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JAINA ONTOLOGY
( i ) that the real is indescribable (ii) that dependent is an impossible relation (iii) that causation is an impossible relation (iv) that location is an impossible relation (v) that everthing is essentially momentary (vi) that all things belong to one and the same type.
(The first five are Buddhist positions, the sixth a monist one)3. This discussion too is rich in philosophical content and the occasion for it too is almost Vidyānanda's own free creation. And the cases like these are numerous enough in Tattvārthašlokavārtika. Lastly, the problems which Akalanka had dealt with in his independent writings, viz. the problems connected with pramāņa, naya, nikșepa Vidyānanda takes up in the appropriate part of Tattvārthašlokavārtika. As has already been noted the aphorisms of Tattvārtha were explained by Akalanka on more or less traditional lines but these very aphorisms were explained by Vidyānanda in the light of the innovations introduced by Akalanka himself in the field of the treatment of pramāna, naya and nikşe pa. Certainly the discussion of pramāna, naya, miksepa occurring in Vidyānanda has a definite advantage over tha ing in Akalanka in that the latter was the first experimenter in the field the former the consummate master of the situation, Be that as it may, Tattvärthašlokavārtika and Astasahasri represent the high water-mark of philosophical speculation undertaken in the second stage of the age of Logic.
The Digambara author who followed Vidyānanda was Prabhacandra and as has already been hinted he was an inferior genius as compared to the former. This is the reason why Vidyānanda has to be treated as the last author of the second stage of the age of Logic and Prabhācandra the first Digambara author of its third stage. Vidyānanda had surveyed whole of conteroporary philosophical scene in the light of Akalanka's discoveries but he was himself possessed of a deeply penetrating insight; Prabhācandra too surveys the contemporary philosophical scene in the light of Akalanka's discoveries but his insight had its limitations. The result was that Vidyā. nanda gave us two of the most advanced philosophical texts coming from the pen of a Jaina while Prabhācandra gave us two text-books to be used by fairly gifted school-boys. Of these latter one was Nyāyakumudacandra, a commentary on Akalanka's Laghiyastraya, the other Prameyakamala. mārtanda, a commentary on Māņikyanandi's aphorisms entitled Pariksā. mukha. Pariksämukha neatly summarises Akalanka's epistemological theses and is divided into six chapters respectively dealing with pramāṇasāmānya, pratyakşa pramāņa, parokşapramāna, pramānavişaya, pramāna phala and pramānā. bhasa. Lagbiyastraya really consists of two texts, the former divided into five chapters respectively dealing with pratyakşapramāna, pramänavişaya, parokşa. bramana, āgama, naya, the latter being of the form of one chapter dealing
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