Beyond Anekantavada A Jain Approach to Religious Tolerance

Author(s): Paul Dundas
Publisher: Z_Lessons_of_Ahimsa_and_Anekanta_for_Contemporary_Life_014006.pdf

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Paul Dundas, "Beyond Anekantavada "
general intellectual tolerance based on the principle of anekantavāda. Instead, I would turn here to an opponent of Dharmasagara's ideas and one of Jainism's greatest intellectuals, Yasovijaya (1624-88).
Yasovijaya has become a near talismanic figure for the contemporary Svetambara monastic community and is, in particular, identified with the quality of madhyasthya or neutrality. A commemorative sign which invokes this can be glimpsed today through the dust and fumes in the old city of Ahmedabad at Yasovijaya Chauk at the Relief Road end of Ratan Pol where Yaśovijaya lived for many years. Although Yasovijaya's scholarly reach extended over the entire range of Jain literature, his frequent reference to Haribhadra suggests that he considered the latter as his real and only intellectual equivalent in earlier Śvetambara tradition, and he saw himself as Haribhadra's successor. It was the Haribhadra's reputation for being influenced only by the logical cogency of doctrines and viewpoints (anekantavāda) that appears to have shaped Yasovijaya's irenic but also critical attitude towards other sects and traditions.
Yasovijaya's broad perspective on the status of members of other religious paths was expressed in the Dharmaparīkṣā, “An Examination of the Jain Religion," a lengthy Sanskrit autocommentary on 104 Prakrit verses produced in 1669. In this text, in which no serious reference is made to anekantavāda, Yasovijaya argues that it is pointless to take a negative stance towards a position found in another soteriological path if it is effectively no different from Jainism. Unquestionably (and Yasovijaya quotes Haribhadra to this effect) the principled nonJain derives his positive qualities precisely from his loyal adherence to his own scriptural tradition, this being in itself indicative of a morally upright position. The Jain, however, can take a madhyastha position, devoid of partisan passion, because Jainism is universalist in that it combines and encompasses all possible viewpoints. Here, then, at the outset Yasovijaya's ostensibly irenic approach can also be seen to reflect a view of
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