Aptamimansa Critique of an Authority Bhasya

Author(s): Samantbhadracharya, Akalankadev, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Jagruti Dilip Sheth Dr

Page 12

INTRODUCTION
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was applicable rather universally; that is to say, he felt that taking anything and any feature at random it could be shown that this thing is characterised by this feature as also by the concerned contradictory feature... Another aspect of Samantabhadra's performance also deserves notice. He apparently attaches utmost importance to the Saptabhangi doctrine and in fact makes it the starting point of his investigation (in Aptamīmāṁsā). ""20
Again, what is noteworthy is his attributing the name 'naya' to each of the seven bhangas as also the name 'syādvāda' to the totality of all the seven bhangas.
Haribhadra's Anekāntajayapatākā is a much advanced text as compared to Aptamimārsā but for the most part it adopts the latter's model while arranging its material. It is chiefly interested in vindicating the validity of Anekāntavāda.
As is expected, Akalanka's most crystal-like and concentrated enunciation and defence of Anekāntavāda occurs in his Aștaśatī, a commentary on Aptamīmāṁsā. Here he elaborately deals with the most fundamental philosophical views centring around the acceptance or otherwise of two contradictiry features. His discussions constitute the first most comprehensive and mature vindication of Anekāntavāda. This is so because in them he has taken into consiueration the rival positions as actually maintained in the contemporary works of various non-Jaina schools, particularly Buddhist, and also because by his time these schools - particularly Buddhist - had reached almost the acme of perfection.
"Samantabhadra had clinched the most crucial point that the Jaina thinkers of his age had to elaborate, viz. the all-out importance of Anekāntavāda as the central criterion for evaluating the contemporary non-Jaina philosophical systems. He has offered valuable hints as to the lines on which the systems like Buddhist, Sānkhya, NyāyaVaiścșika had to be assailed. But he hardly went beyond offering mere hints. Akalanka continued what Samantabhadra had begun and so he was in a position to enter into a larger number of details than was the case with the latter.... (But) Akalanka's was not an all-round battle against possible rivals. The credit for waging such a battle goes to Vidyānada who had thoroughly mastered both the contemporary systems and the legacy left by Akalanka... His most outstanding treatment of Anekāntavāda is found in Astasahasri, a commentary on
20. Jaina Ontology, pp. 135-136