Central Philosophy of Jainism Anekanta Vada

Author(s): Bimal Krishna Matilal, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Different Senses of Anekānta
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anekānta-vāda as 'the theory of manifoldness. 38 This is acceptable, but unfortunately he has also used such terms as 'indetermination' or 'indefinitness' to refer to the anekānta doctrine. This is misleading. For, as any Jaina scholar would point out, anekānta is certainly not a philosophy of indetermination or a philosophy of dubiety.
It is, in fact, useful to make a distinction between two senses of anekānta-vāda. The term is used, in the first place, to denote the Jaina metaphysical doctrine, by which I mean the Jaina view of reality. Roughly, the Jainas believe that reality is manifold and each entity has a manifold nature, consists of diverse forms and modes, of innumerable aspects. In this sense, therefore, the term can correctly be translated as 'the theory of manifoldness of reality.' But the term 'anekānta-vāda' is also used for the Jaina philosophic method as a method which allows for reconciliation, integration and synthesis of conflicting philosophic views. In this sense, the anekānta-vāda is the proper heir to the vibhajya-vāda of Mahāvira
As a philosophic methodology, anekānta-vāda takes its flight, to use Padmarajiah's metaphor, 39 on the two wings of naya-vāda "the doctrine of standpoints' and saptabhangi 'the doctrine of sevenfold predication'. Anekanta-vāda is sometimes called 'syād-vāda', although the latter term is usually reserved for the dialectic of sevenfold predication'. Mallisena in his Syādvāda-mañ jari explains (under verse five) syād-vāda as anekānta-vāda :
“The particle 'syād' signifies 'manifoldness': and so the syāddoctrine is the doctrine of manifoldness. And that means the acceptance (of a view) that a single entity is variegated by a plurality of attributes, namely, non-eternal and eternal etc.”40
F. W. Thomas translates "anekānta" as 'non-unequivocality'41. But this is also vague. In Haribhadra's Anekāntajayapatākā, several synonyms of "anekānta-vāda" are found, such as : sa nhära-väda42 (p. 26) 'the philosophy of integration'; sarva-vastu-sabala-vāda (p. 26) 'the theory of manifoldness of every real entity; akula-vada (p. 13) 'the philosophy of 'that' and 'not that'; and samkirna-vāda (p. 13) 'the philosophy of intermixture'. These synonyms, to be sure, throw considerable light on the nature and meaning of the anekānta-vada. (The word 'äkula' may mean 'confused' but since anekānta is not the philosophy of confusion, let us translate akula-vāda as a position where conflicting views are entangled or harmonized together'.)