Beginnings of Jaina Ontology and Its Models

Piotr Balcerowicz

doi:10.1007/s10781-021-09480-3

Abstract

The paper analyses the beginnings of systematic ontology in Jainism, which appears to have began after first century CE, albeit certain ontology-relevant terminology in a nascent form was present earlier. A clear expression of systematic ontological reflection is the existence of models that organize ideas and categories in a more consistent conceptual scheme. Jainism follows similar developments that had earlier taken shape in in the early Buddhist Abhidharma, proto-Sāṁkhya-Yoga and proto-Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika. In addition, the paper argues that the models, five in total, can be used as a methodological tool to distinguish various historical layers in early Jaina writings.

Highlights

The sources on the early history of Jainism and its philosophy are extremely scarce and scattered
A part of the research work on this paper has been supported by the National Science Centre of Poland (Research Project: ‘History of Classical Indian Philosophy: Buddhism, Scepticism and Materialism’, 2016/23/B/HS1/00536). & Piotr Balcerowicz piotrbalcerowicz1@gmail.com 1 University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic overview of such basic ontological models that are traceable in Jaina thought from its early stages till the fourth/fifth century CE, viz. till the beginnings of the classical period of the Jaina philosophy, which commences with Umasvamin’s groundbreaking Treatise on Reality (Tattvârtha-sūtra, TS; around 350/400 CE)

Summary

Introduction

The sources on the early history of Jainism and its philosophy are extremely scarce and scattered. In the Sūya-gaḍaṁga, in the chapter On the [proper] understanding of food (Āhāra-pariṇṇā), pudgala denotes ‘the essence / substance / raw matter of the body.’ The same meaning is reflected in the following Viyāha-pannatti excerpt of approximately the same period: ‘In summer, heat-born living beings (jīva) and material stuff (pudgala) are born, come forth, are brought together [and] originate in the bodies of plants.’. The colloquial sense, conjoin to produce plants.44 At this stage, which I take to be later than the above-quoted Viyāha-pannatti passage expounding the living being both as pudgala and pudgalin (Viy2 8.10.437 = Viy3 8.10.59, 61), the individual character of the person carried by ‘pudgala’ is already obsolete, and the term comes near its later technical meaning. The occurrence of time in a classification can be treated as a historical indicator

Recapitulation of all models

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