Navya Nyaya Level 1 Course

I am avid listener of good old radio. If you don’t know, recently, All India Radio launched live streaming of various radio stations via mobile app. You can look at them here. Anyways, I like many programs on radio, and in particular, whenever I get time, I try to listen to Sanskrit News which take place every morning at 6.55 am. I love Sanskrit language, various forms Sanskrit literature, Indian philosophical systems, and other associated areas of Indology. This love and desire brought me closer to international experts such as Prof V N Jha and Prof Ujjwala Jha, who not only taught me(and few other residents in our locality) and also I was fortunate to attend some of his sessions and workshops on various systems of Indian Philosophy.

Today morning when I was tuned to Sanskrit News, I learnt that government is planning to setup Sanskrit university at a place called Navadwip(नवद्विप) in West Bengal. This is very good news. For those who don’t know the significance of Navadwip, let me know explain. This is the place in ancient India, in 13th century, where Navya Nyaya(नव्य न्याय) system was developed as an extension to Nyaya philosophy(Indian Logic). This advanced system has been quite influential and devised a fresh way in interpretation of sentences, through it unique language.

Prof V N Jha and Prof Ujjwala Jha, Photo Courtesy: Prof Jha

Prof V N Jha delivering a session, Photo Courtesy: Prof Jha

Prof V N Jha and trust run by him Rishi Rina(ऋषी ऋण), has arranged course of this system. I wanted to talk about this here as shared by him.

Introduction

The depth in Indian epistemology was acquired because of serious dialogues among philosophical systems. Over a period of time, by the 10th century AD, a need was felt to develop a precise medium of communication in order to understand one another’s position or point of view to make the dialogue meaningful. That medium goes by the name of Navya Nyaya Language. After the Language took shape, almost all systems of knowledge in India started writing treatises in this very language of Navya Nyaya. As it were, it became a universal language of scientific discourse during medieval period and continues to be so even today in some traditional educational institutions. All our intellectual achievement of the last 1000 years is in the works written in this language.

But our present Sanskrit education programs do not offer any course on Navya Nyaya Language. As a result, all the texts on various knowledge systems are just lying without readers.

We are, therefore, going to offer a Four Level graded course in Navya Nyaya Language and Methodology from 2019.  The distribution of the Levels is as follows :

Level-0 :  Foundation Course in Navya Nyaya

Level-1 :  Introduction to Navya Nyaya Language and Methodology

Level-2 : Navya Nyaya Method of Decoding Language

Level-4 : Navya Nyaya Theory of Decoding Negative Sentences

 Structure of the Course

Each level will be offered in two parts-reading of an original Text and a set of lectures elaborating concepts, technical terms, theories and issues of the system.

Duration of Each Level

10 to 12 days

Who can Join?

Anyone interested in Indian Wisdom and in learning and knowing Indian intellectual, philosophical and spiritual culture. No background of Sanskrit is a pre-requisite.

Advantage

All those who are interested in Philosophy, Mathematics, Symbolic logic, Linguistics, Law, Aesthetics, Communication studies, and so on or working in the areas of Language technology, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Translation, System Science and the like can derive insights from this course.

Donation to the Rishi Rina Trust to meet the running cost of the programs:

Students Rs.3000/- per level.

Non-students Rs.5000/- per level.

Donation is non-refundable and does not include Lodging & Boarding charges. Donations should be paid through electronic bank transfer system to the following account ( Participation will be confirmed only after the payment of donation) :

Name : Rishi Rina Trust A/C No.  60285750369 Bank :  Bank of Maharashtra Branch :  Pimple Saudagar (1443) Address :  Dwaraka Lords, Pimple Saudagar, Pune-411027IFSC Code :  MAHB0001443

You can complete the registration and send an email to the following :

ananth.tn2003@gmail.com vnjha1946@gmail.com ujjwalajha@yahoo.co.in

Course Fees

Nil  

The Trust will provide the Reading material.

