Materiality of Language in Jain Philosophy: Introductory Matters

This article would not have been possible without the scientific guidance and support of Dr. Priyadarshana Jain, Assistant Professor and Head i/c, Department of Jainology, University of Madras, who had presented to me a very complex and coherent vision of matter from Jaina point of view and a problem of vargaṇās, with special accentuation laid on bhāṣā-vargaṇās and an issue of omniscience. Dr. Jain indicated also Ālāpa-paddhati as a source of unprecedented knowledge on basic facts of the Jain philosophy.

The aim of this article is to describe the concept of language materiality in the Jain philosophy, focusing on the literature of classical period (5th- 10th c. CE). I concentrate on the following texts: Viyāhapannatti, Ālāpapaddhati, Tattvârtha-sūtra, Tattvârthasūtra-rājavārttika etc. I take into account diverse questions such as: multidimensionality of reality, attendance of matter, the theory of molecules (vargaṇās) and the problem of matter modifications (pariṇāma).