Akalanka (600s–700s) joined the Buddhist-Hindu crossfire over logic. The
Jainas added to the accepted logical categories another set of judgments,
“indescribable” or “undecidable.” Cross-classifying these with the judgments
“true” or “not true,” “exists” or “does not exist,” they built up a complex
scholastic logic uniquely their own.
Applying this logic to questions of ontology of the sort debated by the
Madhyamikas and other Buddhist and Hindu schools, the Jainas held that
every object has an infinity of modes or characteristics. All propositions are
true from one point of view, false from another; every object is both identical
with and different from every other.
The Jainas’ defensiveness made them especially cosmopolitan, oriented
toward their outside rivals, while at the same time keeping them intellectually
unified within. The first general survey of Indian philosophy was by the Jaina
Haribhadra, probably in the 700s, who formulated the rubric of “six darsha-
nas,” and the scheme was promulgated by Jaina commentators throughout the
1300s and 1400s. The Jainas’ became an unusually tolerant position within
the heated disputes of Indian philosophy. This seems surprising from the point
of view of Jaina practice, which was the most extreme of any long-lasting
Indian religion. One would hardly expect that naked fanatics who carried
asceticism to the extremes of covering their bodies with filth or starving
themselves to death would care much about creating an abstract philosophy,
much less one of harmony and compromise. Once again we see that it is the
interaction of positions within the intellectual space that shapes intellectual
development, much more than the external conditions of life which constitute
each sect separately. The Jaina philosophy of seeing some valid aspect in every
position gave them a kind of meta-position from which to survey the rest of
the intellectual field, and which contributed to their intellectual survival as a
unitary position. At the same time, this was a position that did not convince
anyone else, and the Jainas were largely ignored by their rivals. The Jaina
strategy was a reliable but somewhat timid one. Like other tolerant onlookers
throughout intellectual history, it missed the creative energy that other intel-
lectual factions got from their more aggressive moves in disputing the changing
territories of intellectual space.
The Post-Buddhist Resettlement of Intellectual Territories
After the Vedanta revolution, readjustment under the law of small numbers
was once more set in motion. On the victorious side, the Advaita network split
into three factions, along with a fourth Vedantic faction. On the fading Bud-
dhist side, and among the non-Advaita Hindu schools, the tendency was
toward syncretism.
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