Jaina Logic

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Raja Krisen Jain Charitable Trust New Delhi

Page 36

Anekanta and Nayarāda
13
sive way. The intellectual confusion is created by ekanta while the cobwebs of confusion are cleared by anekanta. The synoptic outlook of anekana gives a comprehensive and true picture of reality.
Anekanta emphasises that truth is manysided. Reality is of the nature of anantadharma. Reality is complex like the many coloured dome. It can be looked at from different points of view.
Anekanta emphasizes that the truth is manysided. Reality can be looked at from various angles. Two doctrines result from the Anekāntavāda: i) Nayavada and ii) Syadvada. Nayavada is the analytic method of investigating a particular stand-point of factual situation Syadvada is primarily synthetic designed to harmonise the different view-points arrived at by Nayavada. Nayavada is 'primarily conceptual' and the Syadvada is synthetic and mainly verbal, although it is sometimes maintained that conceptual is also verbal and the verbal method is so much changed with epistemological characters. The distinction between the conceptual and the verbal has mainly a reference to the fact that points of view have to be expressed in language and predicated in specific forms so as to embody them. The concept is formed from this point of view.
Naya refers to the point of view one takes when one looks at the object. A naya is defined as a particular opinion or a view-point of looking at an object. It expresses a partial truth about an object as known by a knowing subject." The Jainas give the example of the blind men and the elephant. The blind men feel the animal and describe it, each in his own way. Similarly, we look at objects and describe them in our own way from different angles. Other view-points are also recognised; and they need to be recognised with each in the scheme of a fuller and more valid knowledge which is the sphere of Pramana.
33. Prameyakamalamartanda of Prabhicandra. "Anirakrtapretipaksava. stavasamgrahah! jnaturbhipraya nayah".