The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies v2: Volume 2

The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies v2

Language: English

v2.c14 Front matter — 28 parts
v2.c15 Preface — 71 parts
v2.c16 Footnotes — 16 parts
v2.c17 Index — 43 parts

Volume 2

Front matter

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Vol. II the *Goths*, the *Vandals*, the *Suevi*, the *Burgundians*, the *Alani*, the *Huns*, the *Franks*, the *Saxons*, the *Thuringians*, the *Rugians*, and the *Heruli*. The names of these tribes are familiar to the reader, but their origin, their migrations, and their settlements are involved in the deepest obscurity. The most probable opinion is that they were all of German or Scythian extraction, and that they had been driven from their native seats by the pressure of the Huns, a formidable nation of Tartars, who had crossed the Volga and the Tanais, and were advancing with rapid strides towards the frontiers of the Roman empire.

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The first of these nations that crossed the Danube was the *Goths*. They were divided into two great branches, the *Visigoths* or Western Goths, and the *Ostrogoths* or Eastern Goths. The Visigoths, under the conduct of Fritigern, implored the protection of the emperor Valens, and were permitted to settle in the province of Thrace. But the perfidy of the Roman governors, and the insolence of the Roman soldiers, soon provoked them to rebellion. They defeated the imperial armies, and Valens himself perished in the battle of Hadrianople.

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The death of Valens was followed by the accession of Theodosius, who, by his wisdom and valour, restored the discipline of the Roman legions, and compelled the Goths to accept a peace, which was rather a truce than a permanent settlement. The Goths, however, remained in the heart of the empire, and their presence was a constant source of danger and alarm. They were no longer the rude barbarians who had first crossed the Danube; they had learned the arts of war and the policy of the Romans, and they were ready to take advantage of any opportunity to assert their independence.

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The reign of Theodosius was the last period of the glory of the Roman empire. After his death, the empire was divided between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius. Arcadius reigned in the East, and Honorius in the West. The division was fatal to the interests of the state. The two brothers were weak and indolent, and they were governed by their ministers and favourites. The Goths, under the command of Alaric, took advantage of the weakness of the government, and invaded Italy. They besieged and took Rome, and the eternal city, which had for so many centuries been the mistress of the world, was plundered by the barbarians.

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The fall of Rome was a shock to the whole civilized world. It was the end of an era, and the beginning of a new and darker age. The Goths, after the death of Alaric, retired from Italy, and settled in Gaul and Spain, where they founded kingdoms which were destined to last for several centuries. The Vandals, under the command of Genseric, crossed into Africa, and established a powerful kingdom, which for a time threatened the security of the Mediterranean. The Franks, under the command of Clovis, conquered Gaul, and laid the foundations of the French monarchy. The Saxons, under the command of Hengist and Horsa, invaded Britain, and established the kingdoms of the Heptarchy.

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHIES

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Vol. II: Indian Metaphysics and Epistemology: The Tradition of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika up to Gaṅgeśa

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EDITED BY

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KARL H. POTTER

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Princeton, New Jersey Copyright © 1977 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be found on the last printed page of this book

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This book was composed in India by Shantilal Jain at Shri Jainendra Press, New Delhi

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Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey Contributors:

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Usharbudh Arya, University of Minnesota Gopikamohan Bhattacharya, Kurukshetra University Janakivallabha Bhattacharya, Jadavpur University Sibajiban Bhattacharya, University of Burdwan Masaaki Hattori, University of Kyoto Bimal Krishna Matilal, University of Toronto Jitendranath Mohanty, Universities of Calcutta and Oklahoma E. R. Sreekrishna Sarma, Sri Venkatesvara University S. Subrahmanya Sastri, University of Madras V. Varadachari, Sri Venkatesvara University the *Goths*, the *Vandals*, the *Suevi*, the *Burgundians*, the *Alani*, the *Huns*, the *Franks*, the *Saxons*, the *Thuringians*, the *Rugians*, and the *Heruli*. The names of these tribes are familiar to the reader, but their origin, their migrations, and their settlements are involved in the deepest obscurity. The most probable opinion is that they were all of German or Scythian extraction, and that they had been driven from their native seats by the pressure of the Huns, a formidable nation of Tartars, who had crossed the Volga and the Tanais, and were advancing with rapid strides towards the frontiers of the Roman empire.

