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162 : Śramaņa, Vol 57, No. 3-4/July-December 2006
point, because of the individual modification pervading it for the time being.
According to some modification or the other it is stated that a substance exists, does not exist, is indescribable, is both or otherwise.
The distinction between dravya and paryāya depends on the standpoint from which one approaches the question and although Kundakunda refers only to these two categories one has to keep in mind PrS II, 3 above where it is clearly stated that guņa too is inextricably associated with dravya. Guna is perhaps to be understood as an intermediary category which gives a substance the quality that enables it to become modified without the loose of substantiality. Thus, the perspective from which one approaches the subject is particularly important so as not to make Kundakunda's fine distinction found absurd or contradictory. In characterising a thing one has to grant that if it can change its form then its substantiality is not in any way diminished, since what it changes into is also described as being a substance essentially identical with the original substance. When one, on the other hand, considers a substance only from the standpoint of the modifications, it undergoes then there can be total difference between its different states, i.e., before and after the modification. The theory of perspectives, nayavāda, with its corollary syādvāda or saptabhangi-naya, is a highly developed theory in Jainism through which an absolutistic position is sought to be logically avoided. Kundakunda does not deal with this theory in detail here but he acknowledges its validity only by pointing out that a substance can be said to change or not, depending on the standpoint from which such statements are made.
The notion of guņa is described as a characteristic sign or mark (linga) of a dravya : "The characteristics by which the sentient and non-sentient substances are recognised are known as the special qualities called mūrta and amūrta, concrete and non
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