An introduction to Syadvada-Siddhi of Vadibha Simah Suri

AN INTRODUCTION TO SYADVADA-SIDDHI OF VADIBHA SIMHA SURI
'''IS. S. Lishk'''

ABSTRACT Syadvada-Siddhi is a pioneering work of Vadibha Simha Suri (2ndj3rd Cmtury of Wkrama Era) alias Acharya Ajitasena who has been reverred as sfe? Sun of. Syadvada. Mer e, _ an attempt has been made to. introduce the jUiosophical .work, .a .milestone in the ^evolution of Jaina theory of Syadvada, mciuding the availability <of _ the manuscripts,, contents, language and. authorship. The paper ’• highlights the significance of the textsfor all beings who aspire for Genal bliss and pleasure but'know hot the means to achieve -their rends.

The Philosophical wO'rk ‘Syadvada-SiddhV, unlike its nam^^colnp rises if many textual diversifications' ■ including jiva-Siddhi, Sarvafiia Si'ddMp Jagat- kartrbhava-Siddhi etc. The writer of the text clearly points out that all beings aspire for eternal bliss and pleasure but they know not the means to achieve their ends. The main constituent of this, theory is Jiva who is the doer of dharma and the reaper of its fruit. To propound this idea, a sequence of textual diversifications called ‘Siddhis’ seems to have been developed.

Man,- since long, had become conscious enough to quench his thirst' for knowledge about Loka, Par aloka and soul etc. Lord Buddha had a typical angle of vision in this regard. He did not entangle hirhself in the question of dements of loka, par aloka etc. The followers of Buddhism need not kno w about these elements. It matters little for adopting the path of celebacy, whether the world may be eternal or non-eternal. They must accept some¬thing as explainable or inexplainable as Buddha has sard about. On the cthpr Hand,/ Lord Mahavira had thought that until and unless fundamental elements of Philosophy are explained, the disciple cannot rise m the realm of consciousness. Only then purification of soul takes place. In the absence- of mental equilibrium, one cannot: attain impartial perfection and clarity free from useless controversey in speech. Anyone blessed with parity at physical level alone may follow the path of non-violence but puri¬fication of soul cannot be ascertained there. For purification cf soul, scattered thoughts of mind and vulgarity of tongue have to be controlled. Such a line of thinking might have led to the development of philosophy of Anekanta and Syadvada in subsequence- Lord Mahavira was a full fledged non-violent saint who was equipped with the gift of universal knowledge. He	believed in the idea of universal knowledge as the foundation	for treading upon the path of non-violence. Non-violence needs to be practised through body, mind and speech. It is through the practice of path of universal non-violence, the disciple attains universal knowledge.

Infinite independent souls,	infinite pudgalas, a dharma dravya,an adharma dravya, an akasa dravya and infinite time—instants constitute a loka or world. The souls and pudgalas combine to form living organisms. The combination and dissociation of different pudgalas form material objects like mountains, rivers and the earth etc. It all happens to be a natural phenomenon and no god interferes therein. Every dravya is a non-contra¬dictory unified base for the operation of diverse dharmas. Those who study only as aspect of a dravya develop a partial view-point about its entity and thus develop mutual violence. Therefore, the study of multiple facets of an object is obligatory in order to persue the path of non-violence- However, the	study of an individual	aspect	is comprehensive in itself The various questions	which	remained as inexplanable to Lord Buddha, have been critically analysed through the application of anekantavada in the language of syadvada by Lord Mahavira. The present text t Syadvada-SiddhV deals with abrogation of any difference between the two concepts of eternity or non-eternity of soul in order to propound the principle that only an eternally-non-eternal or non-eternally-eternal soul can become the doer of dharma and adharma and reaper of its fruit. Such a soul can make an effort to get liberated.

About the manuscript :
There are three different copies of the manuscript. One, Tadapatra or the skin of palmyra tree manuscript numbered as 609 in the library of Jain Math Mudbidri contains 556 leaves, whereas syadvada siddhi is contained in leaves ranging from 236-256. seven pages from 247 to 253 are missing. There are 670 karikas in all as extant in fourteen leaves (from 236 to 246 from 254 to 256). The complete work must contain 1020 (350+670) karikas. The manuscript appears to be about one thousand years old. The manus¬cript appears to be about one thousand years old. The leaves have been eaten up by white ants. Two, Sarasava manuscript consisting of 89 pages is quite doubtful, as far as correctness is concerned. The karikas have been numbered from 1 to 501 in the text as a whole. However, the number 432 has been wrongly written as 422, thus causing an error of 10 in numbering the karikas to follow. Three, Kashi manuscript relates to Bhartiya Jnanapitha Kashi. It is quite legible and beautiful written in blue ink. It is lesser incorrect than sarasava manuscript.

Syadvaea- siddhi is a standard text in the field of Jaina logic just parallel to the Wydyavmmya’ of famed Jaina logician Akalankadeva. But the available text is somewhat incomplete just as ‘atyasasanapariksa of Vidyanand and iPramanamimansd> of Hemchandra. It appears to be the last work of Vadibha Simha Suri. However, he must have completed the work during his lifetime as it is evident form the Tadapatra manuscript of Mudbidri.

