Jain Journal 2001 04

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

Page 39

BHATTACHARYA: SYNCRETIC VIEWS OF HARIBHADRA AND OTHERS
183
as well, presumably because he had no definite tradition to follow. Such names as Svabhāva and Yadrcchā were known to all but nobody knew whether they were to be taken as one and the same or as representing two different ideas, diametrically opposed to each other.13
What, however, concerns us here is to note that instead of rejecting any one of the three some did speak of the combination of all and their
ews are not identified with those of the pluralist (anekāntavādin) Jain philosophers.
Our next instance is taken from the Susrutasamhitā. It runs as follows
vaidyake tu, svabhāvam iśvaram kālam yadrcchā niyatim tathā/
pariņāmam ca manyante prakstim prthudarsinaḥ//14 According to medical science, however, farsighted men consider Svabhāva, God, Time, Accident, Destiny and the evolution (of primeval matter) as the origin.
Instead of taking any one of them as the first cause, Dahlana accepts all the six and quotes examples in support of each of them from different parts of the Susrutasamhitā itself. 15 He also cites the views of two earlier commentators, Jejjhata and Gayi (Gayadāsa). 16 According to the former, Svabhāva, Kāla, Yadệcchā and Niyati are the evolution of Praksti. Although they are not different from Prakrti in the truest (pārāmārthika) sense, they inhere in Prakrti because of their special properties. However, he specifically leaves God out of his consideration. Gayi, on the other hand, explains the verse in another way. Physicians, he says, accept all the six in their combination (samuccaya) as the cause of the world. The evolution of Prakrti is the material cause (upādāna-kārana) and Svabhāva and the rest (five in all) are the efficient causes (nimitta-kārana). 17
13 Among the Jain philosophers, Jinabhadragani and Maladhāri
Hemacandra identify svabhāva with ahetu while Sīlārika, Abhayadeva and Gunaratna mention svabhāva and yadrccha seperately. See Kulkarni
(n 8). 14. Susrutasamhită, ed. Vaidya Jadavji Trikamji (Trivikramji) Acharya,
Varanasi : Chaukhamba Orientalia, (1980), Śärirasthāna, 1.11, p. 340. 15. Ibid., pp. 340-41. 16. Ibid., p. 341. 17. Interestingly enough, no such syncretic view is proposed anywhere in
the Carakasamhitā (see Sūtrasthāna, 25. 14-21), though such an approach is hinted at in a different context (Sūtrasthāna, 1.6.4-5).