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'Antarvyāpti’ Interpreted in Jainism
Atsushi Uno
The term "antarvyāpti” used in the syllogism of Jaina logic is, together with the opposite term "bahirvyāpti", found in the Jaina and the Buddhist texts alone. Among scholars, there is a great divergence of opinions on the first user of the term. To the best of my understanding, the Nyāyāvatāra of Siddhasen. Divākara (the 8th century)* was the first to use the term. The Nyāyāvatāra (abbr. Nya), a short manual of Jaina logic cast in 32 verses, mentions the antarvyāpti immediately after two verses treating two kinds of drstāntas.
antarvyāptyaiva sādhyasya siddher bahir-udāhstih
vyarthā syāt tad-asadbhāve'py evam nyāya-vido viduh ||20||
[Running rendering] When the establishment of probandum (sādhya) is secured exclusively by internal variable concomitance (antarvyāpti), the citation of external example (bahir-udāhrti) will be useless. And such will also be the case even when internal concomitance is absent (or unknown). Thus say those who are conversant with logic.
The NyA has a sole commentary Vivrti by Siddharsi (c. A. D. 906) and it has a sub-commentary Tippana by Devabhadra (the latter half of the 12th century) scarcely referring to the verse under consideration. Among the subsequent Jaina works which developed the theory of antarvyāpti on the basis of the NyA and the Vivrti are : the Pramānanayatattvāloka (abbr. PNT) by Devasūri (1080-1169), its auto-commentary the Syādvādaratnākara (abbr. SyR), its abridged commentary the Ratnākarāvatārikā (abbr. RaA;
* Siddhasena Divākara, as recent researches show, was not the author of the Nyāyāvatāra but of Nayavatāra. He was either Siddharsi alias Siddhasena (late 9th - early 10th cent.) or may be some other pre-medieval Siddhasena. - Editors.
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