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PRABUDDH JEEVAN
OCTOBER 2015
ANEKANT, SYADVAD, NAYAVAD & SAPTABHANGI
ENLIGHTEN YOURSELF BY SELF STUDY OF JAINOLOGY
LESSON - 8 (1) O DR. KAMINI GOGRI
In the following article we will study about the eighth topic: Anekant, Syadvad, Nayvad and Saptabhangi.
The concept of Anekant occupies a central position in Jaina philosophy. Although it is not possible exactly to determine the date of its origin, there is no doubt that the ontology of early Jainism was deeply influenced by this principle, Originally an ethical mode of speech, being concerned with what one ought or ought not to speak, it assumend an ontological role in the Ardhamaghdi Agams, through three stages of development, viz. vibhajyavada (the method of answering a question by dividing the issues), nayavada (the method of defining the framework of reference), and syadvada (the prefixing of the particle syat, meaning in a certain reference', to a preposition, indicative of its conditional character). The anuyogadvaras (doors of disquisition) also played a vital role in this matter. This ontological orientation was further strengthened by Umasvati, Siddhasena Divakara and Mallavadin, and the concept was converted into a fullgrown dialectic by Samantabhadra with whom the classical period of the doctrine begins. The ontological concept now acquires a logic-in-epistemological character, and Jain philosophy is now indentified with anekantavada (the doctrine of non-absolutism) or syadvada (the doctrine of conditional statement) or saptabhangi (the doctrine of sevenfold predication). Anekanta as the negation of an absolutistic position or the rejection of a biased or truncated view of things is found in the Buddhist, Yoga and Nyaya schools as well in various contexts. A dispassionate assessment of the worth of a phiolosophy from various contexts. A dispassinate assessment of the worth of a philosophy from various viewpoints was the objective that the propounders of anekanta set before themselves. And their efforts in that respect were laudable in that they succeeded in preserving some of the most valuable non-Jaina docterines as well as texts, selected by them for critical comments, which were otherwise ravished from the world by the cruel hands
world by the cruel nanas of destiny.
The Origin
Jainism primarily is an ethical discipline, and as such all its tenets had a beginnig in someone or other of the moral principle upheld by it. Thus the assertion or denial, affirmation or negation of a philosophical belief was to be carefully made in consonance with the rules prescribed for the right way of speaking in order to avoid false statements or unwarranted speculations having no bearing on the spiritual path of salvation. The metaphysical speculations about the beginning and end of the cosmos, or its eternality and non-eternality or the existence and non-existence of the soul before and after death, and such other issues that exercised the minds of the thinkers of those days were not considered worth while equally by Mahavira and Buddha. The latter's repuanance to such problems is attested by the ten avyakrtas (indeterminables)mentioned in the Majjhima Nikaya (II pp, 107ft, 176 ft) and the former's in the Acaranga (1.8, 1.5) and Sutrakrutanga (11.5, 1-5) where such speculations are considered as impractical and leading to laxity in moral conduct. While this basic attitude of the Buddha remained unmodified throughout his teaching, Mahavira appreas to have allowed a relaxation in conformity with his realistic outlook in the interest of a dispassionate estimation of the worth of those spectulation and the discovery of the cause of their origin. Consequently whereas the followers of the Buddha were interested more in the repudiation of the current antipodal doctrines than in their proper appreciation, the followers of Mahavira devoted theirs energies to a proper evaluation of these concepts with a view to finding out a soultion of those contradictory views. This led to the origin of the Madhyama pratipat (the middle path which eschewed both the antithetical alternatives) of the Buddhists on the one hand, and the philosophy of anekanta (non-absolutism which attempted at synthesising those alternatives into a comprehensive notion) of the Jainas on the other. The Three Stages :
Three distinct stages of development of the doctrine
