________________
20: Śramaņa, Vol 62, No. 1 January-March 2011
opposites." (Pañcāstikāyasara-8) The coordinated relationship of permanence and impermanence is implicit in the grammatical structure of the gatha. The word compound that introduces elements of reality (bhangotpadadhrauvyātmikā) does not subordinate either concept. "That which, whilst it does not forsake its innate nature, is connected with origination, annihilation and stability and which possesses qualities and modifications, they call a substance." (Pravacanasara- II.2)
Kundakunda insisted that identity cannot be the only real and developed many arguments against this presumption. This began with the basic knowledge of experiential reality which consistently disproves any dominating ontological interpretation. The above mentioned gāthās introduce reality as many-sided and suggest anekāntavāda, the philosophy of manifold aspects, as an ontological stand in the light of which difference is never subordinated to identity. Reality is one and many. Therefore, substances or dravyas incorporate identity as well as difference. The word dravya stems from the root dru, meaning "to flow" and the very etymology of the noun implies the existential persistence in the context of perpetual change, just as water persists in the river flow. The dhrauvya element of a substance is the element of identity, generality, permanence, persistence, continuous existence (sthiti). Dravyas are furthermore identified as having intrinsic/ essential qualities or attributes (guna) and extrinsic/accidental qualities or modes (paryaya or bhāva), the difference being that intrinsic qualities (guņas) are constant and co-exist with the substances whereas extrinsic qualities, (paryayas) are temporal in character and are constantly changing in a momentary succession. Therefore, in a dravya persistence is always accompanied by origination (utpāda) and disappearance/destruction (vyaya or bhanga) and these two happen in the extrinsic attributes or modes. "Whatever has substantiality, has the dialectical triad of birth, death and permanence, and is the substratum of qualities and modes is Dravya." (Pañcāstikāyasāra-10)
