Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): J L Jaini, F W Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Page 70

OUTLINES OF JAINISM
Here the meaning of the terms dharma and adharmu in Jaina philosophy is quite misconceived. The popular and modern connotation of the terms is certainly most misleading. These facts are significant. Why should the Jainas adopt such misleading terms for their peculiar doctrines? If the term dharma had been fixed as signifying even law or merit when the Jaina doctrine arose, it is impossible to see why Jainism should adopt it as meaning the principle of motion. A better suggestion is that dharma, in its technical Jaina sense, must have been used before the meaning of it as law and merit was fixed. This is another indication of both the great antiquity and genuineness of the Jaina system, and must be added to Professor Jacobi's classical lines of evidence set forth in the Introduction.
To come to the usage of the two terms, an ancient text says: “dharma is devoid of taste, colour, smell, sound, and touch, is conterminous with loka (the universe), is unbreakable or indivisible, is all-pervading by its nature, and has innumerable prudeśas (or units of space)” (12)
It is well to remember that astikāya, = magnitude, does not mean material something. There are five ustikayas-matter, time, space, dharma, and wharm. And of these only one, pudgalu, is matter, i.e. capable of touch, taste, smell, and colour (25). All the other astikāyas are devoid of these four distinguishing attributes of matter. The five astikāyus, or along with jīva (soul) the six travyas, all exist eternally. They cannot be destroyed; they were never created. They are