Development of Jaina Ontological Ideas

Summary

Mohan Lal Mehta’s “Development of Jaina Ontological Ideas” charts how Jain philosophers expanded their understanding of the universe and its constituents from early canonical texts to later systematic treatises. Ontology—the study of being—is foundational for Jain epistemology and ethics, and Jainism developed a unique ontology centred on the concepts of loka (the inhabited universe) and aloka (the non‑universe). In the Ācārāṅga Sūtra, the term loka refers both to living beings and to the finite but eternal cosmos in which they exist. The Śūtrakṛtāṅga emphasises that while the universe is temporally beginningless and endless, it has spatial boundaries, implying the existence of aloka beyond it. Later texts such as the Bhagavatī employ vivid analogies—an island amid an ocean, a hole in a piece of cloth, a shadow in sunshine—to illustrate that loka, containing souls and matter, is surrounded by aloka which lacks matter and therefore lacks the medium (dharma) needed for motion. A soul (jīva) or matter (pudgala) can move only within loka, because movement requires the presence of the medium of motion and rest, which are absent in aloka. The article notes that the earliest scriptures discuss only two entities, souls and matter. Over time Jain thinkers posited five “extensive substances” (pañcāstikāyas)—dharma, adharma, ākaśa (space), jīva and pudgala—and later added kāla (time) as a non‑extensive sixth substance. Each stage marked a conceptual innovation: adding mediums of motion and rest to account for movement, then positing space, and finally recognising time as discrete units (kṣaṇas) that do not consist of pradeśas (space‑points). Mehta explains the introduction of pradeśa, defined as the portion of space occupied by an indivisible atom (paramāṇu), and describes how the idea of pradeśas led to distinguishing between qualities (guṇas), which always belong to a substance, and modes (paryāyas), which are transient states of a substance. The Uttarādhyayana and Tattvārtha‑sūtra gave the first formal definition of substance as that which possesses qualities and modes. Umasvati’s Tattvārthādhigama‑sūtra defines reality through the triad of origination, destruction and permanence: although modes arise and perish, the underlying substance endures. Samantabhadra’s Aptamīmāṃsā expanded this non‑absolutist ontology by showing that contradictory attributes—existence and non‑existence, identity and difference, permanence and change, cause and effect, substance and mode, mental and physical—can coexist in one entity. He synthesised one‑sided views into a balanced understanding that became a hallmark of later Jain philosophy. Through this historical survey, Mehta demonstrates how Jain ontology evolved from simple dual categories to a sophisticated system addressing complex philosophical problems.