Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 598

Sec. 1]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA
573
one school of teachers did not admit it as a separate entity but regarded it as mode (paryāya) of the other substances. Thus it appears that the tradition to accept time as a separate entity is not old, and for this reason there is some difference between the Svetāmbara and the Digambara schools on the point of the nature of time."
The term 'addha' denotes distance (or length) of time as well as that of space, while 'samaya' signifies point of time (moment). Kāla (time) is the substantial cause of samaya."
The Dravya-Sarngrahas explains that it does not form an organic extension (kāya), though it has got existence like the heaps of jewels (ratnarāsīva) in each point of space of the Universe, for every space-point contains time-unit in it.
In the Bhis time is called kāla-paramāņu which is colourless, smell-less, tasteless and touchless. This theory reveals the atomic growth of time that one substance (atom) moves in time and space, for the passive element of space is samaya which is the continuum of kāla. The unit of a samaya is the time taken by an atom to traverse one unit of space by slow movement.
. It is explained also in the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra that the movement or continuity (or rolling) is the mark of time, "Varttanā. lakṣaṇaḥ kālah." While the Tattvārtha Sūtra of Umāsvāti defines that time as an agency helps the continuity, modification, movement, newness and oldness of substances and the action of transformation of new qualities in things. “Varttanā-pariņāma kriyāḥ paratvāparatve ca kālasya.”
The BhS mentions two kinds of time, viz. addhākāla and pramānakāla, the first one is associated with Nature and is evolved by the travelling of the moon and the sun, while the second is the standardized time (i.e. samaya, āvalikā muhārtas, day, night, fortnight, month, year, yuga, palya, sāgara, utsarpiņā, parāvartta).
1 Karmagrantha, p. 158. 3 Dravya-Sangraha, 22. • Uttaradhyayana Sūtra, 28, 10.
Bhs, (Comm.), 2, 10, 121. 4 Bhs, 20, 5, 671.
Tattvārtha Sūtra, 5, 22.