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PART ONE :

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF NYĀYA-VAIŚEṢIKA (*Karl H. Potter*)
1. Historical Resumé 1
2. Theory of Value 18
3. Nature of a Philosophical System 38
4. Relations 47
5. Substance 69
6. Qualities and Motions 112
7. Universals, Individuators, and Absences 133
8. Meaning and Truth 147
9. Logical Theory 179

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PART TWO :

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SUMMARIES OF WORKS
1. Kaṇāda 211 Vaiśeṣikasūtras (*Masaaki Hattori*) 212
2. Gautama 220 Nyāyasūtras (*Karl H. Potter*) 221
3. Vākyakāra 238
4. Kaṭandikāra 238
5. Vātsyāyana 239 Nyāyabhāṣya (*Karl H. Potter*) 240
6. Candramati 274 Daśapadārthaśāstra (*Masaaki Hattori*) 275
7. Bhāvivikta 281
8. Praśastapāda 282 Padārthadharmasaṃgraha (*Karl H. Potter*) 282
9. Uddyotakara 303 Nyāyavārttika (*Karl H. Potter*) 304
10. Ātreya 337
11. Prīticandra 338
12. Aviddhakarṇa 338
13. Śaṃkara (*Svāmin*) 340
14. Viśvarūpa 341 15. Dhairyarāśi 341
16. Jayanta Bhaṭṭa 341 Nyāyamañjarī (*Karl H. Potter*, *J. V. Bhattacharya*, *U. Arya*) 343 Nyāyakalikā (*J. V. Bhattacharya*) 394
17. The Nyāyaratnākara 395
18. Trilocana 396
19. Bhāsarvajña 398 Nyāyasāra (*Karl H. Potter*) 400 Nyāyabhūṣaṇa (*B. K. Matilal*) 410
20. Sānātanī 424
21. Vyomaśiva 424 Vyomavatī (*V. Varadachari*) 425
22. Vācaspati Miśra 453 Nyāyavārttikatātparyaṭīkā (*B. K. Matilal*) 455
23. Adhyāyana 484
24. Vittoka 484
25. Narasimha 484
26. Śrīdhara 485 Nyāyakandalī (*Karl H. Potter*) 485
27. Śrīvatsa 520
28. Aniruddha 521
29. Udayana 521 Lakṣaṇāvalī (*Karl H. Potter*) 523 Lakṣaṇamālā (*S. Subrahmanya Sastri*) 525 Ātmatattvaviveka (*V. Varadachari*) 526 Nyāyakusumāñjali (*Karl H. Potter* and *Sibajiban Bhattacharya*) 557 Nyāyapariśiṣṭa 588 Nyāyavārttikatātparyaṭīkāpariśuddhi 588 Kiraṇāvalī (*B. K. Matilal*) 589
30. Aparārkadeva 603 Nyāyamuktāvalī (*S. Subrahmanya Sastri*) 604
31. Śrīkaṇṭha 612
32. The Vṛttikāra 612
33. Vallabha 613 Nyāyalīlāvatī (*J. N. Mohanty*) 613
34. Varadarāja 629 Tārkikarakṣā with Sārasamgraha (*Karl H. Potter*) 629 Nyāyakusumāñjalibodhanī (*G. Bhattacharya*) 640
35. Śivāditya 642 Saptapadārthī (*Karl H. Potter*) 643

