B 132 N8M27 A 4 ; 9 ^ ; 4 1 1 \ 8 I 1 - : O ; JO MAHESACHANDRA NYAYARATNA BRIEF NOTES ON THE MODERN NYAYA SYSTIIVl OF PHILOSOPHY AND ITS TECHNICAL TERMS I' K',*^ jor^'if ' > ■ rvjflt-v'-v -i: I 1 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES I ^ BRIEF NOTES ON THE MODERN NY AY A SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY AND ITS TECHNICAL TERMS. BY MAHAMAHOPADHYAY MAHESA CHANDRA NYAYARATNA, C. 1. E. Hare Press : Calcutta. The Library University of California, Los Angeles The gift of Mrs. Cummings, 1963 Brief Notes on the Modern Nya'ya System of Philosophy and its Technical Terms. T^HE term Nyaya is composed of f^ (with certainty), t or ^?T (to go) and ^ (,by which), and means literally the method of coming with certainty [to a conclusion]. As used in Hindu Philosophy it means the syllogism, Gotama is the earliest writer who treats of the syllogism ; and his work, the Gautama-Sutra (aphorisms of Gotama), and those of writers who discuss philosophical questions according to his method, whether they discuss the syllogism or not, make up the Nyaya system of philosophy. Nyaya philosophy may be divided into ancient and modern. Ancient Nyaya treats not only of the syllogism, but discusses all sorts of questions, physical and metaphysical, applying, where necessary, the syllogistic method. Modern Nyaya, as regards the subjects of discussion, makes no departure from the ancient. Rather, it restricts itself to fewer subjects; 209*^592 [ -^ ] Fnit those it discusses, it discusses with a nicety and a minute precision unknown to ancient Nyaya. It lays particular stress on a strict definition of tern-^s, and it aims at ascertaining precisely even the meanings of expressions in common use and so intelligible to all. For example, Gotama, in putting forth his aphorism, "^r^riT^"'ar: ^Tc\l!\" (I. 1-2-3.) does not think it necessary that he should attempt any elucidation of the meaning of the term iifcT^r 1 His earlier commentators too', Pakshila Svamin and others, make no such attempt. Gangesa Upadhyaya, the founder of the uTodern school of Nyaya, enters upon a lengthy discission about the meaning of ^ffTTfT, remarking that w^f^'i'^^ is inadequate as a characteristic of Trfri^^T, for, ^i^R^'at might be understood as simply meaning, — naming the ^tw. He notices also other points. He puts forth the following as the characteristic of 5|ffllTI — =\ Raghunatha Siromani improves upon the above thus : — Then follows Gadadhara, who discusses the question at greater length than his predecessors, bringing out several nice points, and comes at last to the following conclusion : — 13] ■a^TTfn^q^cn^^"^^T?r^^f?srGsifTrfsTirqcT€T'--27cTN^"^^fT'^^Rf'^^- 5^f^q^cIT3I53n^^T^5I*T^ ^T^" TTfcfTTT l" An eld Nyiya work lays down -^jsqfvfgftfi^ or -^ir^iTiWT^ ((invariable connection) as the characteristic attribute oi o^^[f^ i Gangesa Upadhyaya thinks this characterisation insufti- cient, and so he delivers himself as follows: — Raghunatha Siromani improves upon Gangesa's elucida- tion thus : — ' He is followed by Bhavananda, Mathuranatha, J-'^gadisa and Gadddhara, each with some improvement of his own, Jagadisa's conclusion is as follows: — A hair-splitting subtlety in the discussion of meanings of terms is, thus, the distinguishing characteristic of modern Nyaya. Poverty of matter is its great drawback. Notwith- litandiiig this drawback, however, it is an cxtclknl training [ 4 ] for the intellect, which, under its discipline, acquires a power of precise thinking that is beyond all price. Without a study of modern Nyaya it is impossible, again, to thoroughly