Indian Philosophy v2.c24.s2.26

v2.c24.s2.26

The history of the Nyāya literature extends over twenty centuries. The Nyāya Sūtra of Gautama, divided into five books, each containing two sections, forms the first textbook of the Nyāya. According to Vātsyāyana, this treatise follows the method of enunciation, definition and critical examination. The first book states in general terms the sixteen topics to be considered in the other four. The second book deals with the nature of doubt, the means of proof and their validity. The third book discusses the nature of self, body, senses, their objects, cognition and mind. The fourth treats of volition, sorrow, suffering and liberation. Incidentally, it refers to the theory of error and the relation of whole and parts. The last book discusses jāti or unreal objections and nigrahasthāna or occasions for rebuke. The Nyāya Sūtra attempts to combine the results of Brahmanical thought in the department of logic with their religious and philosophical dogmas; and we have, as a result, a logical defence of theistic realism. The Sūtras of Gautama, at any rate the earlier of them, belong to the third century B.C., the age of the Āhnikas, or daily lessons like the Navāhnikas of Patañjali's Vyākaraṇa Mahābhāṣya, though some of the contents of the Nyāya Sūtra are certainly of a post-Christian era.¹