[Footnote 1: Yena prayukta@h pravarttate tat prayojanam (that by which one is led to act is called prayojanam); yamartham abhîpsan jihâsan vâ karma ârabhate tenânena sarve prâ@nina@h sarvâ@ni karmâ@ni sarvâs'ca vidyâ@h vyâptâ@h tadâs'rayâs'ca nyâya@h pravarttate (all those which one tries to have or to fly from are called prayojana, therefore all beings, all their actions, and all sciences, are included within prayojana, and all these depend on Nyâya). Vâtsyâyana bhâs'ya, I.i. 1.]
279
thinks that the sûtras underwent two additions, one at the hands of some Buddhists and another at the hands of some Hindu who put in Hindu arguments against the Buddhist ones. These suggestions of this learned scholar seem to be very probable, but we have no clue by which we can ascertain the time when such additions were made. The fact that there are unmistakable proofs of the interpolation of many of the sûtras makes the fixing of the date of the original part of the Nyâya sûtras still more difficult, for the Buddhist references can hardly be of any help, and Prof. Jacobi's attempt to fix the date of the Nyâya sûtras on the basis of references to S'ûnyavâda naturally loses its value, except on the supposition that all references to S'ûnyavâda must be later than Nâgârjuna, which is not correct, since the Mahâyâna sûtras written before Nâgârjuna also held the S'ûnyavâda doctrine.
The late Dr S.C. Vidyâbhû@sa@na in J.R.A.S. 1918 thinks that the earlier part of Nyâya was written by Gautama about 550 B.C. whereas the Nyâya sûtras of Ak@sapâda were written about 150 A.D. and says that the use of the word Nyâya in the sense of logic in Mahâbhârata I.I. 67, I. 70. 42-51, must be regarded as interpolations. He, however, does not give any reasons in support of his assumption. It appears from his treatment of the subject that the fixing of the date of Ak@sapâda was made to fit in somehow with his idea that Ak@sapâda wrote his Nyâya sûtras under the influence of Aristotle—a supposition which does not require serious refutation, at least so far as Dr Vidyâbhû@sa@na has proved it. Thus after all this discussion we have not advanced a step towards the ascertainment of the date of the original part of the Nyâya. Goldstücker says that both Patañjali (140 B.C.) and Kâtyâyana (fourth century B.C.) knew the Nyâya sûtras [Footnote ref 1]. We know that Kau@tilya knew the Nyâya in some form as Ânvîk@sikî in 300 B.C., and on the strength of this we may venture to say that the Nyâya existed in some form as early as the fourth century B.C. But there are other reasons which lead me to think that at least some of the present sûtras were written some time in the second century A.D. Bodas points out that Bâdarâya@na's sûtras make allusions to the Vais'e@sika doctrines and not to Nyâya. On this ground he thinks that Vais'e@sika sûtras were written before Bâdarâyana's Brahma-sûtras, whereas the Nyâya sûtras were written later. Candrakânta Tarkâla@mkâra also contends in his
____________________________________________________________________
[Footnote 1: Goldstücker's Pâ@nini, p. 157.]
280
edition of Vais'e@sika that the Vais'e@sika sûtras were earlier than the Nyâya. It seems to me to be perfectly certain that the Vais'e@sika sûtras were written before Caraka (80 A.D.); for he not only quotes one of the Vais'e@sika sûtras, but the whole foundation of his medical physics is based on the Vais`e@sika physics [Footnote ref 1]. The La@nkâvatâra sûtra (which as it was quoted by As'vagho@sa is earlier than 80 A.D.) also makes allusions to the atomic doctrine. There are other weightier grounds, as we shall see later on, for supposing that the Vais'e@sika sûtras are probably pre-Buddhistic [Footnote ref 2].
It is certain that even the logical part of the present Nyâya sûtras was preceded by previous speculations on the subject by thinkers of other schools. Thus in commenting on I.i. 32 in which the sûtra states that a syllogism consists of five premisses (avayava) Vâtsyâyana says that this sûtra was written to refute the views of those who held that there should be ten premisses [Footnote ref 3]. The Vais'e@sika sûtras also give us some of the earliest types of inference, which do not show any acquaintance with the technic of the Nyâya doctrine of inference [Footnote ref 4].
Does Vais'e@sika represent an Old School of Mîmâ@msâ?