Jain Journal 1999 07

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

Page 65

BANERJEE : A KEY-NOTE ADDRESS ON UMĀSVĀTI AND HIS WORKS
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(Reality) which is utpāda-vyaya-dhrauvya-yuktam sat (V. 30), i.e., "it is a permanent reality in the midst of change of appearance and disappearance". The Jains say that reality is permanent and changeable, it has a growth, development and destruction. For example, let us look at the seed of a plant. "When the seed is planted in the soil it must necessarily break the shell and sprout out. This is the first step in its attempt to grow. Then the sprouting seed further undergoes change and some portions of it comes out seeking the sunlight and another goes down into the earth. That portion of the sprouting which goes down into the soil will undergo enormous changes into the root system. Similarly, the portion that shoots up into the air and sunlight will also undergo enormous changes, of sprouting out in tendrils and leaves finally resulting in branches and stem of the plant, all engaged in the task of procuring nourishment with the help of sunlight. At every stage thus we find change, the old leaves being shed off and the new sprouts coming up. This seems to be the general law of nature. The life of the seed does not die. It lives even though it is being constantly changed, and this is what is sat. And so the Reality has multifarious aspects, and this is what is known as anekānta-vāda in Jain philosophy.
The Jains have contributed quite a lot to the system of Indian logic and philosophy. In course of time by the 10th cent. A.D., the basic philosophical texts were composed, where the doctrine of Ahimsā was greatly stressed. Every system of philosophy has something to prove categorically, so also the Jain philosophy which tries to establish substantially the doctrine of Ahimsā as the ultimate philosophy of their system. Though the germs of their anekāntavāda could be traced to the Jaina Agama texts, the real system of Anekānta philosophy actually started from the 12th cent. A.D. when Hemacandra (10881172 A.D.) wrote his Pramāna-mināmsā where he had summarised the basic tenets of Nyāya-Vaiseşika, Sāmkhya-Yoga, and Vedānta by criticising the earlier systems of Indian philosophy. Almost after a century, Mallisena (1292 A.D.) wrote his Syādvāda-manjari, a commentary on the 32 verses of Hemacandra's Anya-yogavyavacchedikā. In a similar way, he also criticised the earlier systems of Indian philosophy, for instance, the ya-vāda of the Buddhists. It is here also the other system of Saptabhangi in order to establish the anekāntavāda was evolved. And this system of Jain logic is a unique contribution to the Indian logical system. Before the Jains the ancient Indian philosophical thoughts did not look upon a thing from two angles. The simple outlook of the anekāntavāda is to describe a thing in both positive and negative ways. As the Jains say that in a positive way a thing exists, but in a negative way the thing does not exist. This