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The Logical and the Historical Significance of the Jaina Philosophical Tradition
K. K. DIXIT
PROPER evaluation of the Jaina philosophical tradition necessarily
requires a proper evaluation of the Indian philosophical tradition as a whole. For even a reader who has a fairly correct idea of what the Jainas have to say by way of solving the fundamental philosophical problems might underrate or overrate the Jaina performance in case he happens to be ignorant of or misinformed about the background of this performance. We therefore begin our treatment of the Jaina philosophical tradition with a brief preliminary survey of the Indian philosophical scene of the times when this tradition arose and developed.
By philosophy we understand a reasoned and systematic working out of the fundamental nature of what constitutes reality, and as thus understood philosophy is a comparatively late product of India's otherwise hoary history. The material that has come down to us in the form of the Mantra, Brāhmaṇa or even the Aranyaka portion of the Vedas has the remotest affinity with a philosophical enquiry, but the Upanişads seem to make a break with the pre-philosophical past. However, even the Upanişadic texts are not of the form of systematic treatises on philosophical problems; for what they do is to narrate stories that inevitably culminate in a dialogue where certain characters discuss
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