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The Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy
nite number of attributes each of which is itself infinite like that of the single substance of Spinoza.
The Jainas made the metaphysical inquiry into the concept of Dravya from the noumenal and phenomenal points of view with the doctrine of manifoldness. Dravya has been conceived by them as the principle of Reality from the aspect of generality, while its particular characteristics are JIvadravya (sentient principle or living substance) and Ajīvadravya (non-sentient principle or non-living substance) from the particular aspect. I But Jivådravya and Ajivadravya do not form any two-substance doctrine, representing the world of animated things and the world of non animated things as independent and self-contained systems. According to a similar concept of “a unique substance of Spinoza”, thinking substance and extended substance are one and the same substance, comprehended now under this attribute, now under that."
Jaina Philosophy has conceived six categories of Dravya (Substance) as determined by their respective natures, viz. Dharma (Principle of Motion), Adharma (Principle of Rest), Ākāśa (Space), Jiva (Soul), Pudgala (Matter) and Addhāsamayas (Time).
Matter is conceived by every system of Indian philosophy in its own perspective. The Jaina concept of Matter comes nearer to the concept of Matter of the physical sciences in some respects, as it is conceived as the substance in the sense of stuff of which the universe is constituted. It is one of the ultimate principles or substances of which phenomena are manifestations.
An analysis of the nature of Jaina Pudgala (Matter) reveals that it is a permanent, non-living, extensive, physical, corporeal and concrete, active, disintegrating and integrating, and 1. Anuyogadvāra Sūtra, 123. 2. Spinoza, p. 64. 3. Bhs., 25. 4. 733-4.
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