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JAINA ONTOLOGY
Sauträntikas, Yogacaras and Madhyamikas, a discussion not much relevant so far as the wording of the text is concerned. Again, another verse lays down a distinction between jñāna and darsana and in the course of commenting on it Abhayadeva offers an extremely lengthy treatment of the diverse epistemological problems, a treatment hardly germane to what the text says. Lastly, in one verse it has been said that Kanada endorses the standpoint of dravyastikanaya as well as paryāyāstikanaya but he is nevetheless wrong inasmuch as he takes the two in isolation from each other; in the course of commenting on it Abhayadeva undertakes an extremely lengthy exposition-cum-criticism of the Vaiseṣika ontological positions, a discussion out of proportion to the significance of the original statement. These cover almost all the major cases where Sanmatitika undertakes an important philosophical discussion. In their own right they are all worthy of a serious attention, the only difficulty with them being that they have been offered in the name of commenting on a text with which they have little intrinsic relation; (in the process it so happens that the really important utterances of the original text stand comparatively neglected). Now in all philosophising Abhayadeva was considerably indebted to his Digambara predecessors. But it is curious to note that in his long treatment of epistemological problems Akalanka's classification of pramānas has been disposed of in just few lines; there too it is mentioned as a veiw of kecit' and contrasted to the Saiddhantika view (i.e. to the traditional view which Akalanka had virtually set aside). Be that as it may, Sanmatiika is the next Svetambara text after Nayacakra where due survey has been undertaken of the contemporary philosophical scene.
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The process of an over-all philosophical stock-taking initiated by Abhayadeva in Sanmatitika was continued by Vadideva in Syadvādaratnakara. The formal structure of Syadvadaratnakara resembles that of Pramanner. Let us recall that meyakamalamartanda in an extremely close following Parikṣāmukha Prameyakamalamārtaṇḍa is divided into six chap. ters respectively dealing with pramäṇa-sāmānya, pratyakṣapramāṇa, parokṣapramāna, pramāṇaviṣaya, pramāṇaphala, pramāṇābhasa. Syadvādaratnākara is similarly divided into eight chapters respectively dealing with pramāṇasāmānya, pratyakṣapramāṇa, paroksa pramāna (minus agama), agama pramāṇa, pramāṇavisaya, pramaṇaphala-cum-pramāņṇābhāsa, naya, vāda. Not only that, in each chapter Vadideva has first composed aphorisms closely following Parikṣāmukha and then written a commentary on them closely following Prameyakamalamārtaṇḍa, (to be precise Vadideva's aphorisms bear the title Pramaṇanayatativāloka while Syadvādaratnākara: is the name of his tary on the same). Now when we further recall that Parikṣāmukha is a neat summary of the whole body of Akalanka's epistemological theses then Vādideva turns out to be the first Svetambara author to have given a full
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