Aapta Mimansa

Author(s): Saratchandra Ghoshal
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 78

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ĀPTA-MĪMĀŇSĀ
finds expression, and the reason for adding avaktavya is that when we are proving what a thing (jar, for instance) is, we wish to mention also that the thing has simultaneously negative attributes (is-not-ness) but that it is impossible to express them simultaneously. There is a jar here; but, as it is impossible to say simultaneously both what it is and what it is not, the word avaktavya is inserted in this statement.”1
The sixth mode is syān-nāsti chāvaktavya. “In this mode of speaking it is what the thing (jar, for instance) is not that finds expression. And the reason for adding avaktavya is that when we are proving what a thing (jar, for instance) is not, we wish to mention that the thing has at the same time positive attributes (is-ness) but that it is impossible to give them expression while we are proving what the thing is not.”2
The seventh and the last mode is syād-asti-năsti chävaktavya. “In the seventh mode of speaking one expresses first what the thing (jar, for instance) is, and then what it is not; and one adds that it is impossible to express both what it is and what it is not simultaneously. When one is talking of the attributes of a thing there is existence, and when he is talking of the attributes of another thing there is non-existence in the first thing, but it is impossible to express them both at the same time.”3
Kundakunda in his Pañchāstikāya-sāra (verse 14) has described the Saptabhangi : “Accordingly as dravya is viewed from different aspects of reasoning, it may be described by the following propositions: (1) perhaps it is, (2) perhaps it is not, (3) perhaps it is both (is and is not), (4) perhaps it is indefinable, (5) perhaps it is and is indefinable, (6) perhaps it is not and is indefinable, and (7) perhaps it is and is not and is indefinable.”4 1. Frist Principles of the Jaina Philosophy, H.L. Jhaveri, p. 39. 2. Ibid, p. 40. 3. Ibid. 4. "fory iet u 364 300 treo quit y afere
दव्वं खु सत्तभंगं आदेसवसेण संभवदि ॥" Sacred Books of the Jainas, Vol. III, p. 11.