacity to perform. The classification of animals in Tholkappiyam has obvious similarity to the Jain system as enunciated in Tattvartha Sutra. There are certain difference too. The major difference between the two systems is in the specific recognition of a sixth sense in the Tholkäppiyam unlike the current Jain texts. The classification of animals in Tholkäppiyam appears to reflect the Jain world view, probably anterior to the extant Jain texts. DO
तुलसी प्रज्ञा-3