Nirgrantha-2

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 73

56
N. M. Kansara
Nirgrantha
the final determination on the basis of the pramanas, nayas and tattvas. A debate (vāda) consists in the system of argumentative statements, pro-et-contra, for establishing the subject matter of one proposition, which is maintained by a party, by refuting the subject matter of the other, the two subject matters being opposed to each other. In the debate, the party who begins i.e. either one-who-wants-a-victory (iigisu) or one-who-wants-to- determine-a-truth (tattva-nirninisu). A seeker-of-victory (figisu) is one who wants to defeat another by advancing arguments of proof and refutation in order to establish his own contention. A seeker of-truth (tattva-nirņinişu) is one who wants to establish truth in those ways. That is of two classes, namely 'In himself and 'In others'. The disputant and the opponent are like two wrestlers, the first begins and the other answers. What each of them is to do is to establish his own position and to refute that of the other in accordance with the pramānas. The members are such as are approved by both the disputant and the opponent and are well aware of the nature of the positions of the disputant and the opponent, have the power of retention, are erudite, intellectually brilliant, forgiving, and strictly impartial. Their businesses are to make the debating parties accept the usual prescribed forms in regard to the points at issue, to determine their right to the priority or the posteriority of speech, to find out the merits and the demerits of the supporting and the contradicting arguments, to stop where necessary the debate by revealing the truth and to declare truly the result of the debate before the assembly. Where both the debaters are desirous of determining the truth, the debaters are to argue, so long as the truth is not determined and so long as argument is possible. Or, in the case of the lack of determination, parties may talk as many times as they can. Then follow the three concluding verses. Out of the 23 sūtras of the eighth pariccheda of the PNT, śubhavijaya Gani has adopted verbatim the first five, 16th to 19th and the last two ones in his ninth pariccheda of the SVB; the order of the last two sūtras being reversed as the 11th and 12th. And, in the colophon only has he mentioned the alternative title of his work as the 'Pramana-naya-tattva-prakāśika'. We, thus, find that śubhavijaya Gani has chosen to provide a well-knit monograph of Jaina philosophy and Jaina logic by amalgamating the best of both the PNT of Vādi Devasūri and the SDS of Haribhadrasūri, both of them being the Svetāmbara luminaries. He has succeeded, with a high degree of authenticity, in presenting a succinct account of all the three aspects-pramāņa, naya, and tattva-of Jainism, and has in this manner fully corroborated his claim of enlightening the beginners as regards these three aspects.