Perspektivismus und Kritik: Das pluralistische Erkenntnismodell der Jainas angesichts der Polemik gegen das Vaisesika in Vidyanandins Satyasasanapariksa.

• Author: Soni, Jayandra
• Position: Book review

Perspektivismus und Kritik: Das pluralistische Erkenntnismodell der Jainas angesichts der Polemik gegen das Vaisesiksa in Vidyanandins Satyasasanapariksa. By HIMAL TRIKHA. Publications of the De Nobili Research Library, vol. 36. Vienna: INSTITUT FUR SUDASIEN-, TIBET- UND BUDDHIS-MUSKUNDE DER UNIVERSITAT WIEN, 2012. Pp. 401. C28.

In my review of another book on Jaina philosophy in 2008 I noted, "Not only are reliable and textual studies in the field of Jainism few and far between, but also, even less attention has been paid to texts dealing with philosophy. Consequently. Jaina studies have lagged behind in comparison to studies in Buddhism and Hinduism. Piotr Balcerowicz's study on the Nyayavatara, therefore, is a most welcome publication in the slow but ongoing attempt at broadening the scope of work in Jainism" (Orientalische Literaturzeitung 103 [2008]: 411), In the inside flap of a recent publication Hegewald says, "Jaina studies are expanding and increasingly gaining in international recognition" (The Jaina Heritage: Distinction, Decline and Resilience, ed. Julia A. B. Hegewald [New Delhi: Samskriti. 2011]). Slowly but surely, more and more attention is being given to Jaina studies, and, particularly in the field of Jaina philosophy, the work being reviewed here is a further welcome publication helping to close the yawning gap between studies in Jaina philosophy and those in Buddhism and Hinduism.

In Jaina circles Vidyanandin is renowned as a scholastic thinker who had a profound command of Buddhist and Hindu thought. Indeed, he could be seen as a culmination of a rich phase in Jaina thought, following predecessors such as Kundakunda, Umasvati, Samantabhadra, Pujyapada, and Akalanka. Vidyanandin wrote both commentaries and independent works: see a short description of his major nine works in the appendix (pp. 161-62) to my "Aspects of Jaina Epistemology with Special Reference to Vidyanandin" (in Approaches to Jaina Studies: Philosophy, Logic Rituals and Symbols, ed. N. K. Wagle and 011e Qvarnstrom. Pp. 138-68. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto, Centre for South Asian Studies, 1999).

The Satyasasanapariksa (SP) is an independent work by Vidyanandin, the original plan of which was an investigation (pariksa) of fourteen teachings (sasanas) for their truth (satya), but the version we have goes only up to the incomplete twelfth teaching (of the Prabhakara Mimamsa school). Trikha has done a detailed study and analysis "only" of the tenth teaching of...