SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Truthfulness and truth are not clearly distinguished in Jaina scriptures. A maxim of speaking the truth is stated in the so-called “satya-mahāvrata”, which Jain ascetics recite twice a day during their obligatory pratikramaṇa ritual. In accordance with the preferred Jain method of negative determination, the general principle of truthful speech is treated in terms of its characteristic violations, aticāra, that is, as the opposite of speaking non-truth, a-satya. Normative principles such as this are constitutive for Jain discourse to the extent that they are used by speech communities, both to generate and to interpret speech. The precise implications of the maxim of truthfulness for language usage are specified in form of a distinction of four types or ‘species’ of speech, bhāsā-jāya <bhāṣā-jāta>, which are at the centre of the Jain theory of discourse, supplemented by context-sensitive rules for proper ways of speaking, and examples. These analytical categories should be known and utilised by mendicants (ideally by all Jains) to prevent both the preparation and performance of violence, ārambha. They are investigated in this article from the perspective of comparative philosophy.