Worlds in Conflict. The Cosmopolitan Vision of Yaśovijaya Gaṇi

Abstract

The Jaina philosopher Yaśovijaya Gaṇi (c.1608-1688 CE) lived during a period of exceptional socio-philosophical interest, one in which the world of traditional Sanskrit discourse found itself in an encounter with the new intellectual world of the Mughal empire. One might well imagine how these circumstances would provide a Jaina philosopher of the period with a distinctive range of challenges. Certainly, we find in Yaśovijaya an attempt to continue the tradition of Jaina philosophical scholarship in the new scholarly language of Navya Nyāya. But do we find in his large corpus of works a responsiveness to newly emerging intellectual horizons? The article attends primarily to a little known but fascinating text of his, the Nyāya Jainakhaṇḍakhādya. In this text we find among other things a return to one of the strongest of the classical themes, the debate between Buddhists and Naiyāyikas over the existence of self or soul. Why, we might well ask, at a time when the Buddhists have long since ceased to be present in the Sanskrit philosophical debate, does Yaśovijaya choose to revisit this debate once again?