Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c6.s6.1

c6.s6.1

Udayana was perhaps the last great philosopher to have cast an everlasting impact on the philosophical traditions through *vādas*. Like his illustrious predecessors, he engaged in public debates as well as debates through writings. With the overpowering and authoritative status that the Navya-Nyāya as developed by Gaṅgeśa attained, and the chief combatant — the Buddhist philosopher — having gone out of the scene, the glorious age of *vāda* seems to be over now. There are various reasons for this decline. “Both realism and the power of abstraction may be seen at their extreme in Navya-Nyāya method of universalizing.”¹⁴⁸ The onslaught of Vaiṣṇavism that swept over almost the whole peninsula replaced public debates as well as debates through new texts by the religious faith and devotional fervour. The spirit to fight mellowed down with the onslaught of Bhakti movement. On the other hand, interfaith dialogues and syncretic approaches to philosophical and religious issues were encouraged. The debates between diverse schools of Vedānta — Advaita, Dvaita, Dvaitādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, etc. — continued generation after generation.