Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.284

c16.284

**Treatises on Debate: Tantra-yukti** (*c.* 600 B.C.). We find that as early as about 600 B.C., a special treatise called *Tantra-yukti*, a manual of debate, was in existence for its use in conducting debates and arguments at Parishads and learned Assemblies. In the *Suśruta-Saṁhitā* [Uttaratantra, ch. lxv], it is stated that by the aid of *Tantra-yukti* a person can establish his own position and overthrow that of his opponents who are unfair in debate. *Tantra-yukti* is the oldest work in the history of Logic (*Hetuvidyā*) and is referred to in the Saṁhitās of both Suśruta and Charaka, in Kauṭilya's *Arthaśāstra*, and in the commentaries of Vātsyāyana and others on the Nyāya-Sūtra.