Tattvartha Sutra

01The first Jain work in Sanskrit

Before Umaswati, Jain teaching lived in Prakrit. He wrote in Sanskrit, in the terse sutra style of the darshanas, and so brought Jain thought into the same room as Nyaya, Vaisheshika and Yoga. Shvetambaras know him as Vachaka Umasvati of the Uchchairnagar branch; Digambaras as Acharya Umasvami, also called Griddhapichchha, in the line of Kundakunda. Both sects accept his book as their own, the one text all Jains share, though their readings differ by a few sutras. Its other name, Mokshashastra, tells you what it is for.

02The first sutra

The first sutra holds the whole book: right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together are the path to liberation. Jains call these the ratnatraya, the three jewels. The next sutra defines right faith as conviction in the tattvas as they really are, and the fourth names those tattvas: jiva, ajiva, the inflow of karma, its binding, its stopping, its shedding and liberation. Every chapter after that unfolds one or more of the seven. A Digambara student usually begins by reciting a mangala verse before the first sutra, bowing to the one who leads on the path to moksha and breaks the mountains of karma.

03Knowledge and standpoint

The first chapter sets out how anything is known. There are five kinds of knowledge: mati, through the senses and mind; shruta, through scripture and word; avadhi, clairvoyance; manahparyaya, knowing the minds of others; and kevala, the perfect knowledge of the Jina. The first two are called indirect, the last three direct. Things are understood, the sutra says, through pramana and naya, valid knowledge and partial standpoints. Later Jain logicians built the whole doctrine of anekanta, the many-sidedness of truth, on this short line.

04Souls, matter and the shape of the world

Chapters two to five describe what exists. The soul is marked by upayoga, the activity of knowing and perceiving, and souls are sorted by their senses, from beings with only touch to those with five senses and a mind. The third and fourth chapters map the universe: seven hells below, the middle world of continents and oceans with Jambudvipa at its centre, and the heavens above. The fifth names the non-soul substances, matter, the media of motion and rest, space and time, and defines what is real: that which has arising, passing away and permanence together.

05Karma flows in and binds

For Jains karma is a fine matter that clings to the soul. The sixth chapter says activity of body, speech and mind is the channel through which it flows in, and passions make it stick. Good intentions draw good karma, cruel ones the reverse, and the sutra lists exactly which acts obscure knowledge, which bring suffering, which shorten or lengthen a life. The eighth chapter names the causes of bondage, wrong belief, non-restraint, carelessness, passion and activity, and the eight kinds of karma with their many sub-types.

06The vows

The seventh chapter is the ethics of the book. A vow is turning away from violence, falsehood, theft, unchastity and possessiveness. For a monk these are the five great vows, kept fully; for a householder they are the anuvratas, the small vows, kept as far as life allows, with the supplementary vows that limit travel, use and wealth. Its definition of himsa is the one Jains quote: taking life through careless activity. The intention and the carelessness count, the chapter says, and it ends with sallekhana, the calm, willing fast at the close of life.

07Ten days, ten chapters

The ninth chapter names the ten virtues: supreme forgiveness, humility, straightforwardness, purity, truth, restraint, austerity, renunciation, non-possession and celibacy. Digambara Jains keep Das Lakshana Parva in Bhadrapada as ten days, one for each, and on each day one chapter of the Tattvartha Sutra is recited and explained, so the whole book is heard once a year in every Digambara temple. Many Jains learn it by heart as children. Its line “parasparopagraho jivanam”, souls render service to one another, is the motto of the Jain community and stands on the emblem adopted in 1974-75 for the 2,500th anniversary of Mahavira’s nirvana.

08The great commentaries

The Shvetambara tradition keeps a commentary, the Svopajna Bhashya, said to be by Umaswati himself, and Siddhasena Gani wrote a large sub-commentary on it. Digambara acharyas built on the sutras one after another: Pujyapada’s Sarvarthasiddhi, Akalanka’s Tattvartharajavartika and Vidyananda’s Tattvarthashlokavartika. Through them the short text became the base for centuries of Jain logic and philosophy, much as the Brahma Sutras did for Vedanta. A student who has the Tattvartha Sutra by heart has the map of the whole Jain view of the world, and every later acharya wrote with that map open.

What it contains

1. 1
   Adhyaya 1: The path, faith and knowledge

   The three jewels, the seven tattvas, and the ways of knowing through pramana and naya. It then describes the five kinds of knowledge in detail.

2. 2
   Adhyaya 2: The soul

   The nature of jiva and its five states, the senses, and the kinds of bodies a soul may take. It also explains how a soul moves from one birth to the next.

3. 3
   Adhyaya 3: The lower and middle worlds

   The seven hells and the beings in them. Then the middle world of ring-shaped continents and oceans, with Jambudvipa and Bharata-kshetra, where humans live.

4. 4
   Adhyaya 4: The celestial beings

   The four classes of devas: the bhavanavasis who dwell in mansions, the wandering vyantaras, the jyotishkas of the sun, moon and stars, and the vaimanikas of the heavens. It describes their lifespans and the heavens they dwell in.

5. 5
   Adhyaya 5: The substances

   The six substances: soul, matter, the media of motion and rest, space and time. It defines the real as that which arises, passes and endures, and says souls serve one another.

6. 6
   Adhyaya 6: Inflow of karma

   How activity of body, speech and mind draws karma to the soul. It lists the specific causes of each of the eight kinds of karma.

7. 7
   Adhyaya 7: The vows

   The five vows for monks and householders, the reflections that strengthen them, and the faults that weaken each. It defines himsa and closes with sallekhana.

8. 8
   Adhyaya 8: Bondage

   The five causes of bondage and the eight kinds of karma, from knowledge-obscuring to obstructive karma. It explains how karma is bound by type, duration, intensity and quantity.

9. 9
   Adhyaya 9: Stopping and shedding karma

   Restraints, the ten virtues, the twelve reflections and the hardships to be borne. Then the twelve kinds of austerity and the four kinds of meditation, ending in shukla dhyana.

10. 10
    Adhyaya 10: Liberation

    When all karma is shed, the soul is free. It rises at once to the summit of the universe, as a gourd freed of its clay rises in water, and rests there in infinite knowledge and bliss.

Famous verses

सम्यग्दर्शनज्ञानचारित्राणि मोक्षमार्गः॥

Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together are the path to liberation.Tattvartha Sutra 1.1

परस्परोपग्रहो जीवानाम्॥

Souls render service to one another.Tattvartha Sutra 5.21

उत्पादव्ययध्रौव्ययुक्तं सत्॥

That which is real is endowed with arising, passing away and permanence.Tattvartha Sutra 5.30 (Digambara numbering)

प्रमत्तयोगात्प्राणव्यपरोपणं हिंसा॥

Himsa is the taking of life through careless activity.Tattvartha Sutra 7.13 (Digambara numbering)

बन्धहेत्वभावनिर्जराभ्यां कृत्स्नकर्मविप्रमोक्षो मोक्षः॥

Liberation is the complete release from all karma, through the absence of the causes of bondage and the shedding of karma already bound.Tattvartha Sutra 10.2 (Digambara numbering)