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A NOTE ON THE JAINA CONCEPTION OF SUBSTANCE
Bimal Krishna Maulal The Late Professor A N. Upadhye was an excellent scholar of Jainism and Prakrit studies. His contribution in this feld was as varled as it was remarkable One of his major works was the erudito edition of Kundakunda's Prayacanasara (in 1935) which contained an elaborate Introduction in English, and the Prakrit verses of Kundakunda followed by the Sanskrit chaya as well as the Sanskrit commentary of Amrtacandra Sari, Ita second edition was published in 1964 in the Rājacandra Jajna śāsatramala. In the Introduction, Dr Upadhye discussed several important philosophic lagues of Janism, such as the Jaina conception of Substance and Attribute, distinction between guna and prayāya In order to pay my personal tribute to the memory of Prof Upadhye (whom I knew personally, and who offered to teachine Prakrit, a generous offer which, alas, I was unable to accept because of my other preoccupations), I wish to select my material from bis Kundakunda studies, the notion of substance, a topic to which he himself gave some thought
In the history of Jaina philosophical literature, two teachers (acāryas) were pioneers in composing short treatiscs in the sūtra fashion. Thoy were Kundakunda and Umasvatı (or Umāsvāmin). The former composed for the first time several authoritative (philosophical) works in Prakrit while the latter wrote the first authoritative Sanskrit treatise in Jalda philosophy. It is not known to as whether Kundakunda composed any work in Sadskrit, nor 18 it known whether Umasvati ever worte 10 Prakrit. But both authors depended heavily on the Jaina scriptures and supported the scriptural tradition with philosophic argumenta These two authors belonged to a period that covers the firat two or three conturies of the Christian era. About 200 to 400 years later, there appeared two other important Jaina teachers, Siddhasena Divakara and Samantabhadra, who closely followed Kundakunda and Umāsvāti, and who were rosponsible for the development and expansion of the Jaina philosophical method In this paper I shall concentrate on the substance-attribute controversy found in the writings of these four philosophers.
The Jaina conception of existence (sat) 19 Intimately related to the Jaina conception of substance. In fact, the concepts of substance and attribute
1 I shall by-pass here the controversy over the authorship of the Tattyarthasitra as well as the sectarian dispute over the names "Umkisyat," and "Umilgymin."
Sambodhi 5.2-3
