Jain Journal 1991 10

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

Page 38

OCTOBER, 1991
3
view of paryaya-modes or modifications, it is perishable. So an object or Reality always possesses an indefinite number of characteristics, which could be of contradictory nature and, hence, one has to take a total or synthetic view of it. An acceptance or conviction of this kind of view is anekānta; and the acceptance or conviction of one of those points of view is ekanta. Hence the Nayacakra declares.1
eyanto eyaṇao hoi
aneyanto tassa samuho
121
Acceptance of one point of view is ekānta, and that of totality of the points of view is anekānta.
To explain this doctrine of anekanta, Jainācāryas have given several illustrations to which Pt. K. C. Shastri refers. I would reproduce here one of them :5 A few blind men gather near an elephant. Each of them feels by touching one limb of the animal and tells to others that the elephant is like that particular limb. The rest of them do not agree. Then there arises a quarrel among themselves. By that time a normal man (with full eye-sight) arrives there and explains to them: That each one of you have seen by touching one limb of the elephant though it is not true it is not false either. The elephant's trunk being like a fleshy fat rope, it appears like such a rope to one. It's legs being like the pillar, it appears like a pillar to the other. Thus taking a comprehensive, total or synthetic view of all the limbs of the elephant, one will arrive at or to know of a complete or whole elephant. Like this illustration, the exposition of one of the characteristics of an object (Reality) is ekānta; and the exposition of all the characteristics of it is anekānta. And such theory or doctrine is Anekāntavāda-the Doctrine of Non-absolutism.
Syadvāda is another related doctrine which has emanated from Anekantavāda. The method or system of interpretation of the various
3 In Jain Logic naya is a point of view. Naya primarily is of two kinds (1) dravyarthika-the point of view of substance and (2) paryayarthika-the point of view of modes. Each of these two are of three kinds, making six as the total number of nayas. With the help of all these six nayas one can investigate the whole Reality and know it. This theory is known as Nayavada, which is earlier and on which stands the system of Syadvada.
4 V. No. 1801.
5 Op. cit., p. 147.
6 Some scholars think that Anekantavada and Syadvada are one and the same. Dr. Darbarilal Kothia rightly opposes this view for Syadvada, which is based on Nayavada, is just the systematizer of Anekantavada. Vide his Jain Darsan aur Nyaya: Udbhav evam Vikas tatha Jain Darsan aur Jain Nyaya: Ek Parisilan, Ahimsa Mandir, New Delhi, Vira Samvat 2513, pp. 61-62.