________________
Jaina Epistemology and Logic : Development and Doctrines
115
Vādidevasūri and Hemcandra are the logicians who advanced cogent arguments for the establishment of tarka as an independent pramāņa.
The main arguments are:1. The object which is cognized by tarka is not cognized by
any other pramāņa. Tark is knowledge of universal concomitance. No other pramāņa can do so, neither perception nor inference. The validity of inference depends on tarka, because it is the knowledge of necessary concomitance and without the knowledge of necessary concomitance inference cannot
arise. 3. It has a corresponding nature. 4. It is not conceivable that perception is competent to
discharge the entire series of operations that are involved in the knowledge that whatever is a case of smoke is invariably the product exclusively of fire in all places and times, and not of anything else. The reason that it is not discursive and owes its genesis to the inference exerted by a datum that is present. If inference is competent to know the necessary concomitance then it will result in infinite regress, because an inference will require another inference.
Thus the Jaina logicians have established tarka as an independent pramāņa by presenting cogent arguments. This shows their innovative thinking about the system of epistemology and logic. ”For references see Jain Dharm Chand (1995) pp. 322 to 330
