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CHAPTER 3
A STUDY OF SYĀDVĀDA (With special reference to Syādvādamañjar7)
Atsushi Uno
The theory of syādvāda (literally 'the doctrine of somehow') is generally understood as synonymous with anekānta-vāda meaning nonabsolutism, or rather, positive relativity. Syādvāda is a fundamental principle underlying the Jaina philosophy and sometimes denotes nothing but the whole scope of Jaina philosophy. Though its original idea might be traced back to Mahāvīra and indeed there occur very often, in the Jaina Agama texts, polemical expressions qualified with the term “siyā', yet these expressions are not made up of seven formulae (sapta-bhanga) as are elucidated in later Jaina works. It is very likely that a set of seven formulae called saptabhangi is of later invention, and its formal and substantive systematization has been brought about in gradual course of time.
However, the great concern here centres about what position the syādvādadoes occupyin the field of Jaina logic, that has been traditionally understood to consist of pramana and naya. On this point as well as on the definition of syādvāda, there is considerable divergence of opinion, and no such a uniform interpretation is available as is admitted unanimously by all the Jaina works. Shortly speaking, the notion of syādvāda comprises various significant problems in that it is intelligible only on the basis of multiformity. It is probably by Vādideva Sūri in the eleventh century that syāduāda was given a certain distinct position as a subject matter of Jaina epistemology and logic.
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