Jain Journal 2012 07

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

Page 30

Anupam Jash: Jaina Logic of Syadvada-Saptabhangīnaya
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(samyakanekānta) and the validity and rightness of expression of one point of view (samyak ekanta).
Syadvāda and Saptabhangi :
Syādvāda suggests that every statement must be prefaced by 'syat' or 'in some way' or 'in a certain context'. So every statement is true from one single point of view and untrue from another, Ramakant Sinari says. All knowledge is incomplete, vaild up to a point, in a sense truc, in a sense false16.
Malliṣena comments that it is a doctrine that recognizes that each element of reality is characterized by many (mutually opposite) predicates, such as permanence and impermanence or being and nonbeing... and underlines the manifold nature of reality17. Professor Jonardan Ganeri characterized it as 'the theory of the conditionalization of assertion'18, which avoids, according to Koller, 'the one-sided errors (ekanta) and give an appropriate epistemology to guarantee the possibility of knowledge of many sided reality1.
Sometimes the word syādvada' is taken as synonymous with the word 'saptabhangi' (seven-fold predication)20. But it is a controversial issue. But there is a relation between syādvāda and saptabhangi. Devendra Muni Shastri says this relation between the syadvāda and saptabhangi as the relation of pervasive and pervading characteristics. He says, 'syadvāda is pervasive while saptabhangi is pervading. Syādvāda, when expressed in definite predication, becomes saptabhangi. But saptabhañgi, may be considered to be a form of syadvāda or it may not be. Naya is not to be identified with syādvāda, but it has the characteristics of expressing itself in the forms of saptabhangi. This is to be found as a characteristic in the naya and the syādvāda doctrines11.
Jaina saptabhangi:
Jaina saptabhangi is a system of predications, seven in all, that can be employed to describe an entity to some predicate. Acāryya