Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture

Author(s): Shreechand Rampuriya, Ashwini Kumar, T M Dak, Anil Dutt Mishra
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 289

272 Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda
and everything worthless in comparion with others. Nowhere is there even a single fact so fragmentary and so poor that to the universe it does not matter. Thus, he says, that there is truth in every idea however false, there is reality in every existence however slighi. 16 Joachim expresses the same thing when he says that no judgment is true in itself and by itself. Every judgment as a piece of concrete thinking is informed, conditioned to some extent, constituted by the apprecepient character of the mind. 17 Such and similar ideas are expressed by Prof. Perry, 18 William James, 19 John Caird, 20 Joseph.21 Edmond Holmes22 and many others.
Lastly, we turn to the Jaina literature itself. A great logician, Mallavādin, quotes a passage from the Bhagavati where Mahāvira replying to his disciple Gautama, describes Alman both as consciousness and not-consciousness (taking in view the different standpoints).23 There are other passages in the Bhagavati" and Jñätādharmakatha25 which indicate the form in which the doctrine of Syâdvāda existed in its infancy. In the len Niryuktis of Bhadrabahu there is no mention of the Saptabhanginaya.26 Even in the works of Umāsvāti, who is honoured by both the sects of the Jainas, we do not find the doctrine of Svudväda, Saptabhanginaya although the materials are there27 and it was ripe time for the appearance of this doctrine.
It is for the first time in the works of Kundakunda, a Digambara Jaina, that the seven bhangas are enumerated only in one gāthā 28 From this time onward begins a very important period in the
16. Appearance and Reality, p. 487. 17. Nature of Truth, ch. III, pp. 92-93. 18. Present Philosophical Tendencies, chapter on Realism. 19. The Principles of Psychology, vol. I, ch. xxi. p. 291. 20. An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion, p. 219. 21. Introduction to Logic, pp. 172-3. 22. In the Quest of Ideal, p. 21. 23. सर्वनयानां निबंधनत्वात। किमस्य निबंधनमिति चेत् । उच्यते। निबंधनं चास्य ‘आया भन्ते नाणे
अन्नाणे' इति स्वामी गौतमस्वामिना पृष्टो व्याकरोति 'गोदमा णाणे नियमा' अतो ज्ञानं नियमादात्मनि । ज्ञानस्यान्वयव्यतिरेकेण वृत्यदर्शनात् । 'आया पण सिय णाणे सिय अन्नाणे'।
Nayacakra Ms. Jaina Sahitya Samsodhaka. 24. 1. 3, p. 55; 12. 10. p. 592. 25. Ch. V. p. 177. 26. Dr. S.C. Vidyabhūsana in his History of Indian Logic p. 167 mentions a verse of the
Niryukti which contains a reference to Saptabhanginava, but it is wrong. Cf. also
Das Gupta: History of Indian Philosophy, p. 181. 27. For example see Sütras 1. 6.33; 5. 30, 32. 28. Pañcāstikāva I. 14, Pravacanasāra, 2. 23.