Book Title: Applied Philosophy of Anekanta
Author(s): Shashiprajna Samni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 37
________________ 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. 14

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220