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The Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy
Buddhist traditionl respectively. So the nature of Puggala, according to the accepted Jaina tradition, is to integrate and disintegrate.2 On account of this nature of it name 'Puggala' or 'poggala’, Skt. 'Pudgala' has been attributed to the permanent substance-Matter in Jaina philosophy.
This Jaina concept of Matter may be compared with the .concept of matter in the physical sciences to some extent where it is conceived as the substance in the sense of stuff of which the material Universe is constituted, undergoing changes by the process of integration and disintegration,3 So the concept of Matter of the Jainas comes nearer to that of matter of the physical sciences in some respects. In Jaina metaphysics matter is conceived as a substance (dravya) endowed with quality (guna) and mode (paryāya)4 and it is studied from the aspects of substance (dravya), locus, (ksetra) time (kāla and condition (bhāva)5 on the basis of the metaphysical speculation which runs parallel to some extent to the conception of Matter as found in Western philosophy and modern physics in which Matter is conceived as one of the ultimate principles of substances of which phenomena are manifestations.
According to Jaina philosophy, Matter (pudgala) is a permanent, non-living, extensive, physical, corporeal and concrete, active, disintegrating and integrating, and changeable substance. It is infinite in number, co-extensive with the Universe (Loka), possessed of the capacity to be received by 1. Kecit Saugatammanyā apyātmānań pracakşate, pudgala
vyapadeśena tattvānyattvādivarjitamTattvasaṁgraha 336, Sāntarakṣita, Gaekward's Oriental
Series. 2. Bhs. (Comm.) 20. 2. 664, etc. 3. Cosmology, Old and New, pp. 58-64; See also Physics, p. 2. 4. Bhagavati Vyākhyāprajñapti, 2. 10. 118; Anuyogadvāra,
4. 727 ;Uttarādhyayanasūtra, 28, 5-6. 5. Bhs., 2. 10, 118. 6. Bhs., 2. 10. 118; TS. V. 1, 2. 3. 4, 6; Dravyasaṁgraha, 15.
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