Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c5.s19.15

c5.s19.15

⁹ There was a tradition of holding a *śāstrārtha* (intellectual debate) between the *paṇḍits* representing *vara-pakṣa* (bridegroom’s party) and the *kanyā-pakṣa* (bride’s party) on the occasion of a marriage amongst brāhmaṇa families. Unfortunately *śāstrārthas* in marriage have now become extinct, and none of those that were held earlier is known to have been recorded. Prof. Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Vice-Chancellor of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, New Delhi, told me that he had represented the bridegroom’s party in a *śāstrārtha* during a marriage, and his opponent representing the other party was no less than Pundit Badrinath Shukla, one of the greatest Naiyāyikas of Kāśī. Mostly such *śāstrārthas* were not taken seriously, the victory of the *paṇḍit* representing the *vara-pakṣa* being a foregone conclusion.