Level One : Introduction to Navya Nyaya Language and Methodology

Venue : Amrita University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. (A beautiful learning and spiritual environment at the base of a Hill)

Dates : 23^rd to 31^st December, 2019.

Intake : 50 participants can be accommodated on first-come-first-served basis.

The lodging and boarding charges should be paid directly to the University on arrival at the Venue. For further details please remain in touch with the co-coordinator of our program Mr. Ananath (ananth.tn2003@gmail.com, mobile no. 07975539644).

Please take advantage of this learning opportunity of learning from international expert such as Prof V N Jha! And incidentally, tomorrow(Aug 15, 2019) is Sanskrit Day(संस्कृत दिवस). Please my blog on this topic here.

‘आवरण’ के पीछे क्या है?

प्रसिद्ध कन्नड लेखक भैरप्पा यांच्या एका कादंबरीचे नाव आवरण आहे. हे पुस्तक मी नुकतेच वाचले. तसे पाहिले तर त्यांची ही मी वाचलेली पहिलीच कादंबरी. पण त्यांच्या काही कलाकृतींचा मी इतर माध्यमातून आस्वाद घेतला आहे. काही वर्षांपूर्वी मी त्यांच्या वंशवृक्ष कादंबरीवर आधारित आधी नभोनाट्य, आणि नंतर अभिवाचन देखील आकाशवाणी वरच ऐकले होते. नायी नेरळू(मराठी अर्थ-कुत्र्याची सावली) ह्या कादंबरीवर आधारित गिरीश कासारवल्ली दिग्दर्शित एक कन्नड सिनेमा मी पाहिला होता. मंद्र या संगीत क्षेत्राशी निगडीत कादंबरीवर आधारित कन्नड नाटकाचा आस्वाद घेतला आहे, त्यावर पूर्वी मी लिहिले आहे(‘मंद्र’चा कन्नड नाट्यानुभव). त्यांची आणखीन एक कादंबरी गृह्भंग याची माझ्याकडे, कन्नड आवृतीची, जुनी प्रत आहे, पण ती अजून मी वाचलेली नाही. भैरप्पा यांचे नाव कर्नाटकात जसे प्रसिद्ध आहे तसे ते महाराष्ट्रात गेली काही वर्षे  गाजते आहे. त्यांच्याबद्दल, त्यांच्या कादंबऱ्यांबद्दल नेहमी काही ना काही लिहून येत असते.

भैराप्पांचे लेखन हे नक्कीच गंभीर, आशयपूर्ण, अभ्यासपूर्ण असेच असते. त्यांचा स्वतःचा भारतीय तत्वज्ञानाचा (ज्याला दर्शन शास्त्र असेही म्हणतात) अभ्यास आहे, त्यांनी ते शिकवले देखील आहे. त्यांच्या बऱ्याच कादंबऱ्यांत भारतीय इतिहास, तत्वज्ञान, जाती व्यवस्था यावर प्रश्न असतात, उहापोह असतो. प्रस्तुत कादंबरी आवरण देखील अशीच भारतातील हिंदू मुस्लीम संबंधाच्या इतिहासाशी निगडीत आहे. त्यांची पर्व ही कादंबरी महाभारतावर, तर सार्थ ही कादंबरी भारतातील सातव्या आठव्या शतकातील वातावरणात घडते. त्या दोन्ही लवकरात लवकर वाचण्याचा मी संकल्प केला आहे. मी कुठलेही पुस्तक मी वाचायला घेतले की पहिले काही पाने ज्यात प्रस्तावना वगैरे असते, आणि शेवटची काही पाने ज्यात उपसंहार, संदर्भ वगैरे असतात, मी चाळतो. आवरण पुस्तक हाती पडल्यावर तेच केले आणि चकित झालो. कादंबरीच्या शेवटी त्यांनी संदर्भ म्हणून दिलेली इतिहासा विषयाशी निगडीत पुस्तकंची यादी धडकावणारी आहे. प्रस्तावनेत देखील आवरण संकल्पनेचे विवरण आहे, तसेच सार्थ या कादंबरीचा उल्लेख करून आवरण ही कादंबरी कशी सार्थ मध्ये आलेल्या काळानंतरच्या पुढच्या काळातील राजकीय, धार्मिक परिस्थिती आहे हे नमूद करतात.

