Sambodhi 2005 Vol 28

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, K M Patel
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 46

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RABINDRA KUMAR PANDA
SAMBODHI
know the jar by myself,” the jar is the object of knowledge, self or I is the knower, myself is the instrument, and knowing is the act of knowledge. Cognition and self are perceived and therefore they are objects of cognition. It is self-contradictory to hold that the self and its cognition are not objects of cognition, although they are manifested in our perception.
Vādidevasūri defines valid knowledge as a determinate cognition, which apprehends itself and an object. Ratnaprabhācārya, his commentator explains determinate cognition as that which determines an object in the form in which it really exists. Accordingly, absence of doubt and truth are recognized as the essential marks of valid knowledge, while newness is rejected. Thus memory is accepted as a form of valid knowledge.
7. Recognition
For the Jaina philosophers, recognition (pratyabhijñā) is a singular psychosis; it is not a kind of perception; it is a unique type of psychosis; it is neither presentative not representative, nor both but sui generis; it is a chemical compound, as it were, of presentation and representation, different from both. The Jainas hold that recognition is a new psychosis produced by perception and recollection, which apprehends the identity of an object in the past and the present, and it is an obvious fact of experience, which cannot be denied. Hence recognition is a valid cognition, since it is in harmony with the object apprehended by it, viz., the identity of its object in the past and the present. 8. The Concept of Samjñā
The Jaina epistemology postulates a novel concept called Saṁjñā. The mundane souls those who pass from birth to birth are divided into two categories20 viz. samanaskā, (those who possess an internal sense) and amanaskā (those are destitute of it). The former possesses samjñā i.e. the power of apprehension, talking, acting and receiving instruction; the latter are without this power. What kind of power is this? Is it a power of knowledge or something else ?
9. Conclusion
Thus the Jaina epistemology has its own framework, has it own originality, has its distinction and has its close relationship with other epistemologies of different philosophical schools. So we find some similarities with Hindu