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

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 39
________________ 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

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 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