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BANERJEE : ANEKĀNTAVĀDA AND LANGUAGE
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concerned, it can be said that it is not very old. Though there are some glimpses here and there in the Jain canonical literature, the real development did not start from the 5th century A.D. when the Svetāmbara Jain canonical literature was codified finally. In the Bhagavatisūtra the process of anekāntavāda is hinted at in the form of syādvāda. The author of "Nayacakra" says
sarva-nayānāṁ jina-pravacanasyaiva nibandhanatvāt kim asya nibandhanam iti ced ucyate. nibandhanam cāsya. "āyā bhante nāņe aņņāne (=ātmā jñānam ajñānam) iti svāmī Gautama svāminä prsto vyäkaroti Godamā nāņe niyamă ato jñānas niyamād ātmani jñānasyānya-vyatirekeņa vsttadarśanāt "āyāpuņa siya nāne siya aņņāņe."
"All the sermons of the Jina is the source of nyāya (logic), then what is the necessity of this? The necessity of this doctrine rests on the knowledge and ignorance of Self is the answer when asked by Gautamasvāmi. So, Gautama, the rule is knowledge. This one is for both knowledge and ignorance.2" :
In the passage of the Bhagavatīsūtra mentioned above, there is a germ of syādvāda. The passage further says
Goyamă appaņo ādiţthe āyā, parassa ādiţthe no āyā tad ubhayassa ādiţthe avvattavvaṁ ātā ti ya ņo ātā ti ya
iti.
If you ask, Gautama, then soul is, in other sense, the soul does not exist; but if both are asked, it is inexpressible- soul can be explained in both ways.3
As far as we know this is the earliest reference to syödvāda, but in this conception there are only three propositions which can be rendered as asti (affirmation), nāsti (negation) and avaktavya (indescribability).“ 2. Dhruva, p. lxxvii. 3. Op. cit. 4. Op.cit.
