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Epistemology of Jainas
through movements of the body or other sources. The above contention goes against the following reasons. Firstly, the physical movements are not the exclusive cause of mati. They are common to mati as well as fruta. They cannot be called dravyamati as we call speech as dravyasruta. So, dravyasruta, being closely related with bhāvaśruta, can assign eloquence to śruta in general. This cannot be said in the case of mati. Secondly, the indications also when they go beyond the limit of perception and indicate something more, come into the category of śruta. Sruta does not mean spoken or written words only.
t, every thing that given some idea based on authority. After all words also are indications. A person touches his mouth with folded five fingers. As far as the perception of his movements is concerned it is mati. But, when we come to know that such indications express hunger, we pass into the sphere of śruta. Thus, what cannot be perceived, inferred or otherwise known, and is exclusively based on the authority of the other person, is śruta. In the above case. if hunger is known through other conditions it will be mati. It is śruta when the fact is made known by the person through words, speech or any other ostensible movement. Fourteen categories of Śrutajñānal
The Nandi divides śruta into fourteen kinds of Akşara, Anaksara etc. Before coming to their explanation some historical remarks are necessary.
These fourteen categories are not found in the Digambara literature. In the Svetāmbara literature also they are mentioned for the first time by Āvaśyakaniryukti. They are not referred to even in the Tattvārtha. But, the first two categories of Aksara and Anaksara are accepted by the Digambara also. In the karma-literature of Svetāmbaras as well as the Digambaras śruta is described as having twenty varieties; which include the above-mentioned two. VBh refers to a gāthā from the Purvaliterature refering to the same. It appears that the fourteen categories are a development of these two. Jinabhadra has, 1. Nandi sūtra, sūtra 40-57
See also- Viseşāvaśyakabhāsya G. 459-555
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