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Jaina Theory of Manysidedness of Reality and Truth ( Anekāntavāda)
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schools, particularly the Buddhist, and also because by his time these schoolsnotably the 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 the Buddhist, the Sankhya and the Nyāya-Vaisesika had to be assailed. But he hardly went beyond offering mere hints. Akalanka continued what Samantabhadra begun and so he was in a position to enter into a larger number of details than was the case with the latter."(But] Akalarka's was not an all-round battle against possible rivals. The credit for waging such a battle goes to Vidyānanda who had thoroughly mastered both the contemporary systems and the legacy left by Akalarika......." "His most outstanding treatment of Anekāntavāda is found in Astasāhasti, a commentary on Astašati. For in this work he undertook a detailed examination of certain one-sided views on certain most burning philosophical questions. ... ... Vidyānanda's studies in Anekāntavāda is the most solid contribution to the treasure-house of philosophy. Anekāntavāda is a much misunderstood doctrine and its defence at the hands of incompetent persons only makes matters worse. But Vidyānanda's competence was of a higher order and so his elaboration of the essentials of Anekāntavāda deserves serious study by those who harbour genuine misgivings against this typical Jaina philosophical doctrine. "21
In Yaśovijaya's works we reach the highest pinnacle of Anekāntavāda. He had thoroughly mastered the rich heritage. Of his writings the most important are three texts devoted to the problems of Anekāntavāda, namely the Nayarahasya, the Anekantavyavasthā and the Nayopadeśa. His Astasahasrivivarana, a commentary on Vidyānanda's Astasahasri, is noteworthy. Like Vidyānanda he was extremely well-versed in the contemporary systems of Indian philosophy. Besides, he was gifted with a brain whose sharpness and acuteness were unparallelled, this may be due to his mastery over the intricacies of Navya-nyāya. Let us see how he utilises his learning of Navya-nyāya in elucidating and defending the doctrine of Anekānta. “It was an old Jaina position that a thing exists from the standpoint of its own properties while it does not exist from the standpoint of the alien properties....... It constituted the heart of Anekāntavāda doctrine and so the generations of Jaina scholars defended it as best they could. But in Navya-nyāya circles a position similar to the present one began to be maintained. Thus they would speak of a thing's absence limited” by a property not belonging to it, e.g. a jar's absence "limited” by clothness (patatvāvadhikaghatābhāvaḥ ); and it was given out that such an absence of a thing exists even at a place wbere the thing itself exists. Yośovijaya aptly pointed out that this amounted to endorsing the Jaina position that a thing as viewed from the standpoint of the alien properties does not exist (i. e. is
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