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DRAVYA, GUNA AND PARYAYA IN JAINA THOUGHT
Jayendra Soni
It is generally agreed that the introduction of the term guņa (quality) is relatively later than the terms dravya (substance) and paryāya (mode or modification) when philosophically discussing the state in which a dravya is in a particular moment of its existence.' Paryaya seems to have been used loosely and in a broad sense to include what later was distinguished as the guna of a thing. When and why exactly the term guna was specifically introduced is difficult to assess conclusively but there is no doubt that the term was clearly distinguished from paryaya at least by the time of Kundakunda and Umāsväti3 who specifically deal with all three terms in their works. One suggestion, however, is that this "seems to be a later innovation due to the influence which the philosophy and terminology of Nyaya-Vaiseṣika gradually gained over the scientific thoughts of the Hindus" and another that it "must have come about from the spontaneous perception of an obvious gap in the ontological picture of dravya'. The following observation is also noteworthy in this context :
* University of Marburg Germany.
Śramana, Vol. 57, No. 3-4 July-December 2006
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Gunas are a quite usual feature of the Vaiseṣika system; the notion of paryaya is peculiarly Jaina, though seen in its popular sense in later Nyāya works. In early Jaina works, like those of Kundakunda... the notion of gunas is very simple; guņas stand... for the essential differentia of a thing; but in many later works the doctrine has been much more elaborated, possibly after the manner of the Vaiseṣika system."
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