Jain Journal 2007 04

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

Page 32

Book Review
Jain Logic and Epistemology by Hari Mohan Bhattacharyya, K.P. Bagchi and Company, Calcutta, 1994, pp. xvi + 342, price Rs. 325.00 only
One of the brilliant contributions to the field of Jain Philosophy is the book Jain Logic and Epistemology by Hari Mohan Bhattacharyya published by K. P. Bagchi and Company, which is an outstanding work on Jain Logic. The book contains three parts. In Book I, the description is made on the metaphysics of knowledge and the doctrine of pramāna together with other systems of Indian logic like Nyāya, Sāmkhya, Mimāmsā and Vedānta. In Book II, the conditions of knowledge and the different forms of Pramāņa are illustrated. The Book III deals with the doctrine of Naya and the doctrine of Saptabhangi. It has twenty chapters and an Index.
In the words of the auther, “The Jaina Metaphysic is dualistic or even pluralistic Realism and differs from the realism of the Nyāya, Vaišeșika and the Mīmāmsā systems and marks a definite healthy section against the Idealist Monism of the Upanisads and the Advaita Vedānta on the one hand, and against the Nihilist and the Phenomenalist Idealism of the Buddhist on the other” (Preface). The germ of Jaina Logic starts normally from the period of canonical literature, but it was fully developed after the Christion era. The Jain logicians like Umāsvāti/Umāsvāmī (3rd / 5th cent. A. D.), Siddhasena Divākara (5th cent. A.D.), Samantabhadra (6th/7th cent. A. D.), Akalankadeva (8th cent. A. D.), Vidyānanda (8th cent. A. D.), Māņikyanandi (8th cent. A. D.) are the pioneers in the field of Jain Logic. The Jain logic almost ends with Yasovijaya gani (1624-1688 A.D.) and Vinaya-vijaya (1613-1681 A.D.) in the 17th century. In between them there were many more logicians, the famous of which were Hemacandra (1088-1172 A.D.) and Mallisena Sūri (1292 A.D.). Professor Bhattacharyya has included the opinions of all these eminent Jain logicians to make his book an authoritative one.