understand certain Sanskrit works on Philosophy, Law, Rhetoric and even Grammar ; for example, the CJiitsukhi, a commentary by Chitsukhacharyya on Nydyamakarafida ( a treatise on the Vedanta philosophy by xVnandabodha), the Ddyahhdgaprabodliini, a commentary by Srikrishna Tarkd- lanka'ra on Ddyabhdga ( a treatise on the Hindu Law of Inheritance), the Kdvyaprakdsddarsa, a commentary by Mahesvara Nya'ylanka'ra on Kdtyaprakdsa ( a work on Rhetoric), and Paribhdsenditsekhara and Maiijusa ( works on Grammar) by Na'gesa Bhatta. The Sutras of Gotama, the Bhdshya of Pakshila Sva'min, the Vdrtika of Udyotaka'ra A'cha'ryya, the Tdtparyya-tikd of Va'chaspati Misra, the Tdtparyya-tikd-Fmsjiddhi of Udayana A'cha'ryya fall under the head of ancient Nya'ya. The works on Vaiseshika philosophy, with the exception of a few, such a5 Muktdvali, may also be included under the same head. All the works on Nyaya from Gangesa's, who lived probably in the 14th century, down to Gada'dhara's, who lived in the latter end of the 17th century, come under the head of modern Nya'ya. Gangesa Upa'dhya'ya was a native of Mithila' (north-eastern Beha'r). He founded the modern school of Nya'ya. His great work is the Tattva-Chmtdmaiii of which the subject is twT'U ( proof), one of the sixteen categories laid down by Gotama" in his Sutras. The system introduced by him received further development at the hands of his disciples, among whom was [ 5 ] his own son Vardhama'na Upa'dhya'ya, up to tlie time of Pakshadhara Misra, who flourished in the middle of the 15th century. He was the writer of a commentary called Aloka on Gangesa's Tattva-Chifitdtnani. Down to the time of Paksha- dhara the study of modern Nya'ya was almost exclusively confined to Mithila, which became the resort of pupils from all parts of India. The literary activity of the Mithila' school began to decline after the time of Pakshadhara, whose work called A'loka is the last standard work on modern Nya'ya. The school, however, continued to flourish, and it is not yet extinct in Mithila'. It may be noticed here incidentally that the works of Gangesa and his followers effected a revolution in the study of Nya'ya and completely superseded the ancient Nya'ya works, such as the Bhdshya, the Vartika, (Sic, so much so that very few Pandits of the present day possess even copies of these works. From Mithila' the study of modern Nya'ya spread to Nava- dvipa (Nadiya'j the same as Nuddea), and the students who had studied the subject in iSIithila began to teach it to their pupils in the latter place. The name of the Pandit who first introduced the study of modern Nya'ya into Navadvipa can not be ascertained. Ra'mabhadra Siddha'ntava'gisa is the earli- est Nadiya' writer on Nya'ya of whom we have any certain knowledge. He wrote a commentary on the Kusutnaiijali of Udayana A'cha'ryya. The image of the goddess Ka'li, known as "Poda'-Ma"' (burnt mother) in consequence of its having been burnt once, and to which offerings are made by students on the eve of their departure from Navadvipa after the completion of their studies there, is said to have been set up for worship by Ra'mabhadra. After Ra'mabhadra came [ 6 ] Basudeva Sa'rvabhauma. He was the writer of a work on Nya'ya wliich is now missing but is referred to in other works on Nya'ya. Raghuna'tha Siromani, the writer of the celebrated Didhiti which, though calUng itself a commentary on the chapters on Anumdna ( inference ) in the Tatlva-Chinidmani, contains a great deal of valuable original matter, was a pupil of Ba'sudeva Sa'rvabhauma, and, according to tradition, a con- temporary of