Tattvartha Sutra: That Which Is
Umasvati
Primary text · Reading guide
The short answer
A systematic Jain work concerned with reality, the soul, karma, and liberation, available in English as That Which Is.
Jainism · Primary text
The reading guide
This sutra is a foundational doctrinal text, not the entirety of Jain scripture. Jain traditions and commentaries should remain distinguishable.
Reading lens: symbolic and religious interpretation; historical details are identified through the sources below.
What this text is doing
The Tattvartha Sutra systematizes major Jain accounts of reality, the soul, karma, and liberation. Its concise propositions invite commentary. It is a strong entry to Jain philosophy when read with the tradition’s careful distinctions and commitment to nonviolence in view.
The opening framework
The early chapters set out the categories and conditions for liberation. Follow the sequence instead of treating a definition as self-explanatory.
Living beings and karma
The discussion of souls, matter, and karmic processes forms a specific metaphysical system. Do not silently substitute another tradition’s idea of self.
Conduct and release
Later material connects knowledge and restraint to practice. Read ethical implications with Jain commentary, especially where an English paraphrase sounds familiar.
Keep in mind: Which distinction does the sutra need in order for its account of nonviolence to hold?
Choose an edition
Nathmal Tatia’s translation, sponsored by the Institute of Jainology, offers a named study edition.
A path through the book
The introductory framework
Orient yourself to the text’s account of knowledge and liberation.
Its categories of reality
Build a glossary before drawing comparisons with other traditions.
Ethics and liberation
Read conduct as part of the larger doctrinal system.
Sources & editions
- Yale University Press: That Which Is ↗
Edition and reading reference.
An editorial reading guide with original summaries and source links. Modern translations remain the work of their named translators.
Read alongside
At a glance
- Origin
- Emerging. Composed in Sanskrit by Umasvati (Umasvami in Digambara usage), India; proposed dates range from the 2nd to the 5th century CE
- Language
- Established. Sanskrit
- Form
- Established. About 350 aphorisms (sutras) in 10 chapters; counts differ between the Svetambara and Digambara recensions
- First full reading
- Experiential. 1–2 hours for the sutras alone; several weeks with a commentary
Translation quoted on this page
Tattvarthadhigama Sutra: A Treatise on the Essential Principles of Jainism (Sacred Books of the Jainas, vol. II) — J. L. Jaini, 1920
Rights ledger: recorded as a public-domain translation. Published at Arrah in 1920; translator Jagmandar Lal Jaini died 1927. Public domain worldwide. Quotes are taken from the text layer of the Digital Library of India scan on archive.org. That scan's text layer carries clean English only for chapter 1, so later sutras such as 5.21 (parasparopagraho jivanam) are described in the FAQ but not quoted. The third quote is Jaini's own editorial note, not a sutra.
Build the seven-principle glossary
20 minutesRead chapter 1, sutras 1 to 4, with the translator's notes. Write the seven tattvas in a column, and beside each write in plain words what process or entity it names, using only the translator's definitions. Then read the opening of chapter 7 on the vows, and mark which of the seven principles nonviolence is meant to affect. Close by writing one sentence on why the text defines these terms before it gives any ethical rule.
Key Insights
- A systematic text depends on its definitions.
- Jain karma and liberation have their own conceptual context.
- Comparison works best after understanding the text’s own terms.
Quotes Worth Remembering
3 passages in J. L. Jaini’s 1920 translation, each linked to the page it was checked against. Other translations word these lines differently.
Right belief, (right) knowledge, (right) conduct, these (together constitute) the path to liberation
Chapter 1, sutra 1
The opening sutra names the three jewels together, and Jaini's commentary insists that liberation needs all three at once rather than any one alone.
J. L. Jaini, 1920 · check the source ↗
Belief or conviction in things ascertained as they are, (is) right belief.
Chapter 1, sutra 2
Right belief is defined as conviction about the categories of reality, so faith in this text depends on the definitions that follow.
J. L. Jaini, 1920 · check the source ↗
The following seven are known as the seven tattvas or principles Jiva (soul), Ajiva (non-soul) Asrava (inflow of matter into soul), Bandha (bondage of soul by matter), Samvara (stoppage of inflow of matter into soul), Nirjara (shedding of matter by the soul) and Moksa (liberation of soul from matter)
Jaini's note 2 to the invocatory verses before chapter 1, sutra 1 (the seven tattvas listed in sutra 1.4)
This editor's gloss lays out the seven principles that the rest of the sutra works through chapter by chapter, from soul to liberation.
