________________
The refutation and counter-refutation of the Buddhists and the Naiyāyikas went on with unabated zeal from the third upto the eight century A.D. This battle of arguments ushered in a new era of logic, when there prevailed conflicts between philosophies, the philosophers are prone to strengthen their respective position through refutation of others by means of logic, relegating the scripture to a secondary place of importance. A philosopher does not depend on the scriptures for the support of his views, but he requires logic in defence of his position.
From this time onward a very important period in the history of Jaina philosophy begins. In the words of Dr. S.C. Vidyabhusana, 'In this era of logic, there existed no systematic Jain treatise on logic, its principles being included in the works of metaphysics and religion. With the commencement of the historical period in 453 A.D. there grew up, among the Jainas in both the Svetāmbara and Digambara sects, a band of scholars, who devoted themselves to the study of logic with great interest and enthusiasm.
It is during this golden age of Jain philosophy that ,we meet for the first time two great logicians namely, Siddhasena Divākara (a śvetāmbara) and Samantabhadra (a Digambara), who both belonged to 7th cent. A.D. and 7th & 8th Cent. A.D. By introducing a systematic study of logic, they laid the foundation of logic among the Jaina-s for the first time. Both of them were brilliant scholars, who acquired a great prominence in their epoch. Siddhasena Divākara's Nyāyāvatāra is the first treatise on Jaina logic, composed in 32 kārikās (verses). It occupies a respectable position in Jaina logic on account of its being a pioneer work on the subject. In Nyāyāvatāra, he says that,
anekāntmataṁ vastugocharaṁ sarvesam vidāṁ,
eka desaviśistortho nayasya visayo mataḥ. "
Sanmati Tarka. Ed. D. Malavania. Bombay, 1939, Introduction, p. 133.
16