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Nyāyamālā (*S. Subrahmanya Sastri*) 645
36. Vādīndra 646 Mahāvidyāviḍambana (*E. R. Sreekrishna Sarma*) 647 Kiraṇāvalīdarpaṇa (*G. Bhattacharya*) 652 Kaṇādasūtranibandha 658
37. Bhaṭṭa Rāghava 659
38. Divākara 659
39. Vādi Vāgīśvara 660
40. Nārāyaṇa Sarvajña 663
41. Keśava Miśra 663 Trakabhāṣā (*Karl H. Potter*) 664
42. Ānandānubhava 667
43. Prabhākaropādhyāya 667
44. Abhayatilaka 668
45. Soṇḍadopādhyāya 668
46. Maṇikaṇṭha Miśra 668 Nyāyaratna (*V. Varadachari*) 669
47. Śaśadhara 682 Nyāyasidhāntadīpa 682
48. Taraṇi Miśra 684
49. Jagadguru 684
50. Ravīśvara 685
51. Nyāyabhāskarakāra 685
52. Viṣṇumiśra 685
53. Vidyādharamiśra 685
54. Śrīkara 685
55. Bharadvājavṛttikāra (?) 685
56. Candrānanda 685 FOOTNOTES 687 the *Goths*, the *Vandals*, the *Suevi*, the *Burgundians*, the *Alani*, the *Huns*, the *Franks*, the *Saxons*, the *Thuringians*, the *Rugians*, and the *Heruli*. The names of these tribes are familiar to the reader, but their origin, their migrations, and their settlements are involved in the deepest obscurity. The most probable opinion is that they were all of German or Scythian extraction, and that they had been driven from their native seats by the pressure of the Huns, a formidable nation of Tartars, who had crossed the Volga and the Tanais, and were advancing with rapid strides towards the frontiers of the Roman empire.

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Preface

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The present volume provides a detailed resumé of current knowledge about the classical Indian philosophical system of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika in its earlier stages. Specifically, it covers the literatures of Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika from their inception in the respective sūtras up to the time of Gaṅgeśa, that is, about A.D. 1350. This dividing point is regularly accepted in the tradition, since with Gaṅgeśa it is felt that a new start is made within the systems, the result coming to be known as Navyanyāya, “new” Nyāya. We hope that a volume will follow covering the remainder of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika literature from Gaṅgeśa to the present.

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A volume already published, *Bibliography of Indian Philosophies* (New Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass, 1970), provides a useful guide to the literature, both primary and secondary, on the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school, and citations in the present book make constant references to the *Bibliography*, such references usually appearing in the form of “B” followed by the number of entry cited.

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The form of this book features an extended introductory section followed by summaries of works belonging to the system’s literature. These summaries are arranged in relative chronological order to assist the reader in tracing the development of the school’s thought. Summaries have been solicited from scholars around the world—Indian, Japanese, and American scholars have collaborated in the undertaking. This international aspect of the book is one of its pleasantest features, serving to put philosophers and Indologists around the world in closer touch with one another.

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A few words of explanation and advice as to how to use this book may be in order. Perhaps the first and foremost thing that needs to be said is that this volume is not intended to be analytically definitive: it invites the attention of philosophers and scholars rather than making such attention unnecessary. The thinking behind the preparation of this volume has been that philosophers without extended training in Sanskrit and Indian studies are not in a very good position to appreciate the contributions made by classical Indian philosophy toward the solution of perennial philosophical problems. This is partly due to the fact that the tradition in which the Indian schools arise and grow is foreign to Western philosophers, but our thinking is that this fact is an avoidable hazard. It is also partly due to the type of translations that have been produced by Indian and Western Sanskrit scholars; these translations, while usually accurate, are not always philosophically perspicuous, which is to say that they do not always bring out what a professional philosopher will find most interesting and identifiable in the material. The production of an acceptable translation is, and ought to be, a serious and extensive scholarly problem, and the summaries in Part II of this book are in no way intended as surrogates for such translations. Nevertheless, we think that philosophers should be provided with a tool for introducing Indian thought into their courses on problems of philosophy, history of thought, etc., and that the translations and other materials currently available to them do not make it really possible for them to work up Indian thought without more training than most philosophers are willing or able to expose themselves to. Our aim here, then, is to provide the philosopher with an account of the systematic thought of India which is less detailed than an accurate translation, but more detailed than the standard introductory textbook on Indian philosophy.

