Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c7.14

c7.14

Categorizations related to *vāda* find a mention at a number of places in *Mahābhārata*. The terms like *tarka*, *jalpa*, *vitaṇḍā*, *nirṇaya* and *pramāṇa*, *nyāya*, *anumāna*, have been used in this epic in the contexts of argumentation.⁶ The concept of *pañcāvayava-vākya* (five-member syllogism) had been developed long before Gautama wrote his *Nyāyasūtra*, as there is a reference to it in *Mahābhārata*.⁷