Umāsvāti, Tattvārthasūtra V: dharma and adharma as the media of motion and rest
Source: Sanskrit Wikisource, तत्त्वार्थसूत्रम्/पञ्चमोऽध्यायः, wikitext through the MediaWiki API with markup stripped; local verbatim excerpt
.txt; retrieved 2026-09-18. Metadata: Tattvārthasūtra, attributed to Umāsvāti in the Śvetāmbara tradition and to Umāsvāmi in the Digambara. Date c. 2nd–5th century CE and contested; the attribution is traditional. Recension: the two traditions transmit different sūtra divisions and some different readings, so the numbering here is that of this text and need not match an edition of the other recension. Rights: the sūtra text is ancient and public domain; Wikisource contributions are CC BY-SA. Text quality: this transcription carries orthographic slips, listed below. It is kept as served, and they are targets for verification against a critical edition.
What it supplies
The only system in this collection with a medium whose sole office is to make motion possible. Sūtra 5.17:
गतिस्थित्युपग्रहौ धर्माधर्मयोरुपकारः — the assisting of motion and of rest is the function of dharma and adharma.
The word is upagraha, assistance, and upakāra, function or service: these substances do not push anything. They are the standing condition without which motion and rest could not occur, which is a third option beside a cause that acts and a void that offers no resistance. Sūtra 5.18 gives space the distinct office of accommodation, avagāha, so that occupying room and being able to move are separated into two substances. Sūtra 5.22 assigns duration and activity to time. Where the Vaiśeṣika asks what carries motion from step to step and answers with an impression, the Jain asks what permits it at all and answers with a medium; the two questions are different, and the collection now holds one source for each.
A stopping rule stated as a count. Sūtras 5.7 to 5.11 give the number of pradeśas, space-points, of each substance, and 5.11 is a single word: नाणोः, “not of the atom”. The atom has no space-points, so it is not spatially divisible even in principle. Sūtra 5.27, भेदादणुः, makes the atom arise by division only, never by combination, which fixes the direction in which the division series terminates.
Passage anchors
| Sūtra | Text as served | Supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | अजीवकाया धर्माधर्माकाशपुद्गलाः |
The non-living substances |
| 5.7, 5.11 | असंख्योयाः प्रदेशा… / नाणोः |
Space-point counts; the atom has none |
| 5.16 | प्रदेशसंहार विसर्पाभ्या प्रदीपवत् |
Contraction and expansion, like a lamp |
| 5.17 | गतिस्थ्त्युपग्रहौ धर्माधर्मयोरुपकारः |
Dharma and adharma assist motion and rest |
| 5.18 | आकाशस्यावगाहः |
Space gives room |
| 5.22 | वर्तनापरिणामक्रियाः परत्वापरत्वे च कालस्य |
Duration and activity belong to time |
| 5.25–5.27 | अणवः स्कन्धाश्च / भेदसंघातेभ्य उत्पद्यन्ते /
भेदादुणुः |
Atoms and aggregates; atoms only by division |
Orthographic slips in this transcription. 5.17
prints गतिस्थ्त्युपग्रहौ where editions read
गतिस्थित्युपग्रहौ; 5.27 prints भेदादुणुः for
भेदादणुः; 5.8 prints असंख्योयाः for
असंख्येयाः; 5.30 prints उत्पादव्ययध्रौव्युक्तं for
उत्पादव्ययध्रौव्ययुक्तं.
Coverage and limits
Reading level passage for the ten sūtras in the excerpt;
metadata for the rest of the work. No commentary is stored:
neither Umāsvāti’s own Svopajñabhāṣya nor Pūjyapāda’s
Sarvārthasiddhi, and the latter is the Digambara recension’s
witness and the place where the numbering divergence would have to be
settled. The claim that a Jain atom crosses the universe in one
samaya, which would give a minimum quantum of motion, is
not in this chapter and is not covered here.