Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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A Comparative Study 175
Jains posit the existence of external objects and treat cognition as a generated phenomenon. So far as the question of Pramāņa, meaning both valid cognition and the instrument of valid cognition, is concerned, the Buddhist logicians introduced the idea of self-cognition or self-revelatoriness, which had influenced the earlier Jain logicians like Siddhasena and Samantabhadra. As to the problem whether the validity or invalidity of a piece of cognition is intrinsic or extrinsic, the Buddhist viewpoint, as upheld by Sāntarakṣita, is that both the validity and the invalidity of a piece of cognition can well be intrinsic in one case and extrinsic in another. Thus in the case of repeated acquaintance (abhyāsa-daśā) the validity as well as invalidity of a piece of cognition ought to be treated as intrinsic while in the case of first acquaintance (anabhyāsa-daśā) they both ought to be treated as extrinsic. The Jain position also exactly tallies with the Buddhist case as presented by Santarakṣita. As to the nature of the effects of a pramāna, the Buddhist tradition holds two views :(i) that it consists in cognition of an object and (ii) that it consists in self-cognition. According to the Jain tradition, the immediate effect of pramāņa is the removal of ignorance, but the remote effect can possibly be the decision to accept or reject or ignore the object. The Jains consider memory (smrti) to be a pramāna and class it under non-perceptual knowledge, but the Buddhists do not contribute to this idea.
We shall conclude this section with a brief note on Buddhist atomism, the conception of which is basically different from that Jains. It is only in the Sarvāstivāda school of Buddhism that we come across the doctrine of atomism. According to the Jains the are eternal, but the atoms of Buddhism are not so, because B dogmatically asserts the impermanence of all things. According to the Buddhists. the atoms have only a functional role which may be compared with a focus of energy. The atoms of the four elements, and also their molecules, are related to the five senses. The four elements have distinctive attributes and functions, e.g. solidity and supporting in the case of earth, moisture and cohesion in that of water, heat and ripening in that of fire, motion and expansion in that of air.3 The atoms constitute molecules which must include at least one atom of all four elements, and acquire their characteristics according
1PSM, I, 10; PMV, II, 1; Stcherbatsky, BL, I, p. 12. * Keith, BP, p. 161. *McGovern, MBP, 1, p. 115.