POST SANKARA DIALOGUE BETWEEN ADVAITINS AND NAIYYAYIKAS:SOME ISSUES

The influence of sankara was great in the period that followed him. No philosopher could propose his arguments neglecting the views of sankara. His own followers also developing advaitavedanta, contributed to Indian thought. Old philosophical questions were reconsidered and answered. The style of presentation and method of argumentation were adjusted to suit the need of time.

The period that immediately followed sankara saw the reaction from vedantins- theist vedantins. At first Visishtadvaitins attacked advaitavedanta. Dvaitins and other systems followed the same later. Bhaskaracharya, the well-known, bhedabheda vadin, provided weapons – a set of arguments against some key concepts of advaitavedanta - for this attack. Certainly this was not enough to counter position of advaitins. This situation produced the most creative period in the history of Indian philosophy. Post sankara philosophers, especially other vedantins, developed their arguments to counter the ‘nirvisesha advaita vada’ of advaitavedanta and the epistemology developed by advaitins.

Countering the epistemology of advaitavedanta was not an easy task. The epistemology of advaitavedanta had rejected the idealist as well as realist views of Buddhism and the realist epistemology of Naiyayikas. At the same time they maintained realist and idealist features in their epistemology. Advaitin’s adherence to the pramanasastra of Bhatta School of mimamsa is well known. This suggests that the epistemology of advaitavedanta is a clever fusion. To counter this well formulated system another combination or fusion of ideas was necessary. Though bhaskara and Yadavaprakasa tried to counter the system they could not succeed much. The visishtadvaitins, especially Yamunacharya, Ramanuja and vedantadesika were the first ones who successfully challenged the system of Vedanta. Yamunacharya provided the hermeneutical tools through the agamapramanya and siddhitraya. Ramanuja in his srebhashya on brahmasutras examined the pros and cones of advaitavedanta and rejected them. The authors up to Vimuktatman were criticised in this text. Next was vedantadesika, whose Satadushani expanded ramanuja’s criticism. This work was the model to vyasatirtha for composing Nyayamrta.

An interesting thing was that no prominent advaitin up to 19^th century tried to reply the arguments of visishtadvaitins. Why? Without replying the visishtadvaitins Advaitins attacked the nyaya system, especially the epistemology. Until the emergence of Dvaita system as the main opponent of advaita, they concentrated on nyaya. The endeavour started with Sri Harsha, the author of khandana khanda Khadya. Chitsukhacharya carried forward the task in his tatvapradipika while anandabodha in his nyayamakaranda did the same. What was the cause of this concentration?

By concentrating in examining and refuting the nyaya system advaitins were trying to abolish newly generated fusion of ideas especially in epistemology. The epistemology of visishtadvaita was founded on the following principles: 1. ज्ञानाधिकरणम् आत्मा, 2. सर्वं ज्ञानं सत्यं, 3. सर्वं ज्ञानं विशिष्टम्।. The first one was followed by nyaya while the next two were taken from prabhakara mimamsa. Not attending the prabhakara’s views advaitins challenged the validity of pramanas and the nyaya system, which gave them their desired result- the nirdharmaka Brahman which is not the abode of Knowledge but knowledge itself and the mutability and unreliability of worldly knowledge produced through sense object contact.

This dialogue between advaitins and nayyayikas produced vast literature. This dialogue discussed many issues but the advent of dvaita Vedanta the emphasis had been shifted to Bheda, which is an element having epistemological and ontological importance in dvaitavedanta.  The problem of difference was dealt in detail in the works of dvaita and advaita. Dr.Rajaram sukla , who edited bhedaratnam of Sankaramisra, says that the polemic  over ‘difference’ was going on for past seven hundred years. He also considers Madhvas as ‘adhunika tarkika’.

We have many texts discussing this issue, directly countering and refuting each other. Bheda ratnam of Sankaramisra, Bhedasiddhi of visvanathapanchanana, advaitaratna of Mallanaradhyacharya, Bhedadhikkara and advaitadipika of Nrsimhacharya, and advaitaratnarakshanam of Madhusoodanasarasvati are few books in this series.

To establish the validity of ‘bhedapaksha’  madhvas had developed their own tools for exegesis. Two books are well known in this connection Upakaramaparakramam of appayadikshita and upasamharavijaya of  Vijayindratirtha.

The nyaya system also exploited the scripture to establish the reality of difference. Bheda is an important problem of philosophy, ontologically and epistemologically.

[Paper presented in the National Seminar on 'the Development of Nyaya through ages' organised by Department of Nyaya, Sree Sankaracharya university of Sanskrit, Regional Centre, Thiruvananthapuram in march 2013 ]