In the course of evolution, humans are becoming more intelligent than the other creatures. With increasing intelligence, mankind strives hard to inquire into the truth and to discover the tatwa of creation. This is a continuous process, and man reviews himself, so as to determine whether his inquiry is proceeding in the right direction. Some philosophers have established the rules and conditions to be adopted in this endeavour. They have made it very clear that in the absence of such rules it is impossible to understand the tatwa. These are self-made rules, and those who followed these rules in their attempts, witnessed the tatwa, in accordance to their power of their comprehension. These savants explained their experiences of the tatwa to others.
Those who were fortunate enough to experience the tatwa, interpreted it in various forms, despite the tatwa being one and the same. Such interpretations paved the way to the emergence of new Sastras. The Tarka Sastra is an instance of this phenomenon. It was written, as a compilation of technical and conventional terms. It is an inimitable science that primarily relies on logic. For this reason, the pundits and scholars recommend the study of this science to anyone who is interested in the traditional sciences.
Founder:
Maharishi Gauthama penned the Nyayadarshana, which enshrines 531 principles. He is also called the Akshapada, and was referred to as Maharishi Gauthama in the holy scriptures, like the Vedas and the Ramayana.
Proven Issue:
Each and every sastra provides the ways and means to attain moksha. As such, different methods have been established by the various sastras. Which is the best? And which has to be followed? The sadhaka will know the answer to these questions through his sadhana. Similarly, there are a number of definitions of moksha in the sastras. According to the Nyayasastra, moksha means the eradication of suffering or getting rid of grief, misery, and suffering. This will happen only by achieving philosophical knowledge about the earthly things and their attributes.
How Does the Knowledge of Truth Help in Attaining Moksha?
Maharishi Gauthama provided the answer to this question, via his second principle. People consider the body and its organs as theatma. They cannot differentiate between the atma and the human body. This is superfluous knowledge, which is termed bhranthi. It results in the emergence of three types of doshas, which are described below.
Ragamu:
Raga means desire. Humans have two contrasting interests towards earthly things. They develop either desire to possess it or hatred towards it. If the first interest comes to the fore, the individual will desire to possess that thing. If hatred develops towards it, then he would disown or cast it away. If desire develops, in order to achieve a good or virtuous outcome, then such an attempt results in good fortune. Similarly, if the attempt is sinful, then the end result will be sin and misery. These sins and virtues are the basis for the repeated births and deaths of people. Birth causes suffering and pain to the individual. There are 21 types of sufferings.
There are six sensory organs, namely, the skin, eye, ear, tongue, nose, and mind.
The functioning of these senses results in six types of atma charactistics. The skin responds to touch; the eye witnesses the form of things; the tongue tastes; the ear hears sounds; the nose senses differentscents; and the mind generates desires.
There are six associated jnanas to these atma’s characteristics, and the total will be 21.
The body houses the organs, comfort, and suffering.
In all, there are 21 types of suffering, as described above. The sensory organs receive information from the things that they come into contact with. The mind records the information and causes suffering to the body. As such, the organs, mind and the information they gain, combine to inflict untold suffering on the body, which hosts them.
Explanation Regarding Suffering:
The sensory organs at times bring pleasure to the person. Every human being experiences such pleasure. Suffering denotes sorrow and a miserable condition. When the organs provide pleasure, is it correct to state that they only bring suffering? Moreover, is it correct to treat pleasure as suffering?
The person who enjoys pleasure knows that the pleasure he is currently enjoying is not permanent. It will cease to exist after some time. This thought creates emotional suffering to that person. In other words, he is experiencing such suffering, even while experiencing pleasure. These two things happen at the same time. As such, pleasure is the generator of suffering. Since it is the mother of subsequent suffering, it has to be considered as suffering. This is clearly explained in the Nyayasastra.
The Cause of Suffering:
The root cause of suffering is illusion or illusionary knowledge of the truth. When the person knows that the atma and the body are not one but two separate entities, then he would get rid of his earlier view about the body, the organs in it, and the atma. Such vision eradicates ajnana.
The Atma is not the body and its organs. An individual will realise this truth through understanding the tatwa or knowledge about the bodily organs. The realisation that the body is a temporary thing on earth is the tatwa of the body. It is knowledge about the human body. In contrast to this, the atma is permanent, and exists forever. This is the tatwa of the atma. The understanding that a permanent thing cannot be a temporary thing will remove all illusions about the body and the atma.
The Principle:
In this manner, a person has to investigate to know the tatwa of each and every thing. This investigation helps him understand the difference between atma and earthly things. Eventually, it removes all illusion. When the darkness of illusion is removed, there is relief from raga, dwesha, and moha. When these qualities are eschewed, there is no danger of receiving sin or virtue. In the absence of sins or virtues, there is no need for the person to take another birth. When there is no further birth, the 21 types of sufferings do not occur.
The principle discussed here is that the tatwa jnana provides liberation to the person from the disgusting darkness of suffering. He would easily attain mokshaby obtaining this knowledge, and by applying this tatwa analysis to earthly issues. This is the demonstrated principle of this sastra.
Different Names:
The Nyayasastra is also called the Tarka Sastra. It is also known as Pramana Sastra because it examines the standards.
