Jain Journal 2005 07

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

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The following chart gives a synoptic picture of the views of svabhava held by Jain writers from Samantabhadra (sixth century) and Jinabhadragani (sixth/seventh century CE) to Gunaratna (fifteenth century).
i)
ii)
iii)
v)
JAIN JOURNAL VOL-XL, NO. 1 July. 2005
Svabhava causality
Sīlāńka, Abhayadevasūri, Gunaratna
=
iv) Syncretic view: Samantabhadra, Haribhadra, Siddhasena Divakara
Svabhava = accident
Jinabhadragani, Maladhārī Hemacandra
Non-committal view re: svabhāva
Nemicandra, Siddharși, Somadevasūri, Devendra, Jñānavimala
Svabhava associated with the Cārvāka Sīlānka, Vādirājasūri, (Jinabhadragaṇi ?)
(For sources, etc. see Kulkarni. I have no access to Samantabhadra's Aptamimāmsā (sixth century), so I have followed Malvania's Introduction to Gaṇadharavāda (Hindi translation), p. 128.)
That the Jain writers fail to proffer a unanimous view of svabhava is indicative of the confusion around the doctrine itself. The only interesting aspect, not found in other sources, is the syncretic approach which is an extension of syādvāda. As Siddhasena Diväkara (eighth century) writes:
kāle sahāva niyai puvvakamma purisakāraṇegaṁtā / nicchattam tam ceva u samasão humti sammattam //3
Neither time nor svabhāva, destiny, previous action or manliness is to be taken as the only cause, but to take the combination of all of them is surely the right view.
V.M. Kulkarni includes Haribhadra among the Jain writers who advanced this syncretic view but does not mention where Haribhadra
3. Quoted in Kulkarni, p.16 n22.