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JAINA CONCEPTION OF SPACE AND TIME
Nagin J. Shah
Setion I
SPACE
1. Introductory
Regarding primary material elements (mahabhūtas), there were two old views. One view recognized five mahabhutas and the other recognized four mahabhūtas.
The five mahabhutas recognized by the first view were akāśa, vayu, tejas, ap and pṛthot. They possessed the five special qualities akāśa sabda, vayu sparsa, tejas rupa, ap rasa and pṛthvi gandha. Those who followed this view counted ākāśa as a mahābhūta with a special quality sabda. The Sankhya-Yoga, the Nyaya-Vaiseṣika and the Prabhakara Mimämsä accepted this view.
The old form of this view of five mahabhutas was that the external material world, as also the human body, is composed of the five mahabhūtas. The Sankhya adopted this old form of the view. That is, according to the Sankhya the five mahabhūtas are the material causes of all the material effect-substances (bhautika karya-dravyas). So, for the Sankhya, akāśa, along with other four mahabhūtas, is the material cause of material effect substances. The Vaiseṣika differs from the Sankhya. The Vaiseṣika maintains that only four mahābhūtas viz. vāyu, tejas, ap and pṛthot are the material causes of material effect-substances. Akasa is not a material cause of any material effect-substance. It is simply the substratum (dravya) of the quality sabda. This view of the Vaiseṣika somewhat undermined the status of akasa as a mahabhūta. The Bhatta Mimamsa gave the status of independent substance to sabda, thus putting at stake further the existence of akasa as a mahabhuta.
The four mahabhutas recognized by that other old view were vayu, tejas, ap and prthvi. Those who followed this view maintained either that akasa is a form of matter, produced from the four mahabhutas or that akaŝa is non-material non-spiritual substance. The Theravadi Buddhists accepted the first alternative. For them akaśa is samskṛta, it is produced from the four mahābhūtas, thus it is a derived matter (upādāya rūpa)1. But the Vaibhāṣika
1 Introduction to Abhidharmadipa, p. 90
