The Path of Proofs (Pramanapaddhati of Sri Jayatirtha)

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Epistemology.-of the’ Dvaita school of thought is presented ‘in this: short Monograph Pramanapaddhati - the Path of Proofs, authored by Sri Jayatirtha.. Epistemology is the science of knowledge that deals with the origin and nature of cognitive events and their means.

Acarya Madhva, the proponent of the Dvaita school, has explained about. the epistemology of this new school in his works. Since Madhva’s language, is profound and the elucidations are scattered over his several works, it is difficult to comprehend for a novice. Hence, Pramanapaddhati was composed by his successor of third generation Sri Jayatirtha. The simple and captivating . Style of this work is sure to ignite the interest in the readers to conduct further study in detail. This work is not only regarded as a standard textbook of Dvaita ~ studies, but also considered as a basic authentic work in the Dvaita dialectic literature.

This work is rendered into English by Prof Shrinivasa Varakhedi adopting the mirror-translation method.

Professor Shrinivasa Varakhedi is (born 1973) MA (Sanskrit and Darsana), Navya-Nyaya Vidvan, and PhD, presently the Director, Directorate of Karnataka State Sanskrit Education, Karnataka Samskrit University, Bengaluru. He is a promising young scholar, who has been putting his efforts to bridge the gap between traditional and modern academia. He is one of the pioneers in newly emerged interdisciplinary research field Sanskrit Computational Linguistics.

He gained reputation by his research interests in interdisciplinary areas closely working with famous institutions such as IIIT and many central universities. While working as a faculty member in Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, he led many projects such as Sanskrit-net, Ramayana Project and NLP related PG courses. He has edited more than 30 works and published equal number of research papers in Sanskrit as well as in English. He has penned many articles * related to Madhva philosophy in Kannada. He has delivered many lecturege. on invitations from many reputed universities and institutions as a visiting g professo.

Dr Varakhed received Maharshi Bacrayan Vas Samman by the President Madhva saints and institutions.

Manipal University Press (MUP) is the second offspring of MAHE Trust, Manipal University being the firstborn. The objectives of MUP include publishing scholarly, academic outputs such as textbooks, monographs, chronicles, conference proceedings etc. The translation of Sri Jayatirtha’s Pramanapaddhati by Dr Shrinivasa Varakhedi is the first offering of the University Press.

The Dvaita Philosophy Resource Centre set up under the aegis of Manipal Centre for European Studies has taken up the challenging task of translating some of the seminal works of Dvaita philosophers with an intention of disseminating this knowledge. The University and University Press are privileged to take up these works, being geographically located in the heartland of Dvaita. The Centre has been commissioned to translate two more works, which should be completed soon.

Dr Neeta Inamdar, Head, Manipal Centre for European Studies has been singularly responsible for bringing out this epistemological work. MUP places on record its sense of gratitude for her organized effort to get the book completed on time. Mr Vinod Kamath, Asst Professor, Dept of Printing Technology, MIT; Mr Chandrashekar Prabhu and Mr K Suresh of Manipal University were involved intimately in the formation of the University Press and also the first publication. My sincere thanks to all of them.

Epistemology of the Dvaita school of thought is fully presented in this short monograph with the title Pramanapaddhati! - The Path of Proofs, authored by Sri Jayatirtha. Epistemology, the science of knowledge deals with the origin and nature of cognitive events and their means. Every school of thought in Indian philosophy has developed its own theories in this branch of philosophy. The Dvaita school, being one of the major realistic schools among the Vedanta schools created a new system of epistemology that was worked out by Acarya Madhva, the founder of the Dvaita school especially in Pramanalaksana and Anuvyakhyana. In order to make it available to the novice, Sri Jayatirtha, who composed many commentaries on the works of Acarya Madhva, wrote this independent monograph that covers all aspects of the Dvaita epistemology.

Epistemology of realism

The Dvaita school of thought promoted by Acarya Madhva, which flourished in thirteenth century AD near Udupi in Karnataka, is a realistic school that believes in the reality of this phenomenon- world and in the supremacy of Lord Visnu. This tenet of realism requires a different epistemological set up that starts from a basic premise or axiom, which is "TI exist’. All philosophical inquiries originate from a living being — a spirit or a soul cognized as "I". This is the first reality that does not require any proof other than the self. All inquiries will find an end oy final evaluation of the testimony. This concept of testimony is called Saks7 in tne Dvaita philosophy, which is the root of all quests and the final judge of all verifications. The rest are external means of knowledge. The Dvaita school has ceveloped a unique paradigm for knowledge and its means. There are three types of knowledge: perceptual, inferential and verbal. The first one being generated by means of six senses that constitute prominent and independent proof, and later categories belonging to non-perception cognitive proofs that are considered to be sependent on perception, yet powerful instruments to achieve knowledge. Thus, mis work is divided into three major chapters called perception, inference and verbal testimony, as a compendious yet full treatment of the Dvaita epistemology in smaller captions. It is true that its discussion on the stand points of other schools on various topics and their criticism are not in detailed form, yet this is precisely what is to be expected here since the work is designed for the novice. Moreover, the simple and captivating statements in Sutra style employed here would ignite the interest in reader to conduct further study in detail.

Study of Pramanas and spiritual attainment

The goal of Indian tradition of philosophies is enlightenment of the self and the realization of ultimate truth. This is attainable only on obtaining proper instruments of realization. Knowledge constitutes realization. The path of a person’s spiritual endeavour is completely dependent on the instruments he chooses. Proper instruments lead him towards the goal in the right direction’. Hence, identifying and understanding the nature of the knowledge and its instruments are necessary. However, these efforts to study Pramanas seem to be a pure academic pursuit, this kind of precise settlement of the nature of Pramanas and a detailed study of their characteristics are prescribed by Acarya Madhva as a powerful and initial step in the spiritual path. This kind of inquiry is not kept outside of the spiritual enterprise. For the same reason, Acarya Madhva has given special attention to elaborate discussion of the Pramanas and after having defined and classified the Pramdnas, he has thrown light on the defects of the notions about the Pramanas proposed by other opponents in his various works. This whole and complete system of the Dvaita epistemology has a noted place among neo Indian philosophical dialectics, for its unique and original notions and technically sound presentations. This status was possible only by the contributions of Sri Jayatirtha, who brought this to light through his extraordinary expositions.

Pramana — what it is?

The central theme Pramdana is borrowed from the Sastric and common world as well. This notion includes knowledge and its instruments. The definition must cover the entire concept without leaving any component. Hence, Pramana is defined as Yathartham. Pramana is that, which apprehends an object as it is. Pramana is classified into two categories; Kevalapramana, the primary proof and Anupramana, the secondary proof. Knowledge apprehends its object directly by its nature, whereas, instruments like sense organs do get the objects through th knowledge they generate. Apprehension is the nature of cognition. Knowledge t the central point of this inquiry of Pramana. Other factors of Pramd, the knowledge are Pramata, Prameya and Pramana. Book's Contents and Sample Pages