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24
An Epitome of Jainism
discoveries of Cantor, Peano, and Frege have once for all reclaimed certain fundamental mathematical notions such as the concepts of infinity and continuity from the unwarranted criticisms of metaphysicians. As Bertrand Russel clearly points out, modern idealism must once for all relinquish its Kantian basis. It can no more depend upon the so-called demonstration offered by Kant as to the impossibility of real space and time.
This wave of realism is further intensified by the fact that it is intimately associated with modern science. The traditional Hegelian idealism of the West has been peculiarly adverse to the interest of science. It may be safely asserted that a system of metaphysics which does not take into consideration the method and achievement of modern science is so far self-condemned. Nobody can be blind to the claim of science to be a safe means for revealing truth. Its claim is so wonderfully substantiated by its achievements that we may say that modern life and modern thought are mainly the result of modern science. So much so that any system of metaphysics which aspires to secure the open-sesame to unlock the secrets of reality must not openly conflict with modern science. The new realism therefore is in noble company.
When we are aware of this changed attitude in modern thought we are naturally stimulated to examine similar philosophical attitudes in the past.
What is placed before the students of philosophy herein is due to such a sympathetic scrutiny of the past. The Jaina system of thought is so peculiarly consistent with modern realism and modern science, that one may be tempted to question its antiquity. Still it is a fact, that such a system flourished in India several centuries before the Christian era.
The author of the work which is analysed here lived in the first century B. C. Hence it is one of the earliest treatises on Jaina thought. But the author was not the orginator of this system. The anekântavâda of the Jains must be certainly older than Mahâvîra who is believed to have revived Janism.
The realistic tendency in oriental philosophy is not peculiar to Jainism. From the very early days we find this principle of interpreting life and the universe, running side by side with the idealistic one. During the Vedic period we find nothing but gross form of realism. The Vedic Gods were but magnified human beings sharing all the weaknesses and foibles peculiar to mankind. When sacrifices were offered to Indra or Agni or Vayu or Varuna with chanting of hymns, there could be no trace of any suspicion as to the reality of the world around. Not only the world of Nature was taken to be real but many of its elements were imaged after man. No doubt, we find a unifying tendency as an undercurrent of the Vedic thought. No doubt, the Vedic Devas were subordinated to the one creative principle of the universe -Prajapati.
But this wonderful period of primitive culture is followed by a barren age of sheer ceremonialism. The period of the Brâhmanas is marked by sacrificial technique. Elaborate formulae were invented for the conduct of sacrifices, Ceremonialism took the place of poetic effusions. This led to the
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