Jaina Philosophy of Language

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 42

(16) : Jaina Philosophy of Language is regarded as eternal and on this basis language is also recognised as eternal. On the contrary, the Nyāya system regards the origin of words through efforts, and the world created and on this basis Naiyāyika regards language also as having beginning or God created. Whereas the Jainas even after considering the language in generic sense or the denotative power of the symbols as eternal, regard a particular language having beginning or non-eternal. Other doctrines of origin of language and Jainism
With regard to the origin of language, many theories are prevalent. The oldest one is the theory of divine origin according to which, the language is created by God. In the Indian Philosophies the Nyāya system regards language as created by God. In Christian and Islamic religions also God is said to be the creator of language. The Mimāṁsakas, however, because of recognising world as eternal, regard language also as eternal. Recognising word itself as Brahman, the Śabdādvaitavādins regard language as without beginning (anādi). However, their idea of language as without beginning is different from that of the Jainas. When the Jainas say that the language has no beginning they only mean that it is difficult to say, when did language come into existence? They did not regard language as God-created. According to the Jainas the language is not created by God, but by the world of living beings. It is substantially proved by the multiplicity of language prove itself that they are not created by God rather created by the living beings. The multiplicity of language is based on the multiplicity of living beings. It is really strange that Dr. Bholanath Tiwari has depicted the Jaina view of language as of Divine origin. The very argument, by which he proves this, is enough to refute his own argument. He writes 'the Jainas have really gone far ahead of even Sanskrit Pandits and the Buddhists as according to them, ardhamāgadhi is not the language of human beings only but it is fundamentally the language of all the living-beings. He adds 'when Mahāvīra teaches in this language, everybody, irrespective of divine class or the class of animals and birds, enjoy his teachings. Dr. Bholanath Tiwari's difficulty is in fact, because of not understanding the Jaina tradition properly. The Jainas never regarded ardhamāgadhi as fundamentally the language of all the living-beings. According to the Jaina philosophers all living beings have their own language, and they