Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c6.s6.17

c6.s6.17

During the visit of Deva Sūri to Anahilapattana, Śaṅkara challenged him for a *kāvyagoṣṭhī* or a *vāda*. On behalf of his *guru*, Māṇikyamuni took up the challenge. The subject of *vāda* between Māṇikyamuni and Śaṅkara was God as the creator of the world. Śaṅkara started with the simple reasoning that every effect has an intelligent agent, and then proceeded to prove how this invariable concomitance, formed by God as the agent and the world as effect, is free from all sorts of fallacies. Māṇikyamuni gave reasons why God cannot be accepted as the creator of the world. The proposition that God has created this world cannot be proved by *pratyakṣa* (perception) and the inference upheld by his opponent does have fallacies.