Jaina Ontology

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

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JAINA ONTOLOGY
These fundamental tenets of Jaina atomism have their own significance but in Bhagavatī much attention is not devoted to them as such but to certain arithmatical computations related to them, computations which in fact are simple corollaries to the tenets themselves. 47 Thus in one extremely lengthy dialogue it is shown in how many ways an aggregate made up of this or that number of atoms can break up into this or that number of parts-e. g. in how many ways a ten-atomic aggregate can break up into four parts 48. Similarly, another lenghty dialogue shows in how many ways 5 possible colours, 5 possible tastes, 2 possible smells, and 8 possible touches can exhibit themselves in an aggregate made up of this or that number of atoms. 9 Both these are cases of simple arithmatical computation but they have been treated at full length and this suggests that the atomic hypothesis as well as the arithmatical computation in question were then considered something of a novelty. In Prajñāpanā the arithmatical computations undertaken in this connection concern comparatively more important aspects of the atomic hypothesis--and this suggests that by that time the hypothesis was rather well established. But in Bhagavatí even the elementary treatment of matter in terms of the atomic hypothesis is a somewhat later phenomenon; as a matter of fact, this is one reason why one must cast doubt on the validity of the later explanation that the astikāya is so called because it is a composite made up of co-existing units. What is more probable is that dharma, ad harma, akāša, pudgala and jiva were first posited on the basis of certain independent considerations and were later conceived as made up of indivisible units.
Coming now to the question of matter as used by a living being it seems that this is the question that first engaged the attention of Jaina theoreticians (the question of atomic composition of matter being one that arose next). The first idea to occur in this connection was that a living being requires matter by way of nourishment and breathing (it being also understood that nourishment goes to build up body and sense-organs); 50 somewhat more sophisticated consideration led to the belief that a living being also requires matter by way of speech and thought. 1 In Bhagavati the question is raised on several occasions and in several ways but every time these (or some of these) turn out to be the activities that a living being is supposed to perform with the help of matter.62
(iv) Jiva A most conspicuous feature of Jaina theory of matter is that it does not view earth, water, fire and air as four basic types of matter, a most conspicuous feature of the Jaina theory of soul is that it views earth, water, fire, air and plants as one particular type of living beings. Thus in the eyes of Jaina theoreticians a glass full of water is a colony of living beings of the