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It is to be stressed that the work is addressed to philosophers primarily, and Indologists secondarily. Of course we hope that the materials here presented will, within the limits of our intent, be adjudged sufficiently accurate in terms of scholarship. The editor has endeavored to obtain the work of some of the leading scholars of the system to furnish summaries. However, these summaries omit large portions, may well omit sections which others deem of primary importance, and will otherwise deviate from the evaluations likely to be made by the Sanskritist. In order that there be no misunderstanding it is well to mention these points here. These summaries, then, are not substitutes for scholarship, but guides and markers for further study on the part of trained scholars.

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In studying the philosophy of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school one finds that a fair amount of the literature occurs in the sūtra or commentary form so well known in India. The reader should bear in mind that, in the summary of one of the sūtras, say, what is summarized is no more than what is actually said there; if the summary seems imprecise and laconic, that is because (if we have done our work well) the sūtra has those features. It is characteristic of this tradition that the commentators spell out what they believe to be the intent of the authors of the sūtras; thus the reader should, if he is tracing the thought of the school on a given topic, be careful to read the summaries of the commentators in conjunction with that of the sūtra. The index provided is intended to enable the reader to identify all the passages summarized here which bear upon a given topic, and he is advised to use it frequently. Sometimes, too, an author will comment on a topic in a part of his work unrelated to any logical development that the ordinary reader can discern; here again the reader may well miss this contribution unless he uses the index.

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This volume has been in preparation for a number of years. Work on it began in the early 1960s. The editor wishes to thank the American Institute of Indian Studies for awarding him a Fellowship in 1963-64 which enabled him to visit prospective contributors and utilize the resources that India provided for furthering his work. Later on, in the summer of 1967, he received a Summer Session grant from the University of Minnesota which enabled him to use the Widener Library to locate out of the way secondary materials in preparing his introductory section. He is extremely grateful for both these opportunities.

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1977 KARL H. POTTER the *Goths*, the *Vandals*, the *Suevi*, the *Burgundians*, the *Alani*, the *Huns*, the *Franks*, the *Saxons*, the *Thuringians*, the *Rugians*, and the *Heruli*. The names of these tribes are familiar to the reader, but their origin, their migrations, and their settlements are involved in the deepest obscurity. The most probable opinion is that they were all of German or Scythian extraction, and that they had been driven from their native seats by the pressure of the Huns, a formidable nation of Tartars, who had crossed the Volga and the Tanais, and were advancing with rapid strides towards the frontiers of the Roman empire.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF NYĀYA-VAIŚEṢIKA the *Goths*, the *Vandals*, the *Suevi*, the *Burgundians*, the *Alani*, the *Huns*, the *Franks*, the *Saxons*, the *Thuringians*, the *Rugians*, and the *Heruli*. The names of these tribes are familiar to the reader, but their origin, their migrations, and their settlements are involved in the deepest obscurity. The most probable opinion is that they were all of German or Scythian extraction, and that they had been driven from their native seats by the pressure of the Huns, a formidable nation of Tartars, who had crossed the Volga and the Tanais, and were advancing with rapid strides towards the frontiers of the Roman empire.

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Historical Resume

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A full-scale philosophical system is generally expected to speak to problems in the following areas: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and theory of value, logic, and philosophical method. The system of Indian philosophy known as Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika is such a full-scale system. Its contribution in each and every one of these areas is extensive, interesting, and usually of fundamental importance, as this introduction will attempt to show.

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*Metaphysics*: Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika offers one of the most vigorous efforts at the construction of a substantialist, realist ontology that the world has ever seen. It provides an extended critique of event-ontologies and idealist metaphysics. It starts from a unique basis for ontology that incorporates several of the most recent Western insights into the question of how to defend realism most successfully. This ontology is "Platonistic" (it admits repeatable properties as Plato's did), realistic (it builds the world from "timeless" individuals as well as spatio-temporal points or events), but neither exclusively physicalistic nor phenomenalistic (it admits as basic individuals entities both directly known and inferred from scientific investigations).¹ Though the system has many quaint and archaic features from a modern point of view, as a philosophical base for accommodating scientific insights it has advantages: its authors developed an atomic theory, came to treat numbers very much in the spirit of modern mathematics, argued for a wave theory of sound transmission, and adapted an empiricist view of causality to their own uses.

