Navyanyāya

By Swami Harshananda

Origin of Navyanyāya

The Nyāya Darśana or the Nyāya school of philosophy has provided a strong basis and framework for logic. A new school of Nyāya philosophy under the name ‘Navyanyāya’ began with the writings of Gaṅgeśa Upādhyāya of Mithilā in Bihar and his successors.

Points of Tattvacintāmaṇi

Gaṅgeśa Upādhyāya wrote a work called Tattvacintāmaṇi wherein he has dwelt with only the four pramāṇas or means of knowledge. They are:

• Pratyakṣa - direct perception
• Anumāna - inference
• Upamāna - comparison
• Śabda - verbal testimony

Commentators of Tattvacintāmaṇi

He did not touch the prameya at all. Somehow this work attracted an unusually great attention of the scholars first at Mithilā and later at Navadvīpa of Bengal. The chief commentators of this work of Gaṅgeśa are:

• Raghunātha Śiromaṇi
• Mathurā Bhaṭṭācārya
• Gadādhara Bhatṭācārya
• Jagadiśa Bhaṭtācārya

Other Navyanyāya

Later on, several sub-commentaries on the commentary of Raghunātha Śiro­maṇi arose along with independent works on the same object thus enriching the Navya-nyāya literature. The contribution of Navya-nyāya was mainly in the direction of developing a system of linguistic notations to specify accurately and precisely any concept. The other aspects of Nyāya Darśana were practically untouched.

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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