कर्नाटकतील प्रसिद्ध अश्या हंपी येथे, जेथे विजयनगर साम्राज्याचे अवशेष विखुरले आहेत, तेथे कादंबरीची सुरुवात होते. नायिका माहितीपट निर्माण करण्यासाठी, त्याची सामग्री जमा करण्यासाठी तेथे आली आहे. हंपी मधील मंदिरांचे, मूर्तींचे भग्न अवशेष पाहून तिच्या मनात हे सर्व का झाले, कोणी केले असे स्वाभाविक प्रश्न निर्माण होतात. मग ती  या इतिहासाचा, त्यातही भारतातील इस्लामी राजवटीचा, हिंदू मुस्लीम संबंधाचा धांडोळा घेते, अशी ही कादंबरीची थोडक्यात रूपरेखा. खरेतर मला भालचंद्र नेमाडे यांच्या हिंदू-एक समृद्ध अडगळ ह्या कादंबरीची आठवण झाली. तिची रूपरेखा थोडीफार अशीच. खंडेराव नामक पुरातत्त्वशास्त्रज्ञ आर्यकाळापासूनचा भारतवर्षाचा इतिहासाचा उहापोह करतो. आवरण मध्ये अजून एक समांतर रेघा आंतरधर्मीय विवाह, धर्मांतर अशी सुद्धा आहे. नायिका मुळची हिंदू, पण प्रेमविवाह होऊन मुस्लीम धर्म स्वीकारते. पण नंतरच्या निर्माण होणाऱ्या परिस्थितीत तिची होणारी कुचंबणा, घालमेल, घरचा विरोध या सर्वांचा सामना करताना निर्माण होणारे प्रश्न चर्चिले आहेत. मध्यंतरी मी वि ग कानेटकरांची होरपळ कादंबरी वाचली होती, त्यात त्यांनी ख्रिस्ती मिशनरी, मराठी माणसाचे ख्रिस्ती धर्मांतर, दोन्ही धर्माच्या तत्वज्ञानाची चर्चा, धर्मांतरामुळे त्यामुळे झालेली होरपळ हे सर्व विषय मांडले होते.

कादंबरीत एक अतिशय वेगळ्या विषयावरील रोचक प्रकरण आहे. ते म्हणजे हिंदुस्थानात राजे, बादशाह यांच्या पदरी असलेले जनानखाने. जनानखान्यांची देखरेख करण्यासाठी नपुंसक हिजडे बाळगले जात. यासाठी पुरुषांना नपुंसक कसे बनवले जात असे ह्याची सद्यांत माहिती आहे.  खरे तर ह्या प्रकरणाचा कादंबरीच्या विषयवस्तूशी तसा काहीच संबंध नाहीये. उगीचच घुसडल्यासारखे वाटते. पण माहिती अतिशय रोचक आहे हे मात्र खरे. माझ्याकडे Sex life in Indian Harems by R N Saletor असे पुस्तक आहे, ज्यात जनानखान्यांची(harems) माहिती, त्यातील स्त्रियांचे जीवन याबद्दल दिले आहे. त्याबद्दल नंतर कधीतरी लिहीन सविस्तर परत.

आवरण कादंबरीत दाखवलेला काळ हा बाबरी मस्जिद पडल्याच्या घटनेच्या आसपासचा आहे. त्यानिमित्ताने, जवळ जवळ एक तपाहून कालावधी लोटल्यानंतर,  ह्या कादंबरीत भैरप्पांनी इस्लामी राजवटीबाबत, हिंदू मुस्लीम संबंधाबद्दल एक भूमिका घेतली आहे, अर्थात ती त्यांच्या पात्रांच्या मार्फत. सत्यावरील आवरण हटवले आहे, असा दावा आहे. समर्थनार्थ, अनेक पुरावे, दाखले दिले आहेत. ह्या कादंबरीने प्रचंड वाद निर्माण केला होता. इतिहासात या विषयी नक्की काय झाले, कोणी काय केले, का केले, खरे काय नी खोटे काय हे कदाचित नक्की सांगू शकणार नाही. त्यांनीच म्हटल्याप्रमाणे, आपण पुरोगामी की प्रतिगामी हे सिद्ध करण्याचा हा काळ. प्रसिद्ध लेखक गिरीश कर्नाड, यु. आर. अनंतमूर्ती यांनी जाहीर टीका केली होती.

असो, त्यात आपण नको शिरायला. पण कादंबरी रचनेशी निगडीत काही गोष्टी मात्र पटत नाहीत. नायिकेचा पिता तिने आंतरधर्मीय विवाह केल्यामुळे, तिच्यावर बहिष्कार टाकल्यावर, इस्लामी राजवटीचा, हिंदू मुस्लीम संबंध या विषयाशी निगडीत सखोल वाचन करतो, पुस्तके जमा करतो वगैरे. पुढे, नायिका देखील याच विषयावर माहितीपट तयार करायचा म्हणून जेव्हा संशोधन करण्यास सुरुवात करते, त्याच सुमारास तिच्या पित्याचे निधन होते, आणि तीला आपल्या पित्याने या विषयावर करून ठेवलेल्या  कामाची जाणीव होते. आणि ती तेच संदर्भ वापरून ते काम पुढे नेण्याचा प्रयत्न करते. हा सारा उपद्व्याप लेखक आपले संशोधन, त्यातून बनलेले मत मांडण्यासाठी ओढून ताणून केल्या सारखे वाटू लागते. कादंबरी हातात घेतल्यावर, पहिले आणि शेवटची पाने पाहिल्यावर, सुरुवातीला वाटलेले कौतुक, आश्चर्य हळू हळू कमी होऊ लागले, असे माझे तरी कादंबरी वाचताना नक्कीच झाले.

शेवटी कादंबरीच्या आवरण या शिर्षकानिमित्त दोन गोष्टी. पाहिली गोष्ट अशी. कादंबरीत ते नायिकेच्या लघुपटाच्या अभिप्रयानिमित्त कोणाच्यातरी भैराप्पानी एक वाक्य टाकले आहे, ते असे आहे, ‘इतर कितीतरी बुद्धिवान कलाकार करतात त्याप्रमाणे तुझा लघुपट Suppressio Veri Suggestio Falsi असा झाला आहे- सत्य दडवून असत्य मांडणारी सामान्य कलाकृती झाली आहे’ मी सहज या दोन शब्दांचा अर्थ काय आहे याचा इंटरनेटवर शोध घेतला तर असे दिसले की हे दोन्ही शब्द कायद्याच्या भाषेतील आहेत. त्यांचा अर्थ सत्य दडवून ठेवणे, सत्याचा आभास निर्माण करणे वगैरे. दुसरी गोष्ट अशी की, प्रस्तावनेत भैरप्पा म्हणतात, ‘विस्मरणाने सत्य झाकाळून टाकणाऱ्या मायेला आवरण म्हणतात, असत्य बिम्बावणाऱ्या कार्याला विक्षेप म्हणतात. वैयक्तिक पातळीवर चालणाऱ्या क्रियेला अविद्या असे म्हणतात, आणि सार्वजनिक पातळीवर माया म्हणतात…..सत्य आणि असत्याची समस्या तत्वाच्या पातळीवर नेऊन तिचे दर्शन घडवणे हे भारतीय दर्शन शास्त्राचे वैशिष्ट्य.’ त्यांनी हे खूप छान सांगितले आहे, माझा भारतीय तत्वज्ञानाचा थोडाफार अभ्यास आहे, त्यात न्यायशास्त्र आणि नव्यन्याय (Indian Logic) नावाची दर्शनशास्त्राची एक शाखा आहे, तिचा वापर सत्य-असत्य निर्णय, तात्विक वाद यामध्ये पंडित लोकं करीत असा इतिहास आहे.

एक मात्र नक्की, या कादंबरीच्या निमित्ताने भैराप्पाने केलेले वाचन, संशोधन, अपार कष्ट नक्कीच दिसतात, त्यात वादच नाही. उमा कुलकर्णी यांनी केलेला मूळ कन्नड कादंबरीचा मराठी अनुवाद अगदी सुरेख झाला आहे, कुठेही यत्किंचीतही रसभंग होत नाही.

Level 3 Purvamimamsa and Level 1 Sankhya Workshop

Philosophical systems which developed in India over more than 1000 years are significant part of rich intellectual tradition of India. While entire science and technology which has developed is result of human mind, human intellect and imagination, the art and science of asking questions, analyzing, which is what philosophy is about, is getting lost. It is remaining only as subject in humanities stream at the universities. This is true not only for philosophical systems of India, but even true in the western world. The often asked question on Quora is why do we need philosophy. This is also answered very often. A quick search on this topic on Internet yields the results showing significance. One of my favorite is this The New York Times article.

Prof V N Jha, former director at University Of Pune, Center of Advanced Studies in Sanskrit(CASS) and world expert in Sanskrit and one of the Indian philosophical systems called Nyaya(also called Indian Logic). I have been fortunate to be associated with Prof V N Jha since last few years. He has been on a mission of conducting workshops on various Indian philosophical systems referring original Sanskrit works, and also talking of their applications. He has conducted several workshops on this topic in including Foundations of Indian Logic(Tarkasangraha), three levels of Indian Logic(Nyaya and Vaiseshika) and two levels of Indian Hermeneutics(Purva Mimamsa)

He is conducting level 3 of Indian Hermeneutics(Purva Mimamsa) workshop near Pune next month. It is 10 day residential workshop at campus of Arunodaya Institute of Culture at Shrirampur near Pune. The inauguration of is on 12th Feb 2017 evening and the classes will conclude on 22-2-2017 evening . The participants can leave on 22-2-2017 evening/night after the valedictory. The text that will be taken up is Tarkpada of Shabarbhashya. The faculty is, apart from Prof V N Jha himself, Prof Ujjwala Jha. They are themselves providing a copy of the text to all the participants at the venue. This is the basic text on which the entire philosophy of Purvamimamsa was constructed. Every day, there will be a session by Prof Ujjwala Jha on content of Purvamimamsa and followed by reading and deciphering of the Sanskrit text Tarkapada. For registration, please reach contact maniapulimood@gmail.com. Please refer this article for information on earlier levels of this workshop.

In the month of June, Prof V N Jha will begin workshops of another system of Indian Philosophy called Sankhya(or Samkhya) which is enumeration philosophy. He will be reading the Sanskrit text Sankhyakarika by Ishwarkrishna.  Sankhya is the earliest system of Indian philosophy and has influenced many other systems. He says that Yoga and Vedanta systems have drawn from it heavily to build their respective Metaphysics, and Vedanta’s metaphysics also is taken from Sankhya so far as its epistemology exposition is considered.

Open Debate on Vedic Science and Technology

When I was school going child, we used to have sometime open debates arranged, and we were asked to participate. Of course, topic of the debate would be known before hand. One of the speakers would be making a point and other would need make counter-point. This is a typical attack and defend style open debates. Everyone used to enjoy them. Since those school days, I never across such a thing again, until recently.

Couple of years back, due to my association with subject of Indology and my groups and people in Pune with similar interest, I got a notification about open debate program. The topic was vedic science and technology. The debaters were Shreenand Bapat and Satish Kulkarni. Shreenand Bapat was my teacher during my Indology course. He is known for his intense views, and most of the times corroborated with proofs. I was thrilled and attended the debate with keen interest. The house was packed. Looks like many of them had not witnessed, like me, an open debate. Plus it is always nice to watch two groups/people fight!

So this debate was organized by famous Marathi magazine Prasad, dedicated to Indian heritage. Satish Kulkarni was the first one to go with his points. He is technologist by profession and has been very passionate about exploring ancient Indian science and technology. He runs an organization focused on this effort. His organization’s name is Pradnya Vikas Shikshan Sanstha. He, obviously, was taking the audience through various examples what kind of evidences exist in Vedic literature and other sources, and kind of effort he has been involved in reconstructing them. Shreenand Bapat came in later with his counter points. He had more practical approach and advised not to day-dream about the superiority of Indians in science and technology due to the fact that we don’t get many materialistic evidences.

The debates of such nature are usually never black or white. They act as a tool to ignite the fire in all the involved to study harder in the quest of true knowledge. Any form or extreme approach, opinion, views and perception will cause this quest to get handicapped. All of us have learnt to not take anything for granted and evaluate all possibilities. Shreenand Bapat’s presentation focused more on war technology and also references to some entertaining statistics and scientific achievement(rather non-achievements), while the debate was about ‘shashtra’ wherein the expectation was to talk more about fundamental science. I felt Satish Kulkarni made good effort to present his work in front of us. Of course, he could have done it better in terms of accuracy, references and obviously he was not as fluent as Shreenand Bapat. The most important thing in his approach was that he had made efforts to conduct experiments based on references in ancient literature. The positive take-away for me out this debate was that community outside Indology is taking interest in such topics, without being ‘nationalistic’, using modern techniques and methodologies, they are trying to reinterpret and rediscover what might be hidden. Mankind is the only beneficiary in such an endeavor.

I had covered a conference which took place in Pune on the same theme sometime back. You might be interested in that. I must state that India has a tradition of argumentation. In fact the whole philosophical systems was evolved out of points and counter points, dialog and scope for arguments. This is covered, as many of you must have read, in Amartya Sen’s famous book Argumentative Indian. Prof V N Jha, the famous expert on Indian intellectual traditions, also believes that the tradition evolved through systematic argumentation and inquiry. Plus the format used had 3 different sections-purva paksha(point, पूर्वपक्ष), khandana(counter point, खंडन) and siddhanta(thesis, सिद्धांत). To conclude, I liked the debate and it has underlined the need to not ignore the ancient knowledge system and the need to evaluate rationally and re-purpose. I am, myself, particularly interested in Indian Logic system as it is referred to one of philosophical systems called Nyaya Darshan, and its applications towards problems of computer science and information technology. Such deliberations need to happen and should keep happening.

Purvamimamsa (Indian Hermeneutics) Workshop in Pune

I have talked about Indian Logic(Nyaya-Vaiseshika system of Indian philosophy) and its application on this blog in the past. One of the renowned expert in this domain, Prof V N Jha, lives in Pune. He has made his life mission to spread knowledge and awareness of Indian intellectual tradition traveling all over the country for past 10-15 years. Now he has decided to restrict himself to Pune as far possible and continue to teach and facilitate workshops on Nyaya, Mimamsa, philosophy of Bhakti, advanced Sanskrit language and related areas.

I was fortunate to attend couple of his workshops in the past. Now there is golden opportunity for discerning learners of Indian intellectual tradition to be part of workshop on Purvamimamsa (Indian Hermeneutics). Purva mimamsa is one of the six systems of Indian philosophy. Purvamimamsa is one of the three intellectual components which one must acquire in order to enter into and enjoy Indian Intellectual, Philosophical and Spiritual Culture. Purvamimamsa developed the principles of interpreting a text. These principles were applied by the ancient Indian philosophers and literary critics and being applied even today. Since these principles are universal in nature,  they have the capacity to be applied to any text of any genre. Philosophers, linguists, critics, and even computer scientists, particularly, those who are working in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Translation can derive insights from this system of Purvamimamsa. One cannot have proper understanding of any Indian philosophical and analytic text without Nyaya, Purvamimamsa and Vyakarana.  All those who deal with language need to interpret it and hence cannot afford to avoid Purvamimamsa. It contains, apart from its philosophical elements, also has many elements of philosophy of language. Like Indian logic, these aspects are very useful in machine translation, semantic analysis of data in the area of information technology. Hence participants with computer science background, and/or working in language technology, are also strongly welcome to this workshop. No prior knowledge of Sanskrit language is required. During the workshop, famous text on Mimamsa called Mimamsa Paribhasha will be read. This is published by Ramakrishna Mutt. One can get it before attending the workshop.

