Nyayakusumanjali

Introduction

Udayana’s treatise, in verses with his own prose commentary, is the classic Nyaya defence of the existence of God (Ishvara). Its five chapters (stabakas) take up a series of objections raised by Mimamsakas, Buddhists, materialists and others – for example that the unseen effects of actions need no divine cause, or that there is no means of knowing God. The fifth chapter assembles positive proofs, among them that the world, being an effect, requires an intelligent maker, that atoms need someone to combine them at the beginning of creation, and that the Veda requires an author. The work became a standard text of Nyaya theology and was commented on many times, including by later Navya-Nyaya scholars.

Connections

Builds on

• Nyaya Sutrac. 150 · Akshapada Gautama

Criticizes

• Pramanavarttikac. 640 · Dharmakirti

Taken up in

• Jewel of Reflection on the Truth (Tattvacintamani)c. 1325 · Gangesha