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22 : Sramaņa, Vol 62, No. 1 January-March 2011
as mentioned in the Jaina scriptures." (Niyamasāra- 34). These spatial units are not separate and can therefore be combined. The fact that an astikāya is extensive means that its particles are not units of exclusively one series but are at the same time units of another or multiple series of elements. (Kundakunda, 2001, xxxix). This gives astikāyas a multiple dimension (tiryakpracaya). The astikāyas are eternal and fill all the three worlds, ürdhva (upper), madhyama (middle) and adhaḥ (lower).
Kundakunda does not consider time to be an extensive substance and therefore does not categorize it under astikāyas for reasons that will be further clarified below. "Souls, material-aggregates, dharma, adharma and space possess innumerable infinitesimalspacial-units; but in time these are absent." (Pravacanasāra- II.43) "Excepting Time, (the other five) of these substances (are known) as 'Extensive substances' (Astikāya)" (Niyamasāra -34).
If we look at the Āgamic works", the Āvaśyaka-cūrņi refers to three different views on time: firstly, time as a quality;"2 secondly, time as modes of substances; and thirdly, time as an independent substance. The Digambaras accept kāla as an independent substance whereas the Śvetāmbara tradition remains divided regarding the topic. The Svetāmbaras that do not agree with the substantialist theory of time understand time as a modal modification of the other five substances, meaning that time is not different from the changing object and does not have an independent existence!3. According to this view the changes that substances undergo originate from substances themselves. Therefore modification is inherent to a substance and does not need an independent underlying support to take place. Kundakunda introduced the substance of time and its function in various works. Pravacanasāra (II. 42) states that the "quality of time is the rolling on (of events) (vartana)." It is similarly said in the Niyamasāra. "That by the help of which, all substances, soul etc., are altered in their own modifications, is 'Time'. The four substances, the medium of motion, (the medium of rest, space and