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JAINA THEORIES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGE
method investigating a particular standpoint of a factual situation according to the purpose and the level of equipment of the experient (jñāt?). The particular standpoint thus investigated is one among a multitude of different viewpoints which, in their totality, reflect the full nature of the situation. Syädvāda, or Saptabhangī, is, essentially, a synthetical method designed to harmonise the different viewpoints arrived at by nayavada.
Making a further distinction between nayavāda and syādvāda Upadhye maintains that the former is “primarily conceptual” and the latter “mainly verbal”. Although not quite incorrect, this distinction is apt to be somewhat mis
1. Cf. "...each of the rayas comprehends things from only one
particular standpoint, knowledge derived from a naya therefore is partial and incomplete. To comprehend things in all their aspects, therefore, a special mode or form must be found. This, according to the Jains, is their Syâdvāda or the doctrine of many possibilities.” The Nyāyāvatāra (Ed. by P. L. Vaidya, Bombay, 1928), Intro. p. XL. 1.
"The nayas refer to the parts of the thing, whereas the saptabhangi refers to the things as a whole; nayas have relation to analysis, whereas saptabhangi relates to synthesis; nayavāda is the analytical method of knowledge, whereas saptabhangi is the synthetical method of knowing a thing." H. L. Jhaveri's The First Principles of the Jaina Philosophy, London, 1910, p. 42. See also NKV, Intro. pp. 21-22. Also,
nayānāmekanişthānām pravstteḥ sȚtavartmani /
sampūrňārthaviniścāyī syādvadaśrutamucyate // The Nyāyāvatāra, kā. 30. See also Siddharşi's Comm. thereon. 2. He observes: "Syädvāda is a corollary of Nayavāda: the latter
is analytical and primarily conceptual and the former is synthetical and mainy verbal”. PrSKU, Intro. p. LXXXV. Incidentally (see SJJ, p. 17 and p. 52), it would be more correct to say, with Jacobi, that syādvāda is a logical complement' than a 'corollary' of nayavāda.
