Jain Journal 2008 01 No 03

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

Page 37

Veer Sagar Jain: Concept of Dravya (Substance) in Jain Philosophy
i.e. reality is with origination, destruction and permanence. As per Jain philosophy, all objects / entities in this cosmos, whether sentient or insentient, are with origination, destruction and permanence characteristics are substances. New form of an entity is called its origination; giving up its old state is called destruction and the continuation of the nature of the substance is permanence; e.g. destruction of the state of milk results in origination of the state curd and the continuation of its being dairy product of cow (go-rasa) for use by us continues its existence." This way each and every entity in this cosmos goes through origination-destruction-permanence continuously at every moment. Hence all these entities are termed as substance and are therefore real, sat.
Besides reality/existent, another characteristic of substance in Jain philosophy is that it is always with attributes and moeds (paryāya) as given by Umāsvāmī in the following sutra.
guṇaparyaya-vad dravayam'.
Those parts of the substance, which co-exist with it, are called attributes (guna) and those that occur serially (krama) are called modes (paryaya). There is no entity in this cosmos, which is not always accompanied with attributes and modes. Knowledge, intuition, happiness etc. are the attributes of living beings while mind-based knowledge, verbal testimony etc. are the modes of knowledge. Similarly form, taste, odour and touch are the attributes of matter (pudgala) and black/white/yellow etc. are the modes of attribute colour.
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Thus we conclude that dravya is what is real and real is with origination-destruction and permanence or with attributes and modes.
Jain texts use the word dravya primarily to represent substance. However, we also find the terms like object (artha), thing (padartha),
6. Āpta-mīmāmsā, karikā 72
7. Tattvärthasūtra 5/38