Contributions by Scholars:
Maharishi Vatsayana has written the explanatory notes to the principles in this sastra.
The redoubtable scholar Vachaspati Misra has written tika, under the name Varthika, to the interpretations of Maharishi Vatsayana.
Sri Viswanadha Bhattacharya has written Vrithi as a commentary upon the Varthika.
At some point of time, the Buddhists wrote condemnatory notes against the principles expounded in the Nyayasastra. A great scholar, Udayanacharya has integrated new solutions to the conflicting principles in his book Kiranavali in support of the Nyayasastra.
After some time, Sri Gangesopadhyaya wrote a book the Tatwachintamani with new principles. His work gained the attention of the eminent scholars of that period. The scholarly people called this book as the new version of Nyayasastra. The previous books were considered as the orthodox texts.
Some scholars like Vasudeva Sarvabhauma, Pakshadhara Misra, and others have written commentaries and explanatory theories on the Tatwa Chintamani.
Raghunadha Siromani, the disciple of Vasudeva Sarvabhauma, wrote the Dheedhiti, a controversial commentary. He wrote it independently to fill in the gaps left over by that time. His Guru, Vasudeva Sarvabhauma and the author of Tatwa Chintamani, Gangesopadhya had disagreed with Raghunadha on his writings. However, the latter successfully quelled their criticism and established his work.
Subsequently, Madhura Nadha composed a book, the Chintamani Rahasya as an interpretation of the Tatwa Chintamani. His writing style became popular as the Madhuri tradition.
Thereafter, Jagadeesa, a scholar of Tarka sastra, provided a written commentary on the Dheedhithi of Raghunadha Siromani. It was called the Jagadeesi. This has also established a tradition.
Gadadara Bhattacharya has written a comprehensive explanation and commentary to Dheedithi, which was known as Gadaadaree. The present day scholars consider the Gadaadaree as the most apt and standardised book.
After a long time, two more commentaries, the Nyayaratnam and Krishnam Bhatteyam, have come to light. These books interpret the principles in the Gadaadaree book.
Several scholars of Tarka had written small booklets, which were called Kroda papers.
The Benefits of Studying the Nyayasastra:
Moham runaddhi vipulikuruthe cha buddim suthe cha samskrita pada vyavahara sakthim|
Sastrantharadhyana yogyathayo yunakthi tharkasramo na kuruthe kimihopakaram||
The mind suffers from two fundamental doshas, mistaking and contraction. The Tarka Sastra removes these two doshas. The study of this sastra eliminates illusions. The mind expands, develops and flourishes. It helps the person to improve his capacity to arrive at decisions without any bias. Such study develops the intellectual qualities of the person; and it is essential for procuring knowledge. At the same time, it is also important to transmit this knowledge to others. The teaching of such knowledge requires a technical vocabulary, and the person has to enhance his vocabulary. This sastra provides such ability to the person who studies it.
As such, the pundits insist upon the study of this sastra and make it mandatory for all. This is because the practitioner develops unbiased judgement and improved thinking. Moreover, the study of this sastrarenders the study of other sastras easy. Thus, the Tarka Sastra provides a number of benefits to its learners.
About other Sastras:
In the Tarka Sastra, several principles of the other sastras are discussed. This helps the learner to gain some knowledge and the fundamentals of the other sastras. The learners of other sastras may not understand the technical words in Tarka Sastra. They would not know anything about it without knowing the meaning of these words. However, the students of Tarka Sastra can understand the essential features of the other sastras, even though they do not specifically study them. This is the peculiarity of the Nyayasastra. The language of the practitioners of this sastra will be different from that of the other practitoiners.
The Order or the Process of Study:
The Tarka Samhitha written by the Telugu scholar Annam Bhat is followed by many learners of the Tarka Sastra. In fact, it is respected as the basic text of such study. Annam Bhat explained the complex principles in a wide range of nyaya texts, in simple words, in order to help even the children to understand them easily. He employed simpler variants of the technical words used in the Tarka Sastra.
Pundit Govardhana penned the Nyayabodhini as a commentary on the Tarka Sastra.
Annam Bhat had also written a text called theDeepika. As the number of the texts increases, knowledge also increases.
Another scholar, Neelakanta, has written explanatory comments to the Deepika, which are known as Neelakanteeyam.
The scholar Viswanadha Panchanana had written a book, the Karikavali with 187 slokas.
He had also written the Muktavali, a commentary on the Karikavali.
Vasudeva Bhat and Dinakara Bhat, the father and son writing duo, had written the Dinakareeyam as a complementary text to the Muktavali.
There are several explanations, like the Ramarudri and Nrisimha Prakasikaon the above books. However, they are not included in the list of books to be studied. They are treated as reference books, in the study of the Nyaya sastras.
Texts and Descriptive Books:
There are two types of books on this subject, namely the prameya and vada texts. The first type of books chiefly covers the subject; whereas, the second type of books provide a thorough discussion of the subject.
Jagadeesi and Gadadaree are famous vada books on the subject of Mani and Dheedithi. The other important books are Sakthi vadamu, Vyuthpathi vadamu, and Pramanya vadamu. These books were written by Gadadara Bhattacharya.