 The age of Mahāvīra and Buddha was one of intense intellectual debates , especially on the nature of reality and self . <unk> thought postulated the absolute unchanging reality of <unk> and <unk> and claimed that change was mere illusion . The theory advanced by Buddhists denied the reality of permanence of conditioned phenomena , asserting only <unk> and impermanence . According to the <unk> ( <unk> ) conceptual scheme , the Buddhists were wrong in denying permanence and absolutism , and within the Buddhist conceptual scheme , the <unk> were wrong in denying the reality of impermanence . The two positions were contradictory and mutually exclusive from each other 's point of view . The Jains managed a synthesis of the two uncompromising positions with anekāntavāda . From the perspective of a higher , inclusive level made possible by the <unk> and epistemology of anekāntavāda and syādvāda , Jains do not see such claims as contradictory or mutually exclusive ; instead , they are seen as <unk> or only partially true . The Jain breadth of vision <unk> the perspectives of both <unk> which , according to Jainism , " recognises substances but not process " , and Buddhism , which " recognises process but not substance " . Jainism , on the other hand , pays equal attention to both substance ( dravya ) and process ( <unk> ) . 
