Essay name: Tarkabhasa of Kesava Misra (study)
Author:
Nimisha Sarma
Affiliation: Gauhati University / Department of Sanskrit
This is an English study of the Tarkabhasa of Kesava Misra: a significant work of the syncretic Nyaya-Vaisesika school of Indian philosophy widely used as a beginner's textbook in southern India and has many commentaries. This study includes an extensive overview of the Nyaya and Vaisesika philosophy, epistemology and sources of valid knowledge. It further deals with the contents and commentaries of the Tarkabhasa.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
14 (of 29)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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14
owl and revealed the Vaiséṣika System. 42 So, the Vaiséṣika system is known as
the Kanada system or the Auluka system. He is also known as Kāsyapa.
Date of Kanāda: According to Karl H Potter, Kaṇāda is a mythical
personage. He says that the Vaiseṣika system had its beginnings at some
independent time B.C.43 Kautilya's Arthasastra includes under Anvikṣiki, only
44 the Samkhya, the Yoga and the Lokāyata systems has been adduced by
Jacobi to show that the Vaiseṣika or the Nyaya as a School is later than 300
B.C., the date of the Artha-sastra.45
4.
NYAYA-VAISEṢIKA PHILOSOPHY
i) The Nyaya and the Vaiseṣika Philosophies and their
Synthesis
Both Nyaya and Vaisesika were separate in their origin and in their
early development. But a link between the two schools have found from the
very beginning. The Vaiseṣika and the Nyāya philosophies of the ancient and
medieval periods supplemented each other in respect of their subjects and
styles. Therefore, both are called allied systems. Both are actually coalesced.
The six or seven categories of the Vaiseṣika were entirely absorbed in the
treatise on Nyāya philosophy and the Nyaya categories of pramāṇa in its
developed form were actually absorbed in the treatises on Vaisesika
philosophy. The Vaiseṣika and the Nyāya systems only together constitute
'Indian logic'. The two systems had been for long treated as parts of one
42.
Ibid.
43.
Ibid.
44.
45.
PCBD. p.86.
sāmkhyam yogo lokayatañcetyānvikṣiki. ARS.1.2.10
