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74: Śramaņa, Vol 61, No. 3 July-September 10
one, but ultimately it opened a path for certain deeper understanding of their respective positions. A process meant for enriching one's own spiritual experience through understanding the other's experiences of spirituality has resulted in a system, which granted a respectable place for the views of opponents. It was an accepted norm that whosoever engaged in a 'Šāstrārtha' or philosophical debate, loses in giving a convincing exposition, he will have to accept winner's position. This norm was strictly adhered to, yet there was another, higher aspect of the system.
There are texts of different schools of philosophy which offer an extremely illuminating discussion giving very faithful accounts of the opponent's views and then logically refuting them. They argued not simply by citing traditional authorities, but by using reasoning or 'Yukti' and 'Tarka! The recognition of interpretative plurality and the problem of inter-religious as well as cross cultural understanding is a hallmark of such a tradition of debate. This is why these exponents of their respective systems have discovered an ingenious way of positioning different shades of spiritual experiences in a hierarchy in which, of course, one's own spiritual experience occupies the highest place, yet others are also given a respectable position. For instance, for the one who adheres to the path of knowledge, for him the path of love is subservient to knowledge, but for one who follows the path of Bhakti or love, it may be the other way round. Thus, instead of completely rejecting the views of opponents, an approach of accommodating and harmonizing them with one's own view is very much evident in the process of dialogue.
Such an interaction has not been confined to the dialogue between different schools of Indian philosophy and religions, but took place between Indians and the people coming to India, together with their distinct cultures, from different parts of the world i.e. ancient Iran, Greece, Central Asia, and so on. Assimilation of ancient Greek, Roman, Scythian, and Hun elements in Indian culture is too well-known to be discussed here in this paper.
