Studies In Umasvati And His Tattvartha Sutra

Author(s): G C Tripathi, Ashokkumar Singh
Publisher: Bhogilal Laherchand Institute of Indology

Page 128

118 Studies in Umāsväti
Umāsvāti discusses the subject of ominscience in two portions of the Tattvārthasūtra: in the first chapter and in the chapters ninth and tenth. His way of dealing with the topic in these chapters is quite different. In the first chapter omniscience makes a part of epistemology; while in the remaining portion it can be categorized into the problem of karma. Thus to consider omniscience in the Tattvārthasūtra, these two aspects must be distinguished: an epistemological and a karmic.
First, let us begin with the epistemological treatment of the omniscience in the first chapter of the Tattvārthasūtra. In the ninth sutra of the first chapter omniscience is classified as one of the five kinds of knowledge along with perception, scripture, clairvoyance and telepathy.1 These five kinds of knowledge are again divided into two groups: indirect and direct. The omniscience is said to be direct knowledge.2 Here it must be noted that the author uses two words to denote the knowledge; jñāna and pramāṇa. The former usually means knowledge in general or the contents of knowledge while the latter is generally used in the sense of the method of knowing. However, the author employs these words without giving any definitions. This means that Umāsvāti does not have much interest in epistemology.
This classification of pramāņa into the two subdivisions is very common in the Jaina epistemology. In agama, for example, the reader comes across this classification in the Sthānāngasūtra.3 Later philosophers such as Akalanka also follow this method of classification. But so far as the classification of five kinds of jñāna is concerned, the situation is not the same. In āgamas this type of classification is very popular while in later periods the way of classification does not concern the five kinds of knowledge.5
The object of knowledge is explained by Umāsvāti to some extent. So far as omniscience is concerned, the objects of omniscience are all substances and modes." This statement about omniscience goes with the original and basic meaning of the word: the knowledge which has all things in the past,