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*Epistemology*: Whereas in "modern" philosophy of the West the idealist critique of substance initiated by Berkeley has never been seriously challenged, the philosophers of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school entered the controversy very early in its history against Buddhists who used Berkeleyan arguments. The resulting polemical battle may well represent the most important confrontation in philosophical literature between so-called naive realism and the threats to it from idealist sources. Nyāya offers an account of perception which makes sense of our belief in an external world, yet promises to explain the fact of perceptual error without allowing that opening wedge of idealism, the admission that the mind creates certain parts of our world (and so why not all of it?). The intricacy of this discussion between Nyāya and Buddhism brings out many fascinating and little understood aspects of the two views and what they require from their adherents.

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*Ethics and Theory of Value*: The Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika system provides no startling new ideas over and beyond what is generally acceptable to Hindus, but it presents many carefully gauged arguments for the standard position, involving belief in transmigration, *karma*, and the possibility of liberation from future rebirths. It does not discuss questions of "ethical theory" as we understand that term in contemporary philosophy, since that was the business of others (Mīmāṃsakas) in the peculiar division of labor adopted by the ancient Indian thinkers. However, it endorses many of the general ethical attitudes of Hindu sages, questioning some in passing. On one point Nyāya is recognized by Hindus to have provided a definitive treatment, and this is on arguments for the existence of God.

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*Logic*: Nyāya grew in part as a theory of philosophical debate, and among Hindus has been accepted as the system which specially studies the theory of arguments good and bad, in keeping with the division of labor principle alluded to in the previous paragraph. This does not mean that all Hindu philosophers accepted every point in the Nyāya account, but they certainly tended to look to Nyāya for definitive treatment and detailed discussions of intricate points. Nyāya had its great rival, however, in the logic developed by the Buddhists, and from this controversy developed one of the most comprehensive logical theories the world has known. Indian logic is never conceived as "formal" in the Western sense, but as an account of sane processes of reasoning it has few equals in the West for attention to detail.

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*Philosophical Method*: Topics in this area are of the greatest current interest to philosophers in the Anglo-American tradition. Western philosophers sometimes seem to suppose that the "linguistic turn" in recent philosophy is a unique phenomenon, a turning-point in the history of philosophy. Perhaps it is, but if so it took place many centuries ago in India, where attention to grammar was commonplace by the 4th century B.C. The Nyāya theory of language, of meaning and the meaningfulness of words and sentences, shows subtlety at the levels of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Nyāya also gave prolonged attention to defense of the empirical theory of validity and truth, opposing uncritical use of intuition and authoritarian appeals to revelation.

I. Who were these Philosophers?

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The present volume covers the first part of the history of the school of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, up until the beginning of so-called Navya-nyāya in the *Tattvacintāmaṇi* of Gaṅgeśa. The reader will be able to find below summaries of what we know about these ancient philosophers. In this section I provide only a brief survey designed to give a nodding acquaintance with the most important of them so that they can be referred to as we proceed.

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Gaṅgeśa flourished around A. D. 1350. This volume, then, deals with the system as it is presented and developed by some 55 authors who flourished prior to A. D. 1350, and who wrote some works of which we know or have heard. Many of these authors are practically nothing but names to us at present, and it is quite possible that we shall never learn more about them. Of the 82 works whose titles are known to us, only 51 are available now; the remaining ones, if we know anything about them, are known through fragmentary references taken from the works of philosophers who addressed polemics toward their views.²

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Of the 50 works available in manuscript, 33 have been edited, some more than once, and 11 have been translated—wholly or partially—into English. In our treatment in this volume we have been able to provide summaries of the contents of 30 of these works. However, many of the works we have been unable to summarize are late commentaries of apparently less interest than some of the more original works that are better known.

