Udajana

Dzieła

• ok. 1000Nyayakusumanjali

  „Garść kwiatów rozumu”: pięć rozdziałów argumentów za istnieniem Boga przeciw buddystom, mimamsakom i innym sceptykom.

Stanowisko

Udayana fused the realist schools of Nyaya and Vaisheshika almost into one system and defended them against the Buddhists. In the Nyayakusumanjali he gave the classical Indian arguments for God (Ishvara): the world is an effect and so needs an intelligent maker; the first combination of atoms needs a guiding mind; the conventions of language and the authority of the Veda need an original author. He thus answered the Mimamsakas, for whom the Veda needs no author and God is superfluous. In the Atmatattvaviveka he attacked the Buddhist doctrines of momentariness and no-self and defended an enduring self. Gangesha built directly on his work, which prepared Navya-Nyaya.

Życie i kontekst

Udayana was a Brahmin logician from Mithila in northern Bihar, an old centre of Nyaya learning. Little is known of his life. One of his works, the Lakshanavali, bears a date corresponding to 984 CE, which places him in the late 10th century; other scholars, noting his replies to Buddhist logicians active around 1000, date him to the 11th century.

Dalsze główne dzieła

• Discernment of the Truth about the Self (Atmatattvaviveka, late 10th or 11th century)
• Lakshanavali (dated 984 CE)