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Reals in Jainism
K. B. Jindal
One of the Sacred Books of the Jainas-the Dravya Sangrahadeals in its first part with six dravayas. The very first verse mentions that dravya consists of jiva and ajiva. From verse 15, the author (Nemichandra) proceeds to describe ajiva as consisting of pudgala, dharma, adharma, ākāśa and kāla. The five classes of ajiva with jiva make up the six dravyas, existing in the universe. Sri Sarat Chandra Ghoshal translated Dravya Sangraha in English in 1917, giving exhaustive commentaries on each verse. He translated the word “dravya" as "substance".
What Mr. Ghoshal chose to describe as "substances", Sri Harisatya Bhattacharya has chosen to describe as "reals". He has deliberately used the expression "real" to distinguish the cardinal principles of Jaina pholosophy and metaphysis, from its superficial ethics and ritual. To put it in the words of Sri Bhattacharya : "To many the Jainas appear to be a queer sort of people who are remarkable for their fastidious and ostentatious practice of non-violence About 25 years ago, I came to be acquainted with the fact of the existence of a vast Jaina literature, covering almost all the branches of human knowledge. For the first time, then, I came to know that the Jainas bad a theory of the universe, a philosophy of theirs. A little intoduction into the study of the Jaina philosophy convinced me that it has a glorious place in the systems of Indian philosophy. Later and a bit deeper study, has confirmed my view."
In the following pages. I shall proceed to deal with the six "reals” -motion and rest, space and time, matter and soul. In so dealing with the "reals'', I shall place the Jaina view point in juxta-position with the six known systems of Indian philosophy-Nyāya, Vaiseșika, Sānkhya, Yoga, Mimāńsā and Vedānta -and also with Buddhism. I
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