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As with several of the major Hindu philosophical systems, there is a tradition that looks back to a basic work in which the principles of the system were supposedly first enunciated. Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika were frequently listed as two systems,³ partly perhaps because there are two sets of *sūtras* or aphorisms from which the two schools issued. It is uncertain whether these works were the work of one author or many, and it is probable that the development of the doctrines they summarize took place over several centuries. Of the two, the *Vaiśeṣikasūtras*, attributed to a probably fictitious person named "Kaṇāda" (perhaps "atom-eater") or "Ulūka" ("owl"), seem to represent the somewhat earlier stage of development. The date of Gautama or Akṣapāda ("eyes in his feet"), to whom the *Nyāyasūtras* is attributed, is variously estimated from as early as the 6th century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D., the reason for the discrepancy being apparently that these *sūtras*, which achieved their present form around the time of Nāgārjuna and very possibly were fashioned by a chief architect of that period, are attributed to a traditional personage who must have lived very long ago, since he is known to the authors of Vedas and epics which date back many centuries before Christ. In any case, it seems likely that traditions which associate Kaṇāda with Banaras and Akṣapāda with Mithilā (North Bihar) may be accepted; Banaras was an ancient seat of learning, and many of the most influential later scholars of the system came from or were instructed in Mithilā.

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The style of the *Vaiśeṣikasūtras* is laconic, and several parts of it are extremely difficult to interpret. Apparently later Vaiśeṣika authors found them difficult to understand also, as commentaries on these *sūtras* before Vādīndra (fl. 1225) have been lost and apparently more or less forgotten. The style of the *Nyāyasūtras*, by contrast, is somewhat more discursive, particularly in its third and fourth books, which has led some to guess that these are of later origin. However, it is several centuries before the first extant commentary on these *sūtras* was composed by Vātsyāyana or Pakṣilasvāmin (450-500), who is also known as “Drāmiḍa,” suggesting his home was in the Deccan or the south of India. The *Nyāyabhāṣya*, as this commentary is known, became the basis for a great many subcommentaries in the next few centuries, and indeed on until the present. Whether Vātsyāyana accurately understood the meaning of the aphorisms on which he comments, it is his account of Nyāya which provides the springboard for many of the subsequent developments in the system.

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This is not to suggest, however, that each new sub-commentator did not innovate. They certainly did so, for they were under constant pressure from a remarkable series of philosophical Buddhists, who selected Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika as their prime target in controversy. Scholars are still not absolutely certain about the relative chronology of this period, but it would appear that Buddhist logic of a serious sort began with Vasubandhu, who was more or less contemporaneous with Vātsyāyana; it was developed by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, defended by Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, and refined by Ratnakīrti and Jñānaśrīmitra, and that this period found constant challenge and response between these philosophers and the contemporary Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika thinkers.

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Part of the difficulty in piecing together the history of this period is due to the fact that the historian must command several languages to be in full command of his materials. The original language of all these philosophers, Hindu and Buddhist, was classical Sanskrit, but for many of the Buddhist works the scholar must rely on Tibetan and/or Chinese versions, then reconstruct the original. It is probable that many as yet unknown works of these times are hidden away in Tibetan lamaseries, for occasional forays have brought to light a number of works previously unknown or only heard of, and there must be many more waiting to be discovered.

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It is understandable that the Sanskrit works which Chinese monks translated and carried to China during these times were mainly Buddhist. Only two Hindu texts are known to have been translated; one of them is a treatise called *Daśapadārthaśāstra* by a Candramati (or Maticandra) who probably dates from about Vātsyāyana’s time. His work is a version of the Vaiśeṣika system, and Frauwallner has argued that it was to refute his version that Praśastapāda wrote the work which is probably, even more than the *Vaiśeṣikasūtras*, the definitive treatise on Vaiśeṣika tenet.⁴ Praśastapāda’s work is called *Padārthadharmasaṃgraha*; while it alludes frequently to the *sūtras*, it can hardly be called a commentary on them, being an independent exposition of the fundamental tenets of the system with some detailed notes on certain topics. Scholars have argued whether Praśastapāda got his theory of inference from Dignāga the great Buddhist logician, or vice versa. It appears fairly certain that Praśastapāda and Dignāga were separated by no more than a century. Frauwallner dates Praśastapāda 500 to 600. Approximately contemporary with him is the Naiyāyika⁵ Uddyotakara, whose commentary on *Nyāyabhāṣya* is the oldest now available. Uddyotakara clearly knows of Dignāga’s views and attacks them. His *Nyāyavārttika* is philosophical work of great skill in dialectic; he was a consummate philosopher, although some modern scholars judge him too fond of sharp practices in argumentation.

