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Rudiments of Anekantavāda in Early Pali Literature
Buddha can be treated as similar to the remaining four bhangas di Jainas. But this observation is not perfectly right, since the Jainas pondered over the problems more profoundly than the Buddhists. It would be more appropriate if we think of the first four propositions of the Buddhists similar to the first four propositions of the Jainas who considered the truth a little further. But there are differences between the Jaina and the Buddhist schemes. According to the Jaina scheme, all the seven propositions could be true from relative standpoints, while in the Buddhist scheme only one proposition could be true. The propositions are not considered logical alternatives in Jainism as considered in Buddhism.
It is more probable that the Buddha's catuskoți formula has been influenced by the four-fold formula of Sañjaya, although there are also traces of the influence of the seven-fold formula of the Jainas. Such formulas, it must be remembered, were commonly accepted at that time by teachers with different attitudes.
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It appears that the Pāli Canon considers anekāntavāda or syādvāda a combination of both ucchedavāda and sassatavāda. Buddhaghosa was of the opinion that Nigantha Nataputta presented his views in contradictory ways. 25 As a matter of fact, Buddhaghosa could not understand the real nature of syadvāda.
We know that Jaina philosophy considers problems neither by absolute eternalism nor by absolute nihilism, but by eternalism-cumnihilism. Apart from the confusion regarding sassatavāda and ucchedavāda, there are no explicit references to syadvāda in the Pāli Canon. The absence of direct references does not mean that the syadvāda conception was not a part and parcel of the doctrines of the Nataputta at that time. This conclusion is further strengthened by the fact that the Buddhist books appear to be aware of some characteristics of syādvāda, which might have belonged to the tradition of Pārsvanatha.
In the course of discussion, the Buddha says to Saccaka, who was a follower of the Parsvanätha tradition and converted later to the Nataputta's religion, that his former statement is not in keeping with
25. Majjhimanikaya Aṭṭhakatha, ii. 831; DA. iii. 906.
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