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Śramaņa, Vol 58, No. 2-3/April-September 2007
Kevala-jñāna (omniscience). However, these canons, except some stray remarks, lack systematic account of the concept. Umāsvāti, in his Tattvārtha-sūtra defines omniscience as the simultaneous knowledge of all substances with all their modes. Kundakunda's Pravacanasāra”?, Pañcāstikāyasāra"), Samayasāra?“, Niyamasāra", Astapāhudah etc. refer to this conception of omniscience of which Pravacanasāra takes special notes. While describing the attainment of omniscience Jaina canons maintain that “ total destruction of the Mohanīya-karmas (deluding-karmas) is followed by a short interval lasting for less than a muhurta (fortyeight minutes) after which the karmas veiling jñāna and darśana as also the antarāya (obstructive) karmas are destroyed. And then the soul shines in its full splendor and attains omniscience", which intuits all substances with all their modes. Nothing remains unknown in omniscience.
The philosophical approach of the problem of omniscience begins with Samantabhadra. In his work Aptamīmāmsā” and Svayambhū-stotra he has discussed this concept at length. In Āptamīmāṁsā, he introduces inferential reasoning in support of omniscience. Siddhasena Divākara also discusses the problem of Kevala-darśana and Kevala-jñāna in his important work Sanmati Tarka. Similarly, Pūjyapāda Devanandī in his Samādhi-tantra and Sarvārthasiddhi, Devavācaka in his Nandisutra, Jinabhadragaņi Kşamāśramana in his famous work Viseșāvaśyaka-bhāşya*' and Visesanavati, Haribhadra Sūri in his $addarśana-samuccaya"?, Yogadrstisamuccaya", Yogabindu etc. have discussed and referred many problems concerning omniscience. Pätrakeśarī in his Brhatpañcanamaskāra-stotra 44, Bhatta Akalanka in his Rājavārtika,45 Siddhi-viniscayao, Laghiyastraya*, Nyāya-viniscaya and Pramānasamgraha; Vidyānanda in his Apta-parīksā, Astasahaśtr14 and Tattvārtha-ślokavārtika“ has discussed this concept in detail. Prabhācandra's Nyāyakumudacandra, Prameya-kamala-mārtanda and Anantavīrya's Prameya-ratnamālāgive separate treatment to the problem of omniscience. Abhayadeva Sūri in his monumental commentary on Sanmati-tarka-prakarana has discussed this problem
