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possibility is based on the recognition of the seven aspects of a thing.
It may, however, be pointed out that a thing, according to the Jainas themselves, has an infinite number of aspects. If so, why confine the predications to seven only ? Instead of the Sapta or seven Bbangas why should we not recognise Ananta or an infinite number of Bhangas? The Jainas urge that the doctrine of the Sapta Bhanya does not mean that a thing is possessed of only seven attributes or that it has only seven modes. It recognises on the contrary that the thing has an infinite number of attributes and modes but holds that if one of these attributes or modes is considered in relation to the thing, the thing would present seven aspects, neither more nor less. The question of the Ananta Bhanga, as an epistemological theory in respect of the nature of a thing does not thus arise.
One may be tempted to contend that the number of the Sapta Bhanga can at least be increased by one Bhanga and that, in this way. The fourth Bhanga, as we have seen, attributes * inexpressibility' to the thing. If so, why should not 'expressibility also be supposed to be an
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