A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s5.22

c33.s5.22

A definite step in the history of the Nyāya was marked by the appearance of Gaṅgeça's *Tattvacintāmaṇi*¹³ (*c.* 1200) in four books, which expounds with much subtlety the means of proof permitted in the Nyāya, incidentally expounding the metaphysics of the school at the same time. Gaṅgeça was no mean philosopher, though it seems difficult to call his prose clear and simple, though it is both compared to the diction of his commentators. These include his own son Vardhamāna, the dramatist Jayadeva, and, most famous of all, Raghunātha Çiromaṇi¹ (*c.* 1500), on whom Gadādhara commented (*c.* 1700), and Mathurānātha. This is scholasticism of the worst description, in which definitions alone were of interest, and it is regrettable that in the sixteenth century the Sanskrit schools of Navadvīpa formed the centre of intellectual life in the country, since but for their overloading of his doctrine Gaṅgeça's real merits might have been recognized more widely. In point of fact, from a rough system of argument from examples Indian logic rose to a developed and able scheme of inference based on universals, and the formation of universals it explained by a well-thought-out metaphysical theory. Buddhist logic, again, in the hands of Dignāga developed a doctrine of knowledge which certainly deserves careful study and which in certain aspects shows close affinity to the views of Kant, though the likeness has sometimes been exaggerated.