The age of Mahāvīra and Buddha was one of intense intellectual debates , especially on the nature of reality and self . Upanishadic thought postulated the absolute unchanging reality of Brahman and Ātman and claimed that change was mere illusion . The theory advanced by Buddhists denied the reality of permanence of conditioned phenomena , asserting only interdependence and impermanence . According to the vedāntin ( Upanishadic ) conceptual scheme , the Buddhists was wrong in denying permanence and absolutism , and within the Buddhist conceptual scheme , the vedāntins was wrong in denying the reality of impermanence . The two positions was 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 ontology and epistemology of anekāntavāda and syādvāda , Jains do not see such claims as contradictory or mutually exclusive ; instead , they are seen as ekantika or only partially true . The Jain breadth of vision embrace the perspectives of both Vedānta which , according to Jainism , " recognise substances but not process " , and Buddhism , which " recognise process but not substance " . Jainism , on the other hand , pay equal attention to both substance ( dravya ) and process ( paryaya ) .