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Chapter - 12
PROPERTIES OF MATTER IN JAINA CANONS
Introduction
Jaina philosophy is noted for its principles of polyviewism to explain the plurality of realities in contrast to Vedantins. Scholars have taken large pains to establish the priority or posterity of these Indian philosophies but no definiteness has accrued on this point as yet as large number and variety of statements are found in preChristian era literature supporting both types of opinions. Nevertheless, a logical point may be stated that Advaita (Nondualism) grew out of plurality to explain and sustain some phenomena on intellectual scale. It is now agreed that Uttarādhyayana precedes the Vaiseșika philosophy, which is followed by other Jaina philosophical canons just at the beginning of Christian era. This paper is concerned with some of the physical contents developed during the period and later on. It will deal only with three important aspects of these contents, viz. (i) methods of obtaining knowledge (ii) definition of and (iii) attributes of matter and evaluation with respect to the current views on them. The author feels that no proper and systematic attempt has been made in this direction and would feel pleasure if this paper leads to some serious studies in this regard to critically evaluate and supplement the points raised in this article. Methods of Obtaining Knowledge
There are two words "Jāņadi' and 'Passadi" in Jaina literature associated with knowledge. Tatia? has shown that there was not much difference in these two activities in early days as they were supposed to be simultaneous. Later on, it was surmised that sensory perception preceded the mental conception. Thus, 'Passadi' became the more important part of obtaining knowledge of material world. Umāsvāti ?
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