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JAINA ONTOLOGY
is to be noted is the great role of Syadvadaratnakara as the first Svetām. bara masterpiece to assimilate all that was of value in the philosophical discussions of the Digambaras of the preceding few centuries.
(D) YAŜOVIJAYA
Yašovijaya is the last great author of the third stage of the age of Logic and with him ends the history of Jaina philosophical speculation, For he belonged to the 17th-18th Centuries and he was followed by no great author till our times when modern Jaina scholars with a new situation to face appeared on the scene. Now circumstances so developed that Yašovijaya was in a position to do full justice to the theoretical problems faced by the Jainas in his times. For one thing he was born among the Ŝvetambaras who were a sub-sect of the Jainas that was then on comparative ascendancy. As a result Yašovijaya felt enthused enough to master in their entirety the philosophical problems of his age. A most conspicuous new phenomena of this age was Navya-Nyāya and Yašovijaya thoroughly acquainted himself with it. Another new phenomenon was the marked success of the Sankarite school of Brahmavada and Yašovijaya thought worth while to grasp the logic of its positions as well. The Buddhists were now physically absent from the scene but the Jainas had a rich tradition of arguing against them; this tradition which stood finally expressed in Syādvādaratnakara was available to Yašovijaya and he made a diligent study of it. As for Sankhya it was a spent force since long but Yašovijaya was in intelligent possession of whatever Jaina tradition there was of criti. cising the tenets upheld by this very old Brahmanical school of philosophy, Finally, the Mimāṁsakas were there in the field with their dogmatic and philosophical positions which they had been defending since pretty long time; Yašovijaya was adequately conversant with these as well. Of course, it goes without saying that Yasovijaya had studied all the great Ŝvetambara authors from the oldest down to the latest, also the most important from among the great Digambara authors. Yašovijaya's writings, huge in number and most diverse in content, are a standing testimony to this multi-faced character of his intellectual equipment. Added to it be the fact that he himself possessed an extremely sharp mind which could easily pick out essentials from among a mass of sundry details. All this makes his argu. ment in support of the Jaina case an immensely profound and highly illuminating performance. We have already decided to concentrate our attention on three of his writings devoted to the problems of Anekāntavāda, viz. Nayarahasya, Anekantavyavastha and Nayopadesa and two of them devoted to the epistemological problems, Tarkabhāṣā and Jñānabindu. For students of Jaina ontology the former set of texts is much more useful than the latter and we take that first.
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