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Paņdit Dalsukh Malavaniya has clearly connected this dream with the idea of anekāntavāda.' It was śramaņa Mahāvīra, who first dreamt of the bird, but later ācārya-s have significantly connected this dream with anekāntavāda. For, according to them, in the strangeness of the wings of the bird, śramana Mahāvīra had seen the theory of non-absolutism, that is anekāntavāda.
Though there are some glimpses here and there in the Jain canonical literature, the real development starts from the 5th century A.D., when the śvetāmbara Jain canonical literature was codified finally. In the Bhagavatī Sūtra, the process of anekāntavāda is hinted in the form of 'syādvāda'. The origin of anekānta can be traced in āgama in Ganadhara Gautama's questions to the tīrthankar Mahāvīra and the answer to it.
The canonical literature (āgamas) of the Jains forms the basis of their philosophical thoughts. For the origin of anekānta, when one looks into the āgamic literature. Gautama, the disciple of Mahāvīra raised several thousands of questions, which are specially quoted in the Bhagavatī Sūtra. It is these questions of Gautama, which can be considered as the origin of anekānta philosophy. Among the series of questions of Gautama, the first question was pertaining to the nature of soul as well as the nature of matter, then regarding the permanent and impermanent nature of universe. In these dialectics, we can find the seeds or germs of anekānta philosophy. It highlights the truth that both the predicates (the permanent and impermanent) refer to the same subject. So they are not contradictory to each other, but complimentary to each other. The theory of anekānta was explained by using the technical term of siyā by tīrthankara Mahāvīra. Let us have a glimpse of anekāntika discourse.
Gautama : Is the soul permanent or impermanent?
Paņdit Dalsukh Malvaniya. Agama Yuga kā Jain Darśana. Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati Academy, 1990, p. 53.
