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syādvāda since it clearly points out that Reality can be looked at from many different standpoints, and that no standpoint can be claimed as the only valid one. It was on this ground that the Jainas accepted the truths in schools as different as the Cārvāka and Advaita while,at the same time, being critical of them and the others. The reason for the Jaina philosophers' accepting the truth contained in the divergent schools of thought was that from one particular standpoint what the rival schools said was right. The very same schools came to be criticised strongly by the Jainas for over-emphasizing a particular point of view, for rejecting, in effect, that there can be other points of view as well. In the doctrine of syādvāda we find the extension and application of the principle of naya to take a definite view of Reality, by means of seven propositions. That is why syādvāda is also referred to as saptabhangīnaya.
That in syādvāda there is a definite view of Reality is quite often not understood at all by the critics of Jainism. The significance of having seven propositions is also not properly appreciated. Since we find the prefix ‘may be' or 'perhaps' (syät) in every proposition, the critics point out that there is a kind of scepticism involved in the whole of the Jaina view of Reality. Since there are seven propositions, none of them being pointed out emphatically to be the only correct one, the critics point an accusing finger at Jainism and maintain that the Jaina philosophers themselves do not have any view of Reality.
But it is not realized that the Jaina has a definite view of Reality, viz., that no definite view of Reality can be really taken. This is found reflected in the seven-fold predication (saptabhanginaya). These seven propositions together are considered to give us an insight into the nature of Reality. Logically, a proposition stands for some idea or view, and when judgments are made about Reality and propositions formulated, they are believed to indicate aspects of Reality. The Jaina position that no definite view of Reality is possible signifies, therefore, that no one judgment can fully comprehend Reality and naturally that no one proposition is adequate to describe what is extremely complex and manifold (anekānta).
From what we have stated about the significance of syādvāda in general it is obvious that it complements the nayavāda. Whereas the emphasis in nayavāda is on an analytical approach to Reality, on
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