Outlines of Indian Philosophy

SR No.: 007308
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M Hiriyanna
Publisher: George Allen and Unwin Ltd
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 419
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 40 MB

Page 227

NYAYA-VAISEȘIKA
227 be regarded as faithful to the original. The Nyāya-sutra of Gautama is in five chapters each of which again is divided into two sections. Its bhāşya is by Vätsyāyana (A.D. 400). who mentions still earlier Naiyāyikas, from whose views he dissents. It seems to have been unfavourably criticized by the eminent Buddhist thinker Dinnāga and was defended against him by one described as Uddyotakara ('the illuminator') in his Vārtika. Uddyotakara probably belongs to the reign of Harşavardhana (A.D. 608-648) and may have been patronized by that sovereign. This work has been explained in the Tātparya-tīkā by Vācaspati (A.D. 841), who, though a follower of the Advaita, has written works of authority on all the systems. This work in its turn has been commented upon by Udayana, already mentioned, in his Tātparya-fikāparisuddhi. One more writer whom we may name is Jayanta Bhatta, of doubtful date, whose Nyāya-manjarī, though professing only to be a commentary on a select few of Gautama's sūtras, is a rich store-house of information on Indian philosophic thought as it was known in his time. This concludes the 'old' or pracina phase of the history of the Nyāya. Its 'new' or the navya phase commences about the twelfth century with the epoch-making Tattva-cintamani of Gạngesa of Eastern Bengal (A.D. 1200). This great work gradually threw into the shade the earlier ones, including the two Sūtras, and it is only in recent years that they have been restored to their legitimate place in the study of the system, through the awakening of interest in India's past. In Gangesa, it has been said, the logic of the Nyāya attains its final shape. The study of the system as representing an independent philosophic doctrine thereafter declines. But what was lost in one direction was gained in another, for the new Nyāya influenced all the other schools of philosophy. It helped especially the cultivation of precision in thought as well as in expression. But discussions came to be confined more and more to matters of detail, and formal perfection
* Cf. I. i. 32. · Neither of the words pracina and navya, as applied to the doctrine, always refers to the same stage in its history. What is spoken of as 'new' at one stage may be 'old' at another.