Language and the mode of writing :
This work has been written in a very clear, simple and lucid style. It is easily understandable except at certain places wherein the reader has to perform a brain exercise which indeed speaks of high audacity, excellence and peculiarity of the present work ‘ Syadvada- SiddhV. It is an original contribution of Vadibha Simha Suri. It seems quite plausible that he might have been influenced by the writings of Aklankadeva (Nyayaviniscya etc.) and Santarak&ita (Tattvasangraha etc.). However, it is worth-noticing that several writers had produced titles suffixed with *SiddhV such as | Dharamakirti (625 A.D.)	—Santanatara-Siddhi Kalyanaraksita (700 A.D.)	—Bahyartha-Siddhi Dharfnottra (725 A.D.)	—Paraloka-Siddhi and ksanabhanga-Siddhi Shankrananda (800 A.D.)	—Apoha-Siddhi and Pratibandha-Siddhi Even earlier Samantabhadra (2nd or 3rd century of Vikrama era) had produced Jiva-SiddhV. Devanandi (6th century of Vikram era) had produced *Sarvartha-SiddhV. Probably- due to the then current practice, Vadibha Simha Suri had also named his work as ‘Syadvada-Siddhi’^e. ending with the word ‘Siddhi’.

Contents :
The author has offered obeisance to Lord Vardhamana in the first karika and pronounced his aims and objectives underlying the composition of this text in the second karika. After that the text begins in its true perspectives. The contents have been classified chapterwise as below : l. jiva-Siddhi, 2. Phalabhoktrtvabhava-Siddhi,

3. Yugapadanekanta-Siddhi, 4. Kramanekanta-Siddhi,

5. Bhoktrtvabhava-Siddhi, ' 6. Sarvajnabhava-Siddhi,

7. Jagatkartrtvabhava-Siddhi,

8. Arhatsarvajna-Siddhi,

9. Arthapattipramanya-Siddhi, 10.Vedapauruseyatva-Siddhi, 11.Paratah pramanya-Siddhi.

13.Tarkapramanya-Siddhi,

12.Abhavapramanadusana-Siddhi,

14.(Without Name)

The fourteenth chapter might have been entitled as ,‘Guna-guniabheda- Siddhi’. The next chapter whose serial order is quite ambiguous has been entitled as ‘Brahmanism-Sindhi’. Still there is one more chapter, the last one, whose title is not determined at all. It is quite incomplete- But it appears that it might contain an illustration of the Buddhist principle of rejection.

Besides, it is worth-mentioning that the present volume contains references to several other scholarly texts and reputed authors as well. The well known mimansaka Kumaril Bhatta and Prabhakar have been referred to and their views have been refuted, Likewise, Parsdstakara, Dinanaga and Dharmakirti has been referred to as well-established, philosophers.

About the author ;
Both the beginning and the concluding sentences indicate that the present text ‘Syadvada-SiddhV had been written by Vadibha Simha Suri. Thus, it is crystal clear that Acarya Vadibha Simha had composed this work. In this context, it is worth mentioning that Jinasenaswami (838A.D.), the author of Adipurarta, has also mentioned a name ‘Vadi Simha’ renowned as a poet and an eloquent speaker. Vadiraja Suri (1025 A D.), the author of Parsvanathacarifa, has also mentioned ‘Vadi Simha’, an eloquent speaker of Syadvada, who has liquidated the false pride of Dignaga and Dharmakirti. The name of Vadibha Simha Suri alias Acarya Ajitasena has been mentioned in Mallisenaprasasti (1128 A.D.) of Sravanabelagola. He has been reverred as the sun of Syadvada. Laghusamantabhadra (13th Century Vikrama Era) in his commentary on ‘AstasahasrV has described Vadibha Simha as the learned commentator of Aptamimansci, Vadibha Simha Suri is also renowned as an author of two works of poetry, viz Ksutracudamani and Gadyacin- tamani. It is worth noticing that the words ‘Vadibha Simha’ and ‘Vadi Simha’ mean the same thing. It may be contemplated that Vadibha Simha (alias Vadi Simha) composed the two poetical works, authored Syadvada- Siddhi and commented upon Aptamimgnsa. The logic of Syadvada-Siddhi is well reflected from his poetical works also. He may be termed as Vadibha Simha first who might have lived in second/Third century of Vikrama Era just after Swami Samantabhadra had lived before. There is another author by the same name ' wo1 may ‘ be termed as Vadibha Simha II as indicated from some later edicts (1090 A.D.,-1147 A.D.) as mentioned by K. Bhujabaliji Shastri in his paper in Jaina Siddhanta Bhaskara, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 78. Vadibha Simha Second also might have gained Meh reputation just as Vadibha Simha First did. Such examples'that two Afferent persons by the same name had attained equal excellence at difference times, are :quite numerous in Jaina literature• Vadibha Simha’s birth name was •: perhaps ‘Aodayadeva’. It, however, ■eeds to be ascertained further. He was initiated by Acarya Puspasena who lad not. only; converted him from a fool to a learned fellow but raised his status also"' from a pimple man to the. level of a reverred saint (Muni), Vadibha Simha has? himself admitted this fact in sixth verse of his famous work 1 Gadyacintaman.

In the end, it may be concluded that Vadibha Simha, a learned poet philosopher, has contributed, to the world of knowledge, a unique work known as Syadvada-SiddhV, Primarily it appears that the theory of syadvada. might have been originated to develop the Jaina concept of liberation but soon it saught its way in every branch of „knowledge. In Jaina texts of Ganitanuyaga, contemporary knowledge seems to have been surveyed beauti|. fully before the Jaina view has been propounded in any concern in the; relevant field..