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22
Jaina view of Life
with Saptabhaogi.*However, this is just a scholastic problem and is needless from the philosophical point of view.98 Syādvāda is that conditional method in which the modes, or predications (bhangāh) affirm (vidhi), negate (nişedha) or both affirm and negate severally and jointly in seven different ways a certain attribute (bhava) of a thing (vastu) without incompatibility (avirodhena) in a certain context (praśnavaśāt)." Reality is complex and its nature cannot be expressed in an unconditioned position. Absolute affirmation and absolute negation are both erroneous.36 And the 'syat' would mean 'in a certain sense' or from a certain point of view'. 2. In this sense Syādvāda warns us against building a dogmatic structure of reality in a single concept or judgement. That would be logical dogmatism (nirapekşavāda) as against the sāpekşavāda expressed in Syädvāda.
It is difficult to decide which is the earlier of the two. Nayaväda seems to be earlier, because Umāsvāti in his Tatvārtha-sūtra describes the kinds of Nayas, but makes no mention of the Syādvāda and the sevenfold propositions. Yet it is possible that it existed long before him. Buddhist Suttas mention the doctrine in an erroneous way as the doctrine not of the Nigganthas but of some recluse and Brahmins. In the earlier literature of the Jaina canon there are only a few passages in which there is a reference to Syādvāda. They occur in the Bhagavati-sūtra, in which it is expressed in the form of three propositions. Among the other early references, Bhadrabāhu's Sūtrakstānga-Niryukti is prominent. The developed form of the doctrine in the form of the seven-fold
22. Nyāyakumudacandra : (Bom. 1935), No. 655, syadasıi yâdi sapta
bhanga-mayo vadari. 23, Padmarajiah (Y.J.): Jaina Theories of Reality and Knowledge, p. 315. 24. Syâdva damañjari (ed. Dhruva) 1933, p. 142-43. 25. Hiriyanna (M): Outlines of Indian Philosophy (Allen Unwin) 1931,
p. 163. 26. Padmarajiah (Y.J.): Jaina Theories of Reality and Knowledge,
p. 338,
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