Umāsvāti

Umāsvāti was an Indian Jain monk and philosopher whose Tattvārtha Sūtra (That Which Is) is the first systematic summary of Jain doctrine in Sanskrit, and the one text accepted as authoritative by both the Śvetāmbara and Digambara traditions; Digambaras call him Umāsvāmī. His dates are uncertain, with scholars placing him anywhere between the second and fifth centuries CE. According to tradition he was born in Nyagrodhikā and wrote the work in Kusumapura, today's Patna. In ten chapters of brief aphorisms he sets out how the soul knows, what the world contains, how karma binds the soul, and how ethical and ascetic discipline set it free. The opening aphorism names the path to liberation: right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together.

Key ideas

• Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together make up the path to liberation.
• Reality is analysed into seven principles: souls, non-living matter, the inflow of karma, bondage, the stopping of inflow, the shedding of karma and liberation.
• Karma is a subtle matter that clings to the soul through passion-driven activity and must be stopped and worn away.
• Souls support one another (parasparopagraho jīvānām), a line now used as a motto of the Jain community.
• Reality is many-sided, so any single claim about it captures only one standpoint.

Major works

• Tattvārtha Sūtra (c. 2nd–5th century CE)
• Tattvārthādhigama Bhāṣya (commentary regarded by Śvetāmbaras as his own)
• Sarvārthasiddhi of Pūjyapāda (c. 5th–6th century), the main Digambara commentary on his sūtras

In the conversation

No topics yet. Start one about this thinker.