This workshop is divided into 3 levels on the similar lines of his very famous workshop on Indian Logic. He and his wife Prof Ujwala Jha, who herself is renowned Mimamsa expert herself, will be guiding the participants.  The organizers have succeeded in arranging Purvamimamsa ( Indian Hermeneutics) level-1 program in a cheaper cost at Kaivalya Dham, the famous Yoga research institute in Lonavala, a hill station near Pune. The program will be from 20th to 29th June, 2016. The participants will reach there by the evening of 19th and can leave in the evening of 29th. There are two famous caves known as Bhaja and Karla caves near Lonavala. In one case you can see writings in the Brahmi Script, the oldest script of our country. Of course, one can visit several tourist points in Lonavala itself. Moreover, people come to Lonavla to enjoy rainfalls. Rains begin in the first week of June.

The registrations for this workshop is open. Please contact Usha Radia on her email usharadia25@gmail.com. 

Indian Logic and its application

The title says Indian Logic. Can logic be Indian or Chinese or American? Read on to find that out.

Due to my general interest towards philosophy and particularly Indian philosophy, and also because of formal exposure I got on this subject during my Indology course curriculum, I got drawn deeper into exploring it more which typically involves buying books, visiting libraries, attending conferences and workshops on those topics. I happened to attend one such workshop in 2009 in University of Pune(UoP) where Prof V N Jha was one of the speakers and his topic was Indian Logic and Epistemology. I got the same question which I have mentioned at the beginning. With that thought in my mind, I attended the session, where he explained Indian Logic and Epistemology as term for Nyaya, Navya Nyaya and parts of Vaisesika philosophical system.

Few days later I bumped on him around my housing complex and was taken by surprise that he lives in the same area. During my subsequent discussions with him, I learnt more about him and Indian Logic and its applications, especially in semantic analysis, natural language processing(NLP) and artificial intelligence. As technologists, I, of course, was aware of possibilities of NLP, machine learning, computational linguistics, semantic analysis, semantic web, knowledge management and the evolution it is creating in a way. But I was taken by surprise how concepts of ancient Indian philosophical system such as Nyaya-Vaisesika system can be applied to help in solving problems in those areas.

Prof V N Jha is an international authority on subject of Nyay(and of course, Sanskrit language and its grammar). He is has been trained in a traditional way and a staunch Naiyyayik. Has been a former Director Center of Advanced Studies in Sanskrit(CASS). He has written numerous articles, books, papers on these and related topics, presented, spoken all over the world at various settings.  Post retirement, his is on a mission to bring back Indian intellectual tradition back to the foray, of which Sanskrit, Nyaya and related topics are very much part. He has designed Foundation of Indian Logic and Epistemology, Navya Nyaya Language and Methodology(level 1, 2 and 3). unique courses and has been delivering them all over India and abroad, since last 6-7 years. He is conducting one such course next month in Bengaluru. I happened to attend a foundation course at the serene and pristine place called Chinmaya International Foundation(CIF) in Kerala, which is a Indological research organization of Chinmaya Mission. It covered textual study of Tarksangraha written by Annambhatta which covers fundamental concepts Nyaya and Vaisesika system.

Now coming back to the question raised at the beginning. The reason why Nyaya/Navya Nyaya is called Indian Logic is because this Indian philosophical system is an embodiment of thought on logic by ancient Indians. Besides, concepts on world view, it contains epistemology, ontology related thoughts and It is a method of reasoning along with theory of inference. Experts have been trying to compare Indian logic with Western formal logic and on the other hand, few others say Indian logic is no logic at all. A simple search on Internet, on those terms would yield results pointing to amount of research going on this.

I wanted to introduce to this topic today. Watch out this space for more on this topic.