Gangesha
Philosophical arguments need a precise technical language, and he built one so exact that Indian thinkers argued in it for centuries.
Placement
Founder of Navya-Nyaya, the “new logic” of Mithila: a precise technical language of qualifiers and limitors in which Indian philosophy argued for the following centuries.
Key ideas
- Navya-Nyaya
- Analysis of pervasion (vyapti)
- Technical language of limitors
Influence
Influenced by 2
Akshapada Gautama
influenced by
Gangesha’s Jewel of Reflection on Reality (Tattvacintamani) is arranged by the four means of knowledge of the Nyaya-sutra: perception, inference, comparison and testimony. Gangesha, Tattvacintamani; K. H. Potter & S. Bhattacharyya (eds.), Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies VI (1993)
Evidence: AI draft
Akshapada Gautama › c. 120–190
Udayana
influenced by
Gangesha built on Udayana’s synthesis of Nyaya and Vaisheshika and took up his proofs of God in the Tattvacintamani, the founding text of Navya-Nyaya. Gangesha, Tattvacintamani; K. H. Potter & S. Bhattacharyya (eds.), Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies VI (1993)
Evidence: AI draft
Udayana › c. 950–1020
Influenced 1
Bimal Krishna Matilal
influenced
Matilal’s The Navya-Nyaya Doctrine of Negation (1968) analysed the theory of absence in the school founded by Gangesha, using modern logic. B. K. Matilal, The Navya-Nyaya Doctrine of Negation (1968)
Evidence: AI draft
Bimal Krishna Matilal › 1935–1991
Works
The founding text of Navya-Nyaya, organised by the four means of knowledge; its technical language shaped Indian scholarship for centuries.
Position
The Tattvacintamani is arranged by the four means of knowledge – perception, inference, comparison and testimony – but its centre is inference. Gangesha tested many definitions of pervasion (vyapti), the invariable relation between reason and inferred property, rejecting them one by one before giving his own. To do so he refined a technical language of qualifiers, qualificands, relations and “limitors” (avacchedaka) that could state exactly which property, under which description and in which relation, is meant. He defended Nyaya realism against the Advaitin critic Shriharsha and against Prabhakara Mimamsa. Raghunatha Shiromani and the logicians of Navadvipa in Bengal carried his method on; it became the shared language of Indian scholarship.
Life & context
Gangesha Upadhyaya lived in Mithila in northern Bihar, the old centre of Nyaya learning, probably in the first half of the 14th century. Almost nothing else is known of his life; later stories about his youth are legendary. His son Vardhamana wrote commentaries on Udayana’s works. With a single great work, the Tattvacintamani, Gangesha founded the “new” Nyaya (Navya-Nyaya).
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