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( 200 )
century B. C. or in the beginning of the Christian described to the Saptabhangi, himself in the Pañcastikayasara. He says that "Dravya can be described by the seven-fold predication: (1) siya atthi or syādasti, (ii) siya nathi, or syannāsti, (iii) siya uhayam or syadastinasti, (iv) siya-avvattavva or syaduvaktavya (v) siya atthi-avvatavya or syädastyavaktavya, (vi) siya natthi avvattavva or [syännästyavaktvya, and (vii) siya atthi natthi avvattavva or Syadstinastyavaktavya :
Siya atthi natthi uhayam avvattavvam puno ya tattidayath. Davvam khu satta bhangam adesavasena sambhavadi,104
This means that the Sy advada and its predications were well known at the time of the Buddha, and upto the time of Kundakunda they were developed still further. This Buddhe and Syādvāda
era,
During the Buddha's time there were certain philosophical points which became the subjects of violent debate. Having realised the futility of such debates the Buddha became an analyist, like the Jainas.105 In the Dighanikaya the Buddha is reported to have said that he had taught and laid down his doctrines with categorical (ekan sika) and non-categorical (anekamsikā) assertions. 108 The theory of Four-Noble-Truths is an example of the former, and the theory of Avyakatas is
of the latter.
Here the term ekamsiku and anekamsika are very similar to ekantavada and anekantavada. The former is concerned with the non-Jaina philosophies and the latter with the Jaina philosophy. The difference between the Buddha's and Nigantha Natputta's standpoints is that according to the former's conception the non-categorical assertions are not true or false, from some standpoint or another, unless we analyse them; while the latter upholds the view that all the statements are relatively (syat) correct, i, e. they contain some aspect of the truth. The theory of Avyakata does not consist of any such quality.
The Buddha adopted the four-fold scheme to answer the logical questions of that time as outlined below:
