Jain Journal 2004 04

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

Page 40

SATYA RANJAN BANERJEE:ANEKANTAVĀDA AND LANGUAGE
241
Goyamā appaņo ādiţthe āyā, parassa ādiţthe no āyā tad ubhayassa ādithe avvattavvam ātā ti ya ņo ātā ti ya iti.
If you ask, Gautama, then soul is, in other sense, the soul does not exist; but if both are asked, it is inexpressible- soul can be explained in both ways.?
As far as we know this is the earliest reference to syādvāda, but in this conception there are only three propositions which can be rendered as asti (affirmation), nāsti (negation) and avaktavya (indescribability). Gradually, in course of time, these three original propositions came to be known as mūlabhanga, particularly when the syādvāda developed into sevenfold propositions in the Pravacaņasāra and Pañcāstikāya of Kundakunda belonging to the 1st or 2nd century A.D.
In his commentary also Devanandī has only mentioned three propositions which are sat (affirmation), asat (denial) and avaktavya (indescribability) and not the sevenfold propositions as described by late logicians.
Among the other Jaina Agama texts, in the Sūtrakrtanga Niryukti, the reference to the Syādvāda is found.
After the period of canonical speculation, came the age of systematization in the 1st or 2nd century A.D. This is the age of Umāsvāti and Kundakunda. Umāsvāti (1st or 3rd century A.D.) makes no mention of the Syādvāda, not to speak of its seven propositions. In his Tattvārtha-sūtra (V.32), he, for the first time, refers to the principle of Relativity or Anekānta in his sūtra,
arpitānarpita-siddheḥ (TS. V. 32) which means "the contradictory views are established (arpita) from different points of view." Pujyapāda Devanandi or Jinendrabuddhi (bet. 5th and 7th centuries A.D.) in his commentary Sarvārthasiddhi on the Tattvārthasūtra comments on this sūtra thus (translated by S.A. Jain, see p. 157-158) :
3. 4.
op. cit. op. cit.
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