Jaina Ontology

Author(s): K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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JAINA ONTOLOGY
passage whose argument is patterned after that of this chapter 26'). Be that as it may, on the question of the evolution of the list of 14 gunasthānas the testimony of Prajñāpapa is going to be crucial. For if this text is not familiar with more than 12 guṇasthānas, then the genuinely old parts of Bhagavati too cannot be familiar with more than 12; and then it will have to be seen whether or not these genuinely old parts are familiar with the concept of upaśāntakaṣāya. To sum up, in the task of determining the comparative antiquity or otherwise of an Agamic text one convenient criterian is to see where it stands in relation to the use of the list of 14 märganāsthānas, that of 14 jīvasthānas and that of 14 gunasthānas. There is however one more such list which deserves an independent treatment in this connection and let us take it up now.
Seeds of the Eight Anuyogadyāras Sat, Sankhyā, K setra etc. in Prajnapanā :
Thus Tattvārthasūtra lays down the instruction that a subject-matter is to be investigated into under the following eight heads : sat, sankhyā, kşetra, sparsana, kala, antara, bhāva, al pabahutva. Şarkhandagama in its very important first section makes a basic use of this list. Another version of this list contains an additional item in the from of bhāga and has been made use of in Anuyogadvāra and Āvašyakaniryukti, But Prajñāpanā is unfamiliar with this list as it stands. However, a close study of the contents of Prajñāpanā makes it clear that in its different parts it does conduct discussion in terms of the different items of this list there being one exception which will be noted below. Thus the first chapter (viz. Prajñāpanāpada) which enumerates the classes constituting the animate world can be said to describe it under the head sat while the chapter twelfth (viz. Sarīrapada) which gives the number of members belonging to the different classes of the animate world can be said to describe it under the head sankhya; similarly, the chapter second (viz. Sthānapada) describes the animate world under the heads kşetra and sparsana while the chapter fourth (viz. Sthitipada) does so under the head kāla; lastly the chapter eighteenth (viz. Kāyasthitipada) implicitly describes the animate world under the head antara 10 while the chapter third (viz. Alpabahutvapada) explicitly describes it under the head al pabahutya. There is no separate description of the animate world under the head bhāga but such a description is implicitly given in connection with that under the joint heads sankhya and al pabahutva ; on the other hand, a description under the head bhāva is here conspicuous by its absence and the fact is significant. For a description under the head bhāva means a description in terms of kşaya, upašama, kşayo pasama and udaya of the relevant karmas, and the total absence of such a description in Prajñāpanā means that the advanced stage of the Karma doctrine presupposed by such a description was attained only in the post-Prajñāpanā period. Certainly, the Karma doctçine as treated in Prajñāpanā is very elementary in compa