ABSTRACT
The answer is, as we shall see, that these were separate lines of ideas, each having different genesis, which merged at a later date.
In the sevenfold modal description (sapta-bhaógî, syâd-vâda), we have been acquainted with two structural elements. The first of these are three or four basic figures (bhaóga) of anekânta-vâda, each being modally qualified with the sentential functor syât:
(1) syâd asti (‘x is, in a certain sense, P’), (2) syân nâsti (‘x is, in a certain sense, non−P’), (3) syâd avaktavyam (‘x is, in a certain sense, inexpressible (I )’), (4) syâd asti nâsti (‘x is, in a certain sense, P & non−P’),
which are permutated to make up seven figures altogether, including the three remaining ones:
(5) syâd asty avaktavyam (‘x is, in a certain sense, P, and is inexpressible (I )’), (6) syân nâsty avaktavyam (‘x is, in a certain sense, non−P, and is inexpressible (I )’), (7) syâd asti nâsty avaktavyam ‘x is, in a certain sense, P, non−P, and is inexpressible (I )’).
