Jain Journal 1999 07

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

Page 63

A KEY-NOTE ADDRESS ON UMĀSVĀTI
AND HIS WORKS
SATYA RANJAN BANERJEE Convener of the International Seminar on Umāsvāti
Mr D.R. Mehta, Dr L.M. Singhvi, Mr Pratap Bhogilal, Mr Narendra Prakash Jain, delegates, ladies and gentlemen
It is, indeed, a great pleasure on my part and on behalf of the Bhogilal Leherchand Institute of Indology to welcome all the delegates, both foreign and Indian, to this International Seminar on Umāsvāti and his works for their co-operation on being present here in this city of Delhi. An International Seminar on Umāsvāti has long been a desideratum, and it is because of this, the authority of BLII, an Institute of International standard, has decided to hold an International Seminar on Umāsvāti to know the views of the scholars of the world about the progress of the studies on Umāsvāti and to chalk out a future line of research on him. This then, in a nutshell, is the background of holding this Seminar.
Umāsvāti is one of the illustrious logicians in Jainology. Though his date is a controversial one, and scholars fly into fancy to put him down to the 5th/6th cent. A.D., it is still acknowledged that he belongs to the 1st cent. A.D. In fact, S.C. Vidyabhusana in his A History of Indian Logic has put his date between 1-85 A.D., but it is pretty certain that whether he belongs to the 1st or 6th cent. A.D., his contribution to Jain Logic in unique. His Tattvārtha-sūtra, popularly known as Pramāna-śātra, is a compendium on Jainology. The TS is an epitome of Jain philosophical texts, particularly based on the Jain canons. Whatever may be the date of the Jaina Āgama texts, it is certain that Umāsvāti has accumulated most of his ideas and themes, if not all, from various Agama texts and has systematised them in one place in his book Tattvārtha-sūtra. He was, perhaps, the first man who had systematised the philosophical concepts of Jainism as embalmed and treasured up in the Jaina Agama texts. His first sūtra-samyag-darśanajñāna-cāritrāni mokşamārgah (TS I.1) has a parallel to Sthānanga and Uttaradhyayana-sūtras. He is great, because in the early Christian centuries, when the Indian system of logic was not fully developed, Umāsvāti had shown a fully developed logic. 1. This key-note address was delivered by me at the inaugural ceremony of
the International Seminar on Umāsvāti and His works held in Delhi on 4, 5, 6 January 1999.