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Concept of Nikṣepa in Jaina Philosophy : 65 Canonical Nikșepa. In 'Introduction of the book he writes, 'The Nikṣepa plays an important part in the post canonical literature of Svetāmbara Jains and in later Digambara works. The post canonical niksepa is a dialectical technique - and as such it is not only employed but also explained. By contrast, the canonical nikṣepa (niksepa as found in Svetāmbara canons) is a pattern or a cluster of related patterns, and the very word niksepa does not occur. Niksepas are found in many dogmatical works of the Jaina canon, but the nikṣepa material (canonical niksepa) is mainly found in three works: Vyākhyāprajñapti, Jivābhigama and Prajñāpanā. They cover almost half of the entire Svetāmbara canons. These three treatises contain less exegetical matter than several other canonical works. In modern times, the Bhagavati, one of the most important works amongst the three, has been studies rather intensively. The Definition of canonical nik sepa is based on the occurrence of certain terms called as determinants. Two to five determinants are used by canonical niksepa, while post canonical may have more than five. The standard determinants of the canonical niksepa are
davva (dravya)', khetta (kşetra), kāla, and bhāva. These are the very basis on which the canonical structure is determined. The canonical niksepa has at least two determinants. Dr. Bhatta quotes two examples for the rough idea of nikṣepa:
(i) 'According to substance, the world has an end; according to space, the world has an end; according to time, the world has no end; according to non-physical nature, the world has no end.' (ii) 'The world exists according to substance, space, time, and nonphysical nature. According to space, it is subdivided into hell, world of human beings and heaven'
Here, substance, space, time, non-physical nature are the determinants.
