Jaina Ontology

SR No.: 001565
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1971
Total Pages: 222
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Canon, & Agam
File Size: 15 MB

Page 106

THE AGE OF LOGIC
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of nayas from the later texts - and has even taken due note of the Āgamic treatment of the same -- will find it difficult to see the logic of Mallavādi's performance, at least to see it with desired clarity. Even more bewildering is Mallavādi's assignment of the above 17 doctrines to 12 categories which seem to be his own creation — at least we know of no earlier or later author who employed them. The seventeen doctrines in question arranged in a serial order are given above; the twelve categories in question similarly arranged are given below : 1 vidhih
- affirmation 2 vidhervidhih
affirmation of affirmation 3 vidhervidhiniyamam
affirmation-cum-limitation of affirmation 4 vidherniyamah
limitation of affirmation 5 vidhiniyamam
affirmation-cum-limitation 6 vidhini yamasya vidhih
affirmation of affirmation-cum-limitation 7 vidhiniyamasya vidhiniyamam
- affirmation-cum-limitation of affirma.
tion-cum-limitation 8 vidhiniyamasya niyamah - limitation of affirmation-cum-limitation 9 niyamah
- limitation 10 niyamasya vidhiḥ
- affirmation of limitation 11 niyamasya vidhiniyamam
- affirmation-cum limitation of limitation 12 niyamasya niyamah - limitation of limitation
In this connection again Mallavādi does not argue why a particular doctrine is to be assigned to this or that category; but here an additional difficulty is that unlike the seven nayas these categories are found described nowhere else.
These defects of Mallavādi's text are certainly formidable and they must have been at least partly responsible for the neglect it suffered at the hands of subsequent generations. (No later author ever quoted a specific view of Mallavādi developed in Nayacakra and the text itselt is now to be restored from Simhasūri's commentary on it). But the text deserves serious study for it is the earliest available specimen of a Jaina's thorough acqaintance with the contemporary systems of Indian philosophy, a feature absent not only in the Agamic text including Tattvārthasūtra but even in Sanmati.
Jinabhadra's Visesavašyakabhāsya is another important early text belonging to the age of Logic. Written in the form of a commentary on Āvasyakaniryukti the text does not much concern itself with the views of the rival systems of philosophy; in this sense it rather breathes the atmosphere of the age of Āgamas. However, the text is not wholly devoid of occasional references to Buddhists and Vaišeşikas and in one particular section viz. Ganadha. ravāda so many rival philosophical views e. g. ekātmavāda, bhūtacaitanya