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At this point, unhappily, a 300-year gap sets in as far as available texts are concerned. From Buddhist sources, however, we know that the period was alive with philosophical controversy. Śāntarakṣita (ca. 700) refers to several old Naiyāyikas and considers some of them to be "pillars" of the system—notably Bhāvivikta, Aviddhakarṇa, and Śaṃkarasvāmin. Bhāvivikta may be prior to Uddyotakara, but the other two must fall within this 300-year gap. Fortunately, Śāntarakṣita and his commentator Kamalaśīla provide extensive references to the views of several of these philosophers.

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The next available texts of the system come from a new direction—Kashmir. One of the most interesting personalities among our group of philosophers is Jayanta Bhaṭṭa (840-900), the author of a *Nyāyamañjarī* (and apparently a summary of it called *Nyāyakalikā*). Jayanta came from a Bengali family which had migrated to Kashmir several generations previously; he was an orthodox Brahmin who zealously defended the authority of the Vedas and saw the refutation of Buddhism as a religious cause. Yet he was no fanatic; he held that differences among religious sects are unimportant since they all seek the same end, namely liberation: all serious (i.e., Hindu?) faiths should be tolerated. Furthermore, Jayanta was capable of retaining his sense of humor under adversity: he tells us that as he writes *Nyāyamañjarī* he is being held prisoner in a cave and "I have beguiled my days here by this diversion of writing a book." The book turns out to be one of the acknowledged masterpieces of Sanskrit style, replete with light turns of phrase to offset the dry character of his subject matter. An "allrounder," Jayanta also wrote a play and was well trained in grammar and aesthetics.

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Another Kashmiri Naiyāyika is Bhāsarvajña (860-920), the author of *Nyāyasāra* and a commentary on it called *Nyāyabhūṣaṇa*. The importance of the latter work for the development of the system is difficult to overemphasize. The *Nyāyasāra*, a brief and rather straightforward summary of Nyāya doctrines with a few remarkable features, is a standard text. The *Bhūṣaṇa*, however, is a long work that was thought to be lost until quite recently. The work has now been published, and its appearance is one of the most exciting events in the history of scholarship on Indian philosophy, for the doctrines in this work are apparently highly extraordinary and original. Later philosophers continually refer to the view of the "Bhūṣaṇakāra," or sometimes to a group of Naiyāyikas they call "ekadeśins"—meaning "a section of the school," apparently referring to the followers of the Bhūṣaṇakāra. Since many of the opinions of this section involve throwing out whole categories of time-honored importance within the system, it is understandable that Bhāsarvajña's views provide the basis for what is perhaps the only serious factional split within the system, one that lasts on and is referred to till the end of our period. Bhāsarvajña's theories may well turn out to have inspired some of the reforms currently attributed⁶ to the Navya-naiyāyika Raghunātha Śiromaṇi, for instance.

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This brings us to the 10th and 11th centuries, a period during which the Nyāya-Buddhism conflict reached its climax. Indeed, after this period Buddhism, for whatever reasons, is no longer a force in India. Naiyāyikas like to think this occurred because of the force of their polemics.

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Three commentaries on Praśastapāda’s classic Vaiśeṣika treatise were written during this period: the *Vyomavatī* of Vyomaśiva (900-960), the *Nyāyakandalī* of Śrīdhara (950-1000), and the *Kiraṇāvalī* of Udayana (1050-1100). These are lengthy, technical accounts defending complex ontology with exceptional subtlety. As for commentaries on the Nyāya literature, two authors stand out prominently. One is Vācaspati Miśra (900-980), a rather unique phenomenon in Indian philosophy, for he managed to compose treatises defending no less than five different and mutually incompatible systems of thought, treatises each of which has become a classic within its tradition. His contribution to Nyāya is a commentary on Uddyotakara’s work: its title is *Nyāyavārttika Tātparyaṭīkā*.

