Concept of biological individuality in Jain philosophy

Abstract

The biological basis of individuality in all organisms is their ‘genes.’ Genes are small portions of DNA which are responsible for all individual characteristics in living organisms. This paper attempts to establish a relationship between the scientific basis of biological individuality and the basic ideas of varganas in Jain philosophy. A vargana is a cluster of similar parmanus. A parmanu is a subtle most and indivisible unit of any matter (pudgala). Varganas have been classified into two major groups i.e., associable and non-associable varganas. Associable varganas are associated with the soul and form several types of subtle bodies and gross bodies (audarik shareer). All the structures which are visible to us by any means are form of pudgala which are made up of varganas. The numbers of variation of associable varganas which are responsible for formation of subtle and gross body are known as kulkoti. There may be 14 trillion different combinations of associable varganas for human beings, which can result in innumerable numbers of physical, anatomical, biological and behavioral aspects of an organism.