Chaitanya, the celebrated Vaishnava reformer. In his hands the system of Gangesa received its fullest development, and from his time the fame of the Nadiya school began to increase until at last the Mithila school was com- pletely thrown into the shade, yielding thus to its rival the place which it formerly occupied. The Naiya'yikas of Nadiya have ever since maintained this position — a postion recognised by Pandits all over India. After Raghuna'tha came in succes- sion Bhava'nanda Siddha'ntava'gisa, Mathura'na'th Tarkava'gisa, Ja'ga'disa Tarka'lanka'ra and Gada'dhara Bhatta'cha'ryya. The descendants of the last have been distinguished Naiya'yikas, and the greatest living Professor of Nya'ya at Nadiya', Maha'- mahopa'dhya'ya Bhuvana Mohana Vidya'ratna, is the sixth in descent from Gada'dhara. Another Bengali Naiya'yika, Krishnada'sa Sa'rvabhauma but whether of Nadiya' or not is not known, wrote a commentary on the Didhiti, named the Didhili Prasdrini of which a MS. copy written in Samvat 1672, corresponding to the year 1615 of the Christian era, exists in the Government Sanskrit College in Calcutta. All these Nadiya writers wrote commentaries on the Didhiti, Mathura'na'tha writing a full commentary on the Chintd mani besides, and they enlarged the technical terminology of modern Nyaya. To give an example. The terms f? and f^(^^rf both [ r ] imply duality, but while the former can never he predicated of a single individual, the latter can. We cannot say, " wi w\" but can say "^if f^^^ji^y so that ft and ffc^^*r cannot have the same meaning. A distinction between the two meanings is made thus : — The idea of duality, as expressed by ff, requires for its completion (q^rf^) an aggregate of two objects. There- fore f% cannot be predicated of a single object ^?t I But the idea of duality, as expressed by ftc^^T^ and meaning, 'belonging to an aggregate of two', and therefore not requiring for its completion the aggregate of two objects but requiring only one of them, can be predicated of a single object ^^j. The former class of predication is based on what is called q!qtfff€»^^ (relation of completion;, and the latter on ^*T^T■ 1 Hj^^t: ''^s^qi-g t^HTTSft f*T'^igf*T^q^virt^^fl'T: i i -4 ] q^^ TjffcT ^^«Tj gi^JTT^^nf^ ^qj^^'!! '^vnft vrwfrT, ?THIT ^S^^^fff it 5fTT% ; T3[^ it ^^m ^z^ ^sfq ^^^vrit^r ^z^z\^^^^^[f^ ^VTT^^ IffcT^fffiTclT ti^Tf^rf ^*W5^ '^^=^fT WW '??^1^^T vr^f?T, flf^' IT^TT^'t ■gJTVTT^^ TrfcT^ftf'TfTT ^RTT^'T ^T^^'T ^ZcisT =^ >^'w ^^r^^T I fTcT^ ci?!tt: trfcT^ftRcTRrr: ^^t^pt: ^f^^: ^t^^ ^^: 'sr^- If^fq ;?T?w. ''ivrrfr 5nf% ; '^^ct: ^Tf^^^^qj^sf ;^^^ ^^^ f^^^■[^- TiiTJrsT 'Ffj^sf : Tff?T?ftf^fTTt^ "^^f^^^i ( f^9rq?T*r ) ^^JT^fcr, TT^gwi, ^t ( f^^^pifcT ) I ^sTTq^ ^q^ ^'^j^: ct^t: ^w^^*^ vrqfcr, TTfcT?fff^cTT 5EmTr?T^»^^: »JcT% ^ztvtt^^ i?fcT?ft1%(Tt ff^^cfrfci ^R:Tvni«!i f -5 ] ( gz: + c^ ) f^Twt ^'51 : (^^ct 5rrf?r:) g^^im Trfrr^f^rrr^n: ^ci^^?*: Trmim "?r^^^^3i^ '^^ T??ft^^:, 'rg f^?JT*T^9i^sft ; tram L i6 ] »i3w w^w^ 5nf(T;, ^nmTT^ ^irrvrT^ssr^ ft^T'iiTvn^: i 'emr^sf'? ^wivrrft *^^=^" ^f^-'HT^ ffTsf^ T g f^' isj^ ^^^tT ^T^ff^fTT^: TJn?t^: ■^R^^wrwr^^iXT^ ifFT^: ^Tfift vrff?T i ?mT '^sf f=^: ^q^Ef^ff'ft ^ ^j^' ijm ^T^$ ^^twr: ; "^r^i '^qimw q^ife t g ^f?Tl% i t qffi^frf^JT; 'ft' ft?f^ -^tf^^T^' ^^ ^:, flf^?i^f*T^'tsi>r^Tw at [ '7 ] ■^vfr^^ Hsrf^'fsf^: -^li^fti^Twr^; ^^irfjTTWJ i ctt^t'^tt" ( fT?r*g'FqffT H^TRfn^^ftfq ^'JeTfTT-^Tq^^^'JIT: %STf^»W W %?ff^W ^MJ^sT "^f^f^^T *T^*fl I '^I^ ^fTTc1T-Rf?T:f?TT?T' f fSJ'^Tg'TT^ q^% q% W^T f-l^F [ '9 ] ^^^ ?f?T, q^ =^^:Ti?fr?TT5T^T =^ frs(f^ ^ri^ ^rm ? ?f?T ^ai^: 1 ^ef Tl^^^^ ^^^^ tt^tt: ; qT ' ii m