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114
The Samkhya-Yoga and the Jain Theories of Parinama
technical word. Another consideration which weighs with us is, that the word Paryaya, as seen above, has a wider connotation, including all the possible aspects due to Pariņāma and others, independent of it. I am, therefore, inclined to suggest that the earlier Jain thinkers viewed the problem of reality from the Paryaya point of view. They saw that the different phenomena of the world (paryayas) show certain persistent elements. They classified these persistent elements into five or six categories which are their five or six Dravyas. They, thus, viewed reality as consisting of Dravya and Paryaya and when they developed their dialectic for discussing metaphysical problems, they did it, accordingly in the form of Dravyarthika-Naya and Paryāyārthika-Naya. It may be noted that we do not meet with such a usage as Pariņāmārthika-Naya, which clearly proves that Paryaya was traditional with them.
However, in the general philosophical discussions of their contemporaries, there was another word almost a synonym of Paryaya, viz., Pariņāma. This word, however, had an important connotation. It referred to an activity which brings forth various states. Philosophically it was necessary for the Jain to have a concept which would explain why the Dravyas tcok on different Paryāyas. Pariņāma could explain it, and so the term which could be a synonym of Paryaya and which at the same time, had the further advantage of explaining how the Paryāyas form themselves, was brought into service and made a current coin by the Jain thinkers. Nevertheless, the stuck to their original word Paryaya, and allowed it to have a wider connotation of aspects, which could not be brought under the Pariņāma-activity. That shows the strength of the traditional usage.
That the word Pariņāma was more or less used to suggest activity or functioning, in addition to being a synonym of Paryaya, is not only brought out f.om the passages referred to above but also by the use of such verbal forms of pari + nam (qft + 7)+ wherever
4
44 Bh.Su. 14. 4. 510-511. 12. 5. 452.
