Jain Journal 1970 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 27

JAIN JOURNAL
Umasvati was the first amongst the Jainas to use the Sanskrit language. Before him Jaina literature was written in Prakrit. Tattvärtha Sūtra is Umasvati's main work. The subject matter of Tattvārtha Sutra is based on the Āgamas but it is written in a systematic way. There is wide discussion on the nature, qualities and types of dravya (substance). Though there is not much discussion on prameya, pramāņa and naya, yet Umasvati to some extent did define these concepts. The five types of knowledge of the Āgamas are according to him pramāņa. He also classified pramāņa into pratyakşa and paroksa. Pratyakșa meant for him the immediate knowledge which arose in the self directly without the help of the sense organs and parokşa was defined as knowledge derived from the sense organs. He also described naya in a different way from that of the Agamas. It may be said that though Jaina logic was not fully developed at the time of Kundakunda and Umasvati yet their writings exercised great influence on the development of Jaina logic.
After Kundakunda and Umasvati the period of Jaina logic began. As mentioned before, Siddhasena was the first great logician. We cannot also forget the name of Samantabhadra in this connection (5th
tury A.D.) Samantabhadra and Siddhasena may be called the founders of Jaina logic. Aptamimānsā is the main work of Samantabhadra in which he introduced a new style to discuss the philosophical problems on the basis of anekāntavāda. He also gave a definition of pramāna in his Svayambhū Stotra, which may be viewed as the first logical type of definition of pramāna amongst the Jainas. (svaparāvabhāsakam yathā pramānam bhuvi buddhilakṣaṇam).
Siddhasena belonged to the seventh century A.D. The main works of Siddhasena are Sanmatitarka and Nyāyāvatāra. Sanmatitarka is written in Prakrit, in which he discussed the nayas, in a comprehensive manner on the basis of anekāntavāda. Nyāyāvatāra has been called the foundation-stone of Jaina logic. In this work, he defined the pramāna not only on the basis of the Agamic view but also according to his own independent thought and criticism of contemporary ideas on this matter. He classified pratyakṣa into two types, the sensuous and the non-sensuous : and paroksa was also classified into two types : anumāna and āgama. This classification was influenced by the classification given by other schools of philosophy. Siddhasena was also the first Jaina logician who defined the four logical terms pramāņa, pramātā, prameya and pramiti.
Samantabhadra and Siddhasena have done some preliminary work in the field of Jaina logic but in the meantime logic in other schools