Part 7 - The Vaiśeṣika and Nyāya Literature

It is difficult to ascertain definitely the date of the Vaiśeṣika sūtras by Kaṇāda, also called Aulūkya the son of Ulūka, though there is every reason to suppose it to be pre-Buddhistic. It appears from the Vāyu purāṇa that he was born in Prabhāsa near Dvārakā, and was the disciple of Somaśarmā. The time of Praśastapāda who wrote a bhāsya (commentary) of the Vaiśeṣika sūtras cannot also unfortunately be ascertained. The peculiarity of Praśastapāda’s bhāṣya is this that unlike other bhāṣyas (which first give brief explanations of the text of the sūtras and then continue to elaborate independent explanations by explaining the first brief comments), it does not follow the sūtras but is an independent dissertation based on their main contents^[1].

There were two other bhāṣyas on the Vaiśeṣika sūtras , namely Rāvana-bhāṣya and Bharādvāja-vṛtti, but these are now probably lost. References to the former are found in Kiranāvalībhāskara of Padmanābha Miśra and also in Ratnaprabhā 2. 2. II.

Four commentaries were written on this bhāṣya, namely Vyomavatī by Vyomaśekharācārya, Nyāyakandalī by Śrīdhara, Kiranāvalī by Udayana (984 A.D.) and Līlāvatī by Śrīvatsācārya.

In addition to these Jagadīśa Bhattācārya of Navadvīpa andŚaṅkara Miśra wrote two other commentaries on the Praśastapāda-bhāṣya, namely Bhāṣyasūkti and Kanāda-rahasya.

Śaṅkara Miśra (1425 A.D.) also wrote a commentary on the Vaiśeṣika sūtras called the Upaskāra. Of these Nyāya-kandali of Śrīdhara on account of its simplicity of style and elaborate nature of exposition is probably the best for a modern student of Vaiśeṣika. Its author was a native of the village of Bhūrisrṣṭi in Bengal (Rādha). His father’s name was Baladeva and mother’s name was Acchokā and he wrote his work in 913 Śaka era (990 A.D.) as he himself writes at the end of his work.

The Nyāya sūtra was written by Akṣapāda or Gautama, and the earliest commentary on it written by Vātsyāyana is known as the Vātsyāyana-bhāsja. The date of Vātsyāyana has not been definitely settled, but there is reason to believe that he lived some time in the beginning of the fourth century A.D. Jacobi places him in 300 A.D.

Udyotakara (about 635 A.D.) wrote a Vārttika on Vātsyāyana’s bhāṣya to establish the Nyāya views and to refute the criticisms of the Buddhist logician Diṅnāga (about 500 A.D.) in his Pramāṇasamuccaya.

Vācaspatimiśra (840 A.D.) wrote a sub-commentary on the Nyāyavārttika of Udyotakara called Nyāyavārttikatātparyatīkā in order to make clear the right meanings of Udyotakara’s Vārttika which was sinking in the mud as it were through numerous other bad writings (dustarakunibandhapañkamagnānām).

Udayana (984 A.D.) wrote a sub-commentary on the Tātparyaṭīkā called Tātparyaṭīkā-pariśuddhi.

Varddhamāna (1225 A.D.) wrote a sub-commentary on that called the Nyāyanibandhaprakāśa.

Padmanābha wrote a sub-commentary on that called Varddhamānendu and Śaṅkara Miśra (1425 A.D.) wrote a sub-commentary on that called the Nyāyatātparyamaṇḍana.

In the seventeenth century Viśvanātha wrote an independent short commentary known as Viśvanātha-vṛtti , on the Nyāya sūtra, and Rādhāmohana wrote a separate commentary on the Nyāya sūtras known as Nyāyasūtravivaraṇa. In addition to these works on the Nyāya sūtras many other independent works of great philosophical value have been written on the Nyāya system. The most important of these in medieval times is the Nyāyamañjarī of Jayanta (880 A.D.), who flourished shortly after Vācaspatimiśra. Jayanta chooses some of the Nyāya sūtras for interpretation, but he discusses the Nyāya views quite independently, and criticizes the views of other systems of Indian thought of his time. It is far more comprehensive than Vācaspati’s Tātparyaṭīkā , and its style is most delightfully lucid. Another important work is Udayana’s Kusumāñjali in which he tries to prove the existence of Īśvara (God). This work ought to be read with its commentary Prakāśa by Varddhamāna (1225 A.D.) and its sub-commentary Makaranda by Rucidatta (1275 A.D.).

Udayana’s Atmatattvaviveka is a polemical work against the Buddhists, in which he tries to establish the Nyāya doctrine of soul. In addition to these we have a number of useful works on Nyāya in later times. Of these the following deserve special mention in connection with the present work.

Bhāṣāpariccheda by Viśvanātha with its commentaries Muktāvali, Dinakarī and Rāmarudri,
Tarkasaṃgraha with Nyāyanirṇaya,
Tarkabhāṣā of Keśava Miśra with the commentary Nyāyapradīpa,
Saptapadārthī of Śivāditya,
Tārkikarakṣā of Varadarāja with the commentary Niṣkantaka of Mallinātha,
Nyāyasāra of Mādhava Deva of the city of Dhāra and Nyāyasiddhāntamañjarī of Jānakīnātha Bhattācarya with the Nyāyamañjarīsāra by Yādavācārya,
and Nyāyasiddhūntadīpa of Śaśadhara with Prabhā by Śeṣānantācārya.

