The Critical view on Navya-Nyaya by Madhva’s Vedanta: A Brief Exposition

Abstract

The Madhava tradition of Vedanta was one of the main philosophical systems in South India to be affected by Navya-Nyaya ideas in the early modern era (about 1500-1800). The practise first appeared in the thirteenth century among a group of Brahmins in western Karnataka who revered the Vedic god Visnu-Narayana as the Ultimate Being. In this piece, I look into the interaction between the Navya-Naiyayika Gangesa Upadhyaya and the Madhva savant Vyasatirtha. The article is based on original readings of passages from Tarkataava and Nyayamrta by Vyasatrtha. The paper thoughtfully addresses the problem of vacant terms and non-existent constituents, particularly in relation to the hypothesis of deduction. I begin by outlining where Madhva and Nyaya get their ideas on these topics for their specific analyses of perceptual hallucination. I next compare the portions of Gangesa’s idea found in the Nyayamrta and Tarkataava and demonstrate the many ways in which Vyasatirtha responds to Gangesa’s ideas across both publications. I conclude by discussing how Vyasatirtha defends the Madhava hypothesis of “without substrate” features against Gangesa’s to demonstrate that we are capable of thinking about and drawing meaningful conclusions about things that do not exist.