Talk:Nyaya: Tarka Treatises

By Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami

Gautama Mahāṛṣi, who composed the Nyāya-sūtra, is called Akṣapāda. He was always so wrapped up in thought that he was often oblivious of the outside world. We call scientists, professors and such people "absent-minded" and retail jokes about them. Gautama too was absent-minded. One day as he was walking along, brooding over some philosophical problem, he fell into a well. Īśvara then rescued him and fixed eyes to his feet. Thus, as he walked, he would be guided by the pair of new eyes. That is how he came to be called Akṣapāda, one with eyes on his feet. So goes the story.

Vātsyāyana wrote a bhāṣya for the Nyāya-sūtra and Uddyotakara a vārttika. Vācaspati Miśra, who was a great non-dualist, wrote a gloss called Nyāya-vārttika-tātparya-ṭīkā. Udayanācārya wrote a gloss on this gloss: it is known as Tātparya-ṭīkā-pariśuddhi. He also wrote the Nyāya-kusumāñjali. To recall what I said before, he was foremost among those responsible for the decline of Buddhism in India. Jayanta wrote a commentary on the Nyāya-sūtra called Nyāya-mañjarī. Annambhaṭṭa wrote the Tarka-saṁgraha and himself wrote a commentary on it called Dīpikā. Usually, students of Nyāya start with the last-mentioned two works.

It is believed that the Rāvaṇa-bhāṣya, a commentary on Kaṇāda's Vaiśeṣika-sūtra, is no longer available. However, a bhāṣya-like work called Padārtha-dharma-saṁgraha by Praśastapāda is still extant. Udayana has commented on it. Recently, Uttamūr Śrī Vīrarāghavācārya wrote a book called Vaiśeṣika-rasāyana.

Vaiśeṣika came to be called Ālukya-darśana. Ulūka means an owl — the English word "owl" is from ulu. What belongs to, or what is concerned with, the owl is ālukya. Kaṇāda himself was called Ulūka. If Gautama, always lost in thought, fell one day into the well, Kaṇāda was so absorbed in his philosophical investigations by day that he had to go begging for his food at night. He got the nickname of Ulūka from this fact — that he was not seen during the daytime and went about at night. (Bhagavān says in the Gītā that the night of the ignorant man is the day of the wise and enlightened man, jñānin. So all jñānins are owls in this sense.)

Vaiśeṣika is also called Kaṇāda-śāstra after the name of its founder, Kaṇāda — not the Tamil "kannāda". A scholar has said jocularly that Kaṇāda founded his system after having seen (kaṇḍu).

Grammar and Vaiśeṣika are believed to be of great help in the study of all subjects. So the saying: Kaṇādam Pāṇinīyaṁ ca sarvaśāstro'pakārakam.

Like grammar (which originated in Naṭarāja's ḍamaru), Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika are also connected with Śiva. In the Vaiśeṣika treatises, obeisance is paid to Maheśvara who is regarded as the Paramātman. The Śaiva schools hold the view that Īśvara is the nimitta or cause of the universe.