Jaina Ontology

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

Page 62

THE AGE OF ĀGAMAS
(22) one carama
- many acaramas - many avaktavyas
=
8
(23) many caramas
- one acarama - one avaktavya
(24) many caramas
- one acarama - many avaktavyas
(25) many caramas
- many acaramas - one avaktavya
=
5
(26) many caramas
many acaramas many avaktavyas
0101010
Thus there are 18 possible alternatives in all, and in many of them it is obvious why an atom is given one of the designations in question but in some of them (i, e, in the alternative 7th the practice adopted is merely conventional. Moreover, the above list along with diagrams shows what is the minimum number of atoms required to yield a particular alternative. So when we recall that a space-unit can contain any number of atoms it becomes obvious that the same number of atoms can be arranged in terms of more than one of the above alternatives. The simple rule of thumb in this connection is that a given number of atoms will yield all these alter. natives whose minimum requirement is that same number of atoms or less. For example, six atoms will yield the alternatives 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26. [ Incidentally it might be noted that here we come across features which look something like those that later og
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