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Anekanta 149
6. (e) Kundakunda: A new trend of thought was developed by Kundakunda in his Samayasara, although his Pañcastikāya and Pravacanasara generally uphold the traditional positions. His treatment of the problems of dravya, guṇa, paryāya, and also utpāda, vyaya, dhrauvya, is deep and critical. But in his Samayasāra, Kundakunda develops a new idea which appears influenced by Yogācāra idealism and also Vedantic absolutism. The soul is the cause of what is happening within itself and has no essential relationship with what is happening in the world outside. The reverse is also true. This cleavage between soul and matter is explained through niscaya-naya and vyavahāra-naya, the former being the standpoint of truth, and the latter of untruth. The traditional interpretation of vyavahara-naya as the popular or practical viewpoint and of niścaya-naya as the factual or scientific standpoint is radically changed. Scholars have designated this new meaning of the two nayas as the 'mystic pattern' as distinguished from the traditional interpretation which they call the 'non-mystic pattern'. The works of Kundakunda contain both these patterns, but the 'mystic pattern' is the predominant theme of the Samayasara. In the philosophy of Kundakunda thus the concept of anekanta acquires a new meaning in that a new vista is now opened up for the development of the concept of avaktavya (the third bhanga of the saptabhangi) into a mystic realizaton of the nature of truth in its fulness.
These great thinkers have now paved the way for the advent of the classical period which is the subject matter of the next section.
7. The Classical Period: Samantabhadra, Haribhadra, Akalanka, Vidyananda and Others
The transition period was followed by a period of intense critical thinking when the Jaina logicians headed by Akalanka, composed treatises which were of lasting value in the field of logic and epistemology. Sarvārhasiddhi of Pūjyapāda Devanandi and the Aptamimāmsā of Samantabhadra provided a firm ontological base to these thinkers who were responsible for the classical period. We here propose to give a brief account of the doctrine of anekanta as treated by some of these authors.
7. (a). Samantabhadra : The Aptamimāmsā of Samantabhadra provides a fertile ground for the doctrine of anekanta to flourish. The essence of anekānta is envisaged as lying in the solution of the contradictory attributes of features exhibited by an ontological
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