Jain Journal 2001 07

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

Page 52

BHATTACHARYA : HARIBHADRA'S VIEWS ON SVABHAVAVĀDA AND THE LOKĀYATA 47
of aphorisms and extracts from their commentaries. The fragmentary nature of our knowledge regarding both does not provide any clue to the connection between the two. However, we hope to show, following Haribhadra's lead, that from a purely philosophical point of view the doctrines of suabhāvaand the Cārvaka/Lokāyata have nothing or little to do with each other.
Right from the commentators of the Suetasvatara Upanisad (c. sixth century BCE), down to Gunaratna's Tarkarahasyadipikā (fifteenth century CE) and beyond, we read of several conflicting interpretations of the term,5 svabhāva. It is sometimes conceived as a mysterious agency outside nature, akin to käla (time), niyati (destiny), īśvara (God), etc. Sometimes again it is projected as a special property of every object, animate or inanimate, and so there is nothing supernatural about it. The sharpness of the thorn is the oft-cited example of swabhāva (see no. 3 below).
This very example, however, is referred to as an instance of ākasmikatva (randomness) by the Naiyāyika-s. In the writings of the Buddhists, however, the same example is an instance of chance or accident, but is nevertheless called svabhäva.?
Lastly, on the ethical plane, the doctrine of suabhāva in the Mahābhārata is supposed to proniote inactivity (akriyā) since human effort is bound to be fruitless in the face of the inevitable consequences
4.
Such a collection was first made by Dakshinaranjan Shastri (1944) and more recently by Mamoru Namai (1976). For details see 'Svabhāvavāda vis-à-vis Materialism : A Review in the Light of some Mahābhārata Passages', Anviksā. (Journal of the Department of Sanskrit, Jadavpur University. Calcutta) Vol. xviii, 1999, p. 94n 5. See Pseudo-Sankara's commentary on the Svetāśvatara Upanisad (1.2) and Sankarananda's Dipika; Tarkarahasyadipikā (commentary on Haribhadra's Saddarsana-samuccaya), ed. Luigi Suali, Calcutta : The Asiatic Society, 1905-14, pp. 10-16. For a detailed discussion see Phanibhūsana Tarkavāgisa's Bengali commentary on the Nyayasutra, 4, 1, 22-24. Nyāyadarśana o Vatsyāyana Bhāşya, vol. 4 (1333 BS), Calcutta : Pascimavanga Rajya Pustaka Parşad, 1988. pp. 177-92. For a free and abridged translation of the Elucidation of Tarkavāgisa's commentary see Nyaya Philosophy, Part IV by Mrinalkanti Gangopadhyaya, Calcutta : Indian Studies Past & Present, 1973, pp. 27-31. Dharmakirti, Pramāņavārttikam, Varanasi : Bauddha Bharati, 1968, p. 64; Santaraksita, Tattvasangraha, ed. Dvärikadasa Shastri, Varanasi : Bauddha Bharati, Vol. I, 1968, Ch. 4. VV. 110-27. pp. 78-85; Aryaśüra, Jatakamālā, ed. P.L. Vaidya, Darbhanga : Mithila Institute, 1959, 23.2429, pp. 154-55.
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