Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 43

Later Philosophical Literature
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(4) Taking help of the ever developing style and subtlety of Sanskrit language - in prose, verse and a mixture of both - to formulate one's definitions and to explain them in an unmistakable from,
(5) Through the instrumentality of the art of disputaion-an art blossoming on account of a development of the manner of argumentation and inference to elucidate problems with the aid of discussions-factual as well as surmised--taking place among various rival Parties,
(6) To compose either small and large independent essay incorporating the entire teaching of a particular pbilosophical system or similarly small and large monographs dealing with this or that particular problembesides, of course, aphorisms and the commentary-texts called vștti, bhāsya, vārtika, anuţikā etc.
(7) To delve somewhat deeper into philosophical problems with the heip of the efflorescent definitions and style characteristic of that school of neo-Logic which had taken its rise after the eleventh century A. D.
On account of these and similar forces the character of the discussions taking place in the later philosophical current appears to be so much different that while perusing it one feels as if one is entering into an altogether new circle of ideas pertaining to those same old problems, The later extensive and multifarious philosophical literature has been shaped by each and every philosophical tradition with such an awakened intellect that today no genuine student of it can help harbouring towards it a feel. ing of utmost respect; not only that, this mass of literature is possessed of so much material for thought that even a researcher working on it for years cannot fail to discover in it things newer and newer. Among the authors of this literature a certain number of extra-ordinary savants belonging to each and every tradition are such that the thinking and writing pursued by them alone can detain the attention of a good number of present-day scholars.
above generalizations can be properly grasped only in case they are corroborated by the quotation of certain instances.
An instance of organized investigation preceded by the formulation of appropriate definitions are the aphoristic texts of the philosophical systems like that of Kanāda, Nyaya, etc. (2) An instance of the examination style are the predominantly examinative texts like Nāgārjuna's Madhyamikakārikā
iyasūtra. (3) The tendency to clarify the views characteristic of one's own system is found in works like Dharmakịrti's Pramāņavārtika and Jaya. nta's Nyāyamañjari and the commentary-texts of Vacaspatimiśra. (4) The formulation of definitions and their explanation in an unmistakable form are well visible in the commentary-texts bhāsya, Vārtika, tikā, etc, com. posed in each and every tradition. (5) As an instance of the art of dispu.