Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

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

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Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
Jainism and Nyāya-Vaiseșika
While dealing with Jain atheism and Jain logic we have dealt with the relation between Jainism and Nyāya-Vaišeşika. We have seen that Jain atheism rests on the refutation of the Nyāya-Vaiseșika theism. In this field, the main target of Jain attack was the theistic standpoint of the Nyāya-Vaiseșikas. But so far as logic was concerned, Jainism drew heavily from the Nyāya-Vaiseșikas. Again, the Nyāya-Vaišeşika conception of atomism appears to have been influenced by the same conception developed among the early Jain thinkers. The Jain philosophical literature testifies to a gradually developing clarity in regard to the descriptions (vyākhyā), definitions (lakşaņa), and logical justification (upapatti) of the categories (padārtha) like 'organ of valid knowledge,' (pramāņa), 'object of valid knowledge' (prameya), etc., in accordance with the corresponding developments of such ideas in Nyāya-Vaiseșika literature. Later Jain logicians like Yaśovijaya have even employed the refined Navya Nyāya technique in their further analysis of the Jain descriptions and definitions.
In the Nyāya Vaiseșika Padārtha is defined as a knowable or valid and cognizable thing. Kaņāda mentions six Padārthas or broad categories under which everything known can be classified. These are (1) substance (dravya), (2) quality (guna), (3) activity (karma), (4) Universality (sāmānya), (5) ultimate particularity (višeşa) and (6) the relation of inherence (samavāya). Later Nyāya-Vaišeșikas, however, add a seventh, abhāva or non-existence.
Of these, the most important is substance (dravya). In Jainism, substances are classified into two broad groupsnon-extended (to which belong time) and extended (to which belong the categories of Jiva and Ajiva and their sub-groups). In the Nyāya-Vaišeșika substances are nine in number-earth (prthivi), water (ap), fire (tejas), air (vāyu), ākāśa, time (kāla), space (dik), self (ātman) and mind (manas). The first five are called bhūtas or substances having some special quality that can be perceived by one or other of the external senses. This correspond with the Jain conception of Pudgala. Dik and Ākāśa of the Nyāya-Vaiseșika correspond to the Akāśa or space of the Jains. Ākāśa of the Nyāya Vaibesika is a form of substance. The conception is also shared by the Jains who hold that substances are those that occupy or pervade, and space is that which is occupied and pervaded.' But while the Nyāya-Vaišeşikas hold that Ākāśa is partless,
1Gunaratna on SDSC, 49.