टिप्पनीसहित आख्यातवादः नव्वादः च- Akhyatavada and Nanvada Along with Tippani

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The first part of the book deals with khsatardda and its fippni. Raghunatha Siromant in his work, Akhyaravada, has hieldated the meaning of the verbal suffix (a) pertaining to the view of the old Nalvayikas. The view being inconclusive has been supplemented by the view of the Navya naiyagikas, the school that Raghunatha Siromani belongs to. The work then proceeds to explain various aspects of the Vaiyakaranas, the Bhatta-mimamsaks and the Prabhakara mimärtsakas with obvious refutation of their postulation by the author.

Akhyatavadatippani of Bhavananda Siddhantavagis is the commentary of Athavalo here he clarifies the subject matter in detail with relevant references.

In the second part of the book, nanudda with oppad is disscussed in detail. Raghunatha Siromani, with his remarkable erudition and scholarship contends that the denotative meaning of nañ bears two types of absence-Relational absence and Mutual absence. While discussing the meaning of nan, he criticizes the views of the Vaiyakaranas and the Mimamsakas.

Nanvada has been commented upon by a number of Naiyayikas of which Nanvadatippani (commentary of Nañvada) of Bhayananda Siddhantavägisa is highly commendable.

Dr. Sanjit Kumar Sadhukhan, the Associate Professor, Deptt. of Sanskrit, Rabindra Bharati University Kolkata is an expert both in the Nyaya school of Philosophy and Buddhism. He has contributed a number of articles in various journals and has edited many Sanskrit texts. Some of them are Nyayahindu of Dharmakirti (first and second chapters). Niyamajari of Jayantabharta (Pramanasamanya and Pratyaksa sections), Sarvadarianasangraha of Madhavacarya (Bauddha and Jaina sections). and Vyayanibandhapukain of Vardhamana (Tristri Section). Apart from these, he has Contributed a number of articles in various Journals. He is now preparing a critical edition at the advance portion of the Mayanibandhaprakia of Vardhamana.

It is a matter of fact that after the composition of Tattuacintamani of Gangesa Upadhyaya (14th century AD), the school of Navya-Nyaya was established and numerous works on this neo-logical system were composed. These were in the form of commentary and sub commentary which were so important due to their contents that they were respected as original works. Out of the hundreds of neologicians, at least two scholars occupy pre-eminent position. They are, Pakṣadhara Miśra of Mithila and Raghunatha Siromani of Bengal. Out of these two scholars, the tradition of Pakṣadhara Miśra is lost and only Raghunatha's tradition exists, though nowadays, very few scholars can understand his style of language, apart from its contents. Dinesh Chandra Bhattacharya in his book Bange Navyanyaya Charcha has done a stupendous job through critical discussion on the true history of his personal life, birth place, works, shedding aside the myths fabricated around him. (see his book, ibid. pp. 79-106). There he has dealt in detail on Raghunatha's works and tradition. Editor Dr. Sanjit Kumar Sadhukhan, besides describing editing methodology, has also written in his Introduction on Akhyātavāda and Nañvada in philosophical systems along with other works of Raghunatha. He has pointed out the theories of the Naiyayikas, Vaiyakaranas and Mimamsakas, who chiefly dealt with the coherent substance hidden in these terms. Readers may find it repetitive should I once more reiterate them. I would like to add here that the 'theory of negation' as developed in Indian grammatical tradition and gradually entered into the area of philosophy has a long pre-history. Both negative participles ma na/nañ and akhyata had been dealt with in Nirukta of Yaska. Without going to much detail. I would just touch on the issue in order to fill up the gap.

The Indian knowledge tradition has accorded great importance to meaning. Therefore, in various disciplines, semantics has been an important topic of discussion and exposition. It is a well acknowledged fact that speculation related to meaning has occupied prime position since the time of Mahabhaṣya. It has been the subject matter of exposition in various disciplines but the three main disciplines that have indulged in this exercise are Vyakarana, Mimamsa and Nyaya, especially the Navya Nyaya. This should not come as a surprise because all the three disciplines are closely related to language. Grammar being a discipline of analysis of language is naturally inclined to analyse meaning. Mimamsa being the philosophy of Vedic rituals depends to a great extent on interpretation of Vedic mantras and dictums. Nyaya on the other hand has logic as its firm base and logic can be expressed only through precise statements. The need for precision in language has led to Navya Nyaya dwell in great detail on the meaning of words and sentences.

Bengal is the region where Navya Nyaya originated and flourished to glory. Vasudeva Sarvabhauma's pupil Raghunatha Siromani belongs to the rich tradition of Naiyayikas. His claim to fame lies in his commentary on Tattvacintamani of Gangesa and Atmatattvaviveka of Udayanacarya. He also wrote some sub-commentaries. He was not only a versatile commentator but also an independent author. He composed works like Akhyātavāda, Nañvada and Padarthakhandanatika. All the three works belong to the Nyaya Vaisesika school of philosophy. He belonged to a period when India was at the peak of intellectual creativity and there were scholars from different regions who contributed to the growth of knowledge in varied disciplines.

This critical edition has a little history behind its making. It all began with the present editor's delving into the pages of Dinesh Chandra Bhattacharya's pioneering work, Vange Navya-nyaya Carca, which for valid reasons has come to be regarded as an authoritative source to glean scholarly information about the Nyaya-Vaisesika manuscripts. The editor was, in particular, looking for some lead on the works of Bhavananda Siddhantavägiśa; and the search was not in vain-with a reference catching the eye that a rare manuscript of Akhyatavadatippani of Bhavananda is preserved in the library of Sanskrit Sahitya Parishat at Kolkata. Providence seemed to be smiling upon the editor's cause, since the said library was quite easily accessible, being located close tohis residence. So a number of visits were made to search through the hand-written catalogue available in that repository of Sanskrit scholarship and finally, one fine evening in the month of September 2007, gold, or what looked like gold, was struck. Then followed the phase of due diligence: verification of the manuscript with the description given by Bhattacharya and making a copy thereof. The manuscript was rather small, containing only 16 folios, copying of which took only a few days.

But alas, all that glitters is not gold. There seemed to be too many mistakes, in particular those tell-tale omissions of single letters, which were indicative of inexpert and unreliable scribal work. So things were back to square one, and a fresh search was launched for other manuscripts, if any. The effort led to a fragmentary folio of the same commentary contained in the manuscript of Nanvadatippani of Bhavananda Siddhantavägisa. But with this fragment, one could only make a limited verification of the corresponding concluding portion of the commentary appearing in the other manuscript. leaving the editing of the remaining sections to the rather unsatisfactory device of making some conjectural corrections in the readings.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages