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CHAPTER 4
RELATIVITY AND ABSOLUTISM
V.M. Kulkarni
The anekāntavāda of the Jains is compared with the Western Theory of Relativity. And the two philosophical terms anekāntavāda and ekāntavāda are translated as "The Theory of Relativity' and 'The Theory of Absolutism' respectively. Anekāntavāda is sometimes called syādvāda. Mallişeņa, the author of Syādvādamañjar, for example asserts:
Syādityavyayam anekānta-dyotakam/ Tataḥ syādvādo 'nekāntavādaḥ| Nityānityādyaneka-dharma-sabalaika
vastvabhyupagama iti yāvat/ It means: “The particle 'syāt signifies manifoldness. Therefore syādvādais anekāntavāda, the doctrine of manifoldness. And that means the acceptance of the view that a single entity is variegated by many and various attributes or properties (dharma) viz., eternal, non-eternal, etc." In other words, reality is manifold and each entity has a manifold nature-consists of diverse forms and modes of innumerable aspects.
Jacobi translates anekāntavāda as 'the theory of indefiniteness of Being'. F.W. Thomas renders “anekānta” as 'non-unequivocality'. But
1. Mallisena: Syādvādamañjari, edited by A. B. Dhruva, Bombay, 1933. 2. Jacobi, H., Studies in Jainism (Part I), Gurjar Grantharatna Karyalaya, Gandhi
Road, Ahmedabad, 1946 A.D., p.52. 3. Thomas E.W. The Flowerspray of the Quodommodo Doctrine, Berlin: Akademia
Verlag, 1960.
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