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self-same questions that Mahāvīra declared that from these alternatives you cannot arrive at truth; from these atternatives you are certainly led to error." This is quite true. But thereby we cannot deny the germs of the doctrine of anekāntavāda in Jaina philosophy before Sañjaya.
We have seen Umāsvāti (2nd cent. A.D.) didn't make any explicit reference to the seven alternative predicates. In the ten Niryuktis of Bhadrabahu also there is no mention of the saptabhangī, but it is for the first time in the works of a Digambara Jaīna Ācārya Kundakunda, (2nd cent. A.D.) we find the full-fledged seven atlernative predicates in one of his gāthā of Pancāstikāya. siyā atthi natthiubabham avvattavvaṁ puno yattattidayam,
davvaṁ khu sattabhanga adesavasena sambhavadi.
It means : The Seven Predications age : Syād asti, syād nāsti, syād asti nāsti, syād avaktavyaṁ, syād asti avaktavyam, syād nāsti avaktavyaṁ and syād asti-nāsti avaktavya”. 1.2 The Period of Establishment of Anekānta (5th cent. A.D.
to 8th cent. A.D)
It may be noted here that the all-round development of the anekānta philosophy took place in the history,when Samskrta language was first of all used by the Jain writers. The anekānta philosophy, being itself a synthetic development, historically pre-supposes the existence of many rival and welldeveloped philosophical schools. In fact, the Jaina philosophy unfolded itself in the context of many severe and serious controversies among such schools as the Sānkhya, Bauddha, Nyāya, Mīmāmsā and Vedānta. Pandita Sukhalalji Sanghavi and
Barua, Pre-Buddhist Indian Philosophy. Calcutta, 1922, p. 401. ? Some scholars believe that Umāsvāti implicitly referred to the Saptabhangi
in Tattvārtha Sūtra, 5.32. 3 Pancāstikāya of Kundakunda. Ed. A. Chakravartinayar, verse-14.
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