The new school of Nyāya philosophy known as Navya-Nyāya began with Gaṅgeśa Upādhyāya of Mithilā, about 1200 A.D. Gaṅgeśa wrote only on the four pramāṇas admitted by the Nyāya, viz. pratyakṣa, anumāna, upamāna, and śabda, and not on any of the topics of Nyāya metaphysics. But it so happened that his dis-cussionsonanumāna(inference)attracted unusually great attention in Navadvlpa (Bengal), and large numbers of commentaries and commentaries of commentaries were written on the anumāna portion of his work Tattvacintāmarii , and many independent treatises on śabda and anumāna were also written by the scholars of Bengal, which became thenceforth for some centuries the home of Nyāya studies. The commentaries of Raghunātha Śiromaṇi (1500 A.D.), Mathurā Bhattācārya (1580 A.D.), Gadādhara Bhattā-cārya (1650 A.D.) and Jagadīśa Bhattācārya (1590 A.D.), commentaries on Śiromaṇi’s commentary on Tattvacintāmarii had been very widely read in Bengal. The new school of Nyāya became the most important study in Navadvlpa and there appeared a series of thinkers who produced an extensive literature on the subject^[2]. The contribution was not in the direction of metaphysics, theology, ethics, or religion, but consisted mainly in developing a system of linguistic notations to specify accurately and precisely any concept or its relation with other concepts^[3].

Thus for example when they wished to define precisely the nature of the concomitance of one concept with another (e.g. smoke and fire), they would so specify the relation that the exact nature of the concomitance should be clearly expressed, and that there should be no confusion or ambiguity. Close subtle analytic thinking and the development of a system of highly technical expressions mark the development of this literature. The technical expressions invented by this school were thus generally accepted even by other systems of thought, wherever the need of accurate and subtle thinking was felt. But from the time that Sanskrit ceased to be the vehicle of philosophical thinking in India the importance of this literature has gradually lost ground, and it can hardly be hoped that it will ever regain its old position by attracting enthusiastic students in large numbers.

I cannot close this chapter without mentioning the fact that so far as the logical portion of the Nyāya system is concerned, though Akṣapāda was the first to write a comprehensive account of it, the Jains and Buddhists in medieval times had independently worked at this subject and had criticized the Nyāya account of logic and made valuable contributions. In Jaina logic Daśavaikālikaniryukti of Bhadrabāhu (357 B.C.), Umāsvāti’s Tattvārthādhigama sūtra , Nyāyāvatāra of Siddhasena Divākara (533 A.D.) Māṇikya Nandi’s (800 A.D.) Parīkṣāmukha sūtra, and Pramāṇanayatattvālokālaṃkāra of Deva Sūri (1159 A.D.) and Prameyakanialamārtanda of Prabhācandra deserve special notice. Pramāṇasamuccaya and Nyāyapraveśa of Diṅnāga (500 A.D.), Pramāṇavārttika kārikā and Nyāyabindu of Dharmakīrtti (650 A.D.) with the commentary of Dharmottara are the most interesting of the Buddhist works on systematic logic^[4]. The diverse points of difference between the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist logic require to be dealt with in a separate work on Indian logic and can hardly be treated within the compass of the present volume.

It is interesting to notice that between the Vātsyāyana bhāṣya and the Udyotakara’s Vārttika no Hindu work on logic of importance seems to have been written : it appears that the science of logic in this period was in the hands of the Jains and the Buddhists ; and it was Diṅnāga’s criticism of Hindu Nyāya that roused Udyotakara to write the Vārttika. The Buddhist and the Jain method of treating logic separately from metaphysics as an independent study was not accepted by the Hindus till we come to Gaṅgeśa, and there is probably only one Hindu work of importance on Nyāya in the Buddhist style namely Nyāyasāra of Bhāsarvajña. Other older Hindu works generally treated of inference only along with metaphysical and other points of Nyāya interest^[5].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The bhāsya of Praśastapāda can hardly be called a bhāsya (elaborate commentary). He himself makes no such claim and calls his work a compendium of the properties of the categories (Padārthadharmasaṁgraha). He takes the categories of dravya, guṇa, karma , sāmānya , viśeṣa and samavāya in order and without raising any discussions plainly narrates what he has got to say on them. Some of the doctrines which are important in later Nyāya-Vaiśesika discussions, such as the doctrine of creation and dissolution, doctrine of number, the theory that the number of atoms contributes to the atomic measure of the molecules, the doctrine of pilupāka in connection with the transformation of colours by heat occur in his narration for the first time as the Vaiśeṣika sūtras are silent on these points. It is difficult to ascertain his date definitely; he is the earliest writer on Vaiśesika available to us after Kanāda and it is not improbable that he lived in the 5th or 6th century A.D.

[2]:

From the latter half of the twelfth century to the third quarter of the sixteenth century the new school of Nyāya was started in Mithilā (Behar); but from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century Bengal became pre-eminently the home of Nyāya studies. See Mr Cakravarttī’s paper , J. A. S. B. 1915. I am indebted to it for some of the dates mentioned in this section.

[3]:

Īśvarānumāna of Raghunātha as well as his Padārthatattvanirūpaṇa are, however, notable exceptions.

[4]:

See Indian Logic Medieval School by Dr S. C. Vidyābhūsana, for a bibliography of Jain and Buddhist Logic.

[5]:

Almost all the books on Nyāya and Vaiśesika referred to have been consulted in the writing of this chapter. Those who want to be acquainted with a fuller bibliography of the new school of logic should refer to the paper called “The History of Navya Nyāya in Bengal,” by Mr Cakravarttī in J. A. S. B. 1915.