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On Vācaspati’s work Udayana (1050-1100) composed still another commentary called *Pariśuddhi*. Many modern scholars believe that Udayana deserves the title of the greatest philosopher of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school; he certainly stands as one of the most important figures. Besides *Kiraṇāvalī* and the *Pariśuddhi* he wrote five other works on Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, and fortunately they are all preserved. Two of them are brief presentations of the basic definitions of Nyāya concepts (*Lakṣaṇāvalī* and *Lakṣaṇamālā*). A third is a development of the topic of how to win or lose a debate, a topic Gautama treated in the fifth book of his *sūtras*: Udayana gives it a full-scale treatment in his *Nyāyapariśiṣṭa*.

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The other two works are perhaps Udayana’s most important contributions. One of them is entitled *Ātmatattvaviveka*, “Discrimination of the Reality of the Self”, a broadside against Buddhism from which, according to confirmed Naiyāyikas, Buddhism never recovered. This text badly needs translating; it may well be that its brand of analysis would prove more interesting to contemporary philosophers than any of the works so far available in all of Indian thought. In it Udayana not only gives arguments for the existence of the continuants the Naiyāyikas call “Selves”; he also considers and refutes fundamental principles of Buddhist analysis such as the principle that whatever is real has only momentary existence, the Buddhist denial of an external world independent of the mind, the very important Buddhist view that substances are nothing but bundles of qualities, and the Buddhist account of causation which is akin to that of Hume and Kant.

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Udayana’s *magnum opus*, according to many critics, is yet another work, entitled *Nyāyakusumāñjali*. This work contains by general acclaim the definitive treatment of the question of how to prove God’s existence. It is still regularly studied in Indian curricula. As Udayana develops the question of God's existence it turns out to involve most of the central topics of philosophy—e.g., the nature of successful argument (since arguments for God go beyond the reach of the senses), the nature of causation *re* the cosmological argument and the need for a creator, and so on.

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So monumentally does Udayana loom in the history of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika that writers in this tradition over the next few generations are overshadowed by comparison. Indeed, some historians of the school hold that it is a mistake to break "old" and "new" Nyāya at Gaṅgeśa; Udayana, himself, pioneered the new techniques that Gaṅgeśa so expertly wielded. There is no doubt that much of the discussion during the period between the two—a period of about 250 years—was devoted to refining Udayana's definitions and analyses, though Udayana was by no means followed slavishly, and new ideas continued to be broached and older ones resuscitated.

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Too, part of our difficulty is that this post-Udayana, pre-Gaṅgeśa period has not been studied nearly as extensively as that prior to Udayana. One or two short handbooks have been translated: that of Śivāditya called *Saptapadārthī* presents a succinct account of Vaiśeṣika, useful for students who study in India by rote methods, and Keśava Miśra's *Tarkabhāṣā* is a similarly useful handbook for students of Nyāya. Of the more original works of this period none are available in translation. One is Śrīvallabha's (or simply Vallabha's) *Nyāyalīlāvatī*, written during the first part of the 12th century. Another is the *Mahāvidyāviḍambana* of Bhaṭṭa Vādindra (1175-1225), which contributes importantly to the development of logical theory by exhaustively and critically studying the question of that sort of argument called *kevalānvayī*, where what is being proved is the existence of universal properties or things satisfying them. As we approach Gaṅgeśa's time a number of works are written, none of them well-known to scholarship, which may well contain much of what Gaṅgeśa systematizes. Notable in this group are the *Nyāyaratna* of Maṇikaṇṭha Miśra (1275-1325) and the *Nyāyasiddhāntadīpa* of Śaśadhara (1275-1325).

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For ease of reference the table on the next page summarizes the names of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika authors, their works, dates, and places of origin where known.