J. L. Jaini, 1920 · check the source ↗
Editorial reading map
An editorial reading map. Each row names a place to start, with the idea to carry and a short summary. Read the text itself for its own order.
01The path and the means of knowing (chapter 1)
Liberation requires right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct together.
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The chapter names the three jewels and the seven tattvas. It sets out how things are to be examined, through the standpoints (nayas) and valid means of knowledge. It then classifies the five kinds of knowledge, from sensory knowledge to the omniscience (kevala) of the liberated.
02The soul (chapter 2)
The soul is defined by consciousness and classified by its condition and senses.
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Chapter 2 lists the soul's dispositions (bhavas) according to how karma is subsided, destroyed, or operating. It gives consciousness (upayoga) as the soul's defining mark. It then classifies living beings from one-sensed beings such as plants up to five-sensed beings with mind, and describes their bodies and kinds of birth.
03The lower, middle, and celestial worlds (chapters 3–4)
Souls are placed within a detailed map of the universe.
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Chapter 3 describes the seven hells and the lifespans of their beings, then the concentric continents and oceans of the middle world where humans live. Chapter 4 describes the four orders of celestial beings, their dwellings, and their lifespans. Readers often find these cosmological chapters the least familiar part of the text.
04Non-soul substances (chapter 5)
Reality consists of eternal substances, each with its own function.
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Chapter 5 treats the non-soul (ajiva) substances: the media of motion and rest, space, matter, and time, whose status some commentators discuss. It assigns each substance a function, and at 5.21 says that the function of souls is to support one another. It ends by defining substance through its qualities and modes.
05The inflow of karma (chapter 6)
Activity of body, speech, and mind draws karmic matter into the soul.
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Chapter 6 defines yoga as activity of body, speech, and mind, and asrava as the inflow of karma it causes. It distinguishes inflow driven by passions from inflow without them. It then lists the kinds of conduct that attract each type of karma.
06The vows (chapter 7)
Nonviolence heads the vows that restrain the inflow of karma.
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Chapter 7 sets out the five vows of nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity, and non-possession, in their complete form for mendicants and a partial form for laypeople. It defines injury as harm to life caused through careless or passion-driven activity. It adds supplementary lay vows and discusses the end-of-life fast (sallekhana).
07Bondage (chapter 8)
Karma binds the soul in kinds, durations, intensities, and quantities.
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Chapter 8 names the causes of bondage, including wrong belief, non-restraint, carelessness, passions, and activity. It lists the eight main types of karma and their subtypes. It then sets out how long each type can remain bound and how strongly it takes effect.
08Stoppage, shedding, and liberation (chapters 9–10)
Restraint stops new karma, austerity removes old karma, and the freed soul rises.
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Chapter 9 describes stoppage (samvara) through restraints, carefulness, ten virtues, twelve reflections, and the endurance of hardships, and shedding (nirjara) through outer and inner austerities, including meditation. Chapter 10 describes omniscience following the destruction of deluding karma, then liberation (moksha). The liberated soul rises to the summit of the universe.
Best For
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Svetambara and Digambara Jains both accept the Tattvartha Sutra?
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Yes. It is one of the few doctrinal texts accepted by both major Jain traditions, which is part of its authority. The two transmit different recensions that differ in the number and wording of some sutras. Svetambaras read it with a commentary (Bhashya) they ascribe to Umasvati, while Digambaras call the author Umasvami and read it with Pujyapada's Sarvarthasiddhi; the authorship of the Bhashya is disputed.
Which translation should I read?
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J. L. Jaini's 1920 translation is public domain and gives the Sanskrit, a word-by-word gloss, and notes, though its English is dated. Nathmal Tatia's That Which Is (1994) translates the sutras with the combined commentaries of Umasvati, Pujyapada, and Siddhasenagani, and marks differences between recensions. Vijay K. Jain's 2018 edition gives the Digambara text with the Sarvarthasiddhi.
What does "parasparopagraho jivanam" mean?
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It is sutra 5.21, usually translated as "souls render service to one another" or "the function of souls is to help one another". In context it is one of a series of sutras naming what each substance does, alongside matter's role in pleasure, pain, life, and death. It has become a widely used modern Jain motto, and was adopted with the Jain emblem in 1974.
How long is it, and where should a beginner start?
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It has about 350 short sutras in ten chapters; the Digambara recension counts 357 and the Svetambara slightly fewer. The sutras alone can be read in one or two hours, but they are written to be read with commentary. Chapter 1 sets out the framework, chapter 5 the substances, and chapter 7 the ethical vows.
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