Welcome to Nyayamruta.org, a website specially dedicated to share information on the dialectical work Nyayamruta by the 14th century philosopher and saint Sri Vyasatirtha(Vyasarajaru) (1460-1539), a contemporary during the era of famous Vijayanagar Empire of India reigned by the Hindu king Krishnadevaraya. In addition to carrying information about Nyayamruta, this website will also carry information about life history, achievements and works of Sri Vyasatirtha. In a nutshell, Nyayamruta.org intends to serve as single place of all authentic information related history and philosophy of Sri Vyasatirtha.
In the development Indian philosophy, the phase of Vedanta is generally considered as culminating point. Within Vedanta, Dvaita Vedanta (founded by 13th century saint and philosopher Sri Madhvacharya)deserves to be considered as culmination of entire Vedantic thought. Dvaita Vedanta, since its inception had to face challenges from various schools of Indian thought, of which Advaita School was the direct opponent. Every challenge from the rival schools, moved the followers of Dvaita School to take up the cudgels in defence of the Dvaita doctrines which has enriched the Dvaita literature on both polemical and constructive fronts. Nyayamruta is one such work of monumental edification erected by Sri Vyasatirtha to vindicate the cogency of Madhva's philosophy of realism and its metaphysics and give Dvaita Vedanta a permanent staying power and living interest in the philosophical field and limit the aggressive ascendancy of the Advaita Vedanta in the intellectual community during those times (and for all times to come). This is clear from what the author of Nyayamruta himself has to say about the aims, objects and scope of his work :
"My labour of love is amply rewarded by gathering threads of doctrine and details of Madhva Siddhanta (philosophy), found piecemeal and scattered here and there in the original works and their commentaries and re-presenting them in a co-ordinated form and reinforcing them with additional arguments and corroborative materials where necessary, bringing fresh facts to light based on my own cogitations". (*)
Nyayamruta and its author represent the highest level in Indian dialectical thinking. This is borne in the conclusion arrived in the objective and indepth research and assessment of the different schools in the range of India thought conducted by the distinguished scholar Dr.S.N.Dasgupta in his work extending in 5 volumes ; A History of Indian Philosophy. The first half of Volume IV of this work is specifically discusses the history, logic, doctrines and dialectics of Dvaita Vedanta. Expressing his views on the logical and dialectical soundness of the doctrines of Dvaita Vedanta, Dr. Dasgupta concludes on Pg viii of Vol VI :
"In my opinion Jaya-tirtha and Vyasa-tirtha present the highest dialectical skill in Indian thought. There is a general belief amongst many that monism of Sankara presents the final phase of Indian thought. The realistic and dualistic thought of Samkhya and the yoga had undergone a compromise with monism both in the Puranas and in the hands of the later writers. But the readers of the present volume who will be introduced to the philosophy of Jaya-tirtha and particularly of Vyasa-tirtha will realize the strength and uncompromising impressiveness of the dualistic position."
The original Nyayamruta being a complex dialectical and technical Sanskrit work, very few in these times would possess the necessary training and equipment in Sanskrit, Dvaita & Indian philosophy to dive in deep and appreciate its subtleties. It is for this reason, one of India's greatest sons, Dr. B.N.K.Sharma, the doyen of modern scholars arrived on the philosophical scene early 19th century to translate, expound, authenticate and authoritatively introduce the new generation to Madhva philosophy for comparative study vis-a-vis with other Indian and Western philosophies.
Given the encyclopedic range and depth in understanding of Dvaita, Indian and Western philosophy and its coverage in his works, training in traditional and modern learning, Dr.Sharma is regarded as the Father and Preceptor of studying Madhva philosophy of modern times, lest the doors of knowledge and wisdom from Madhva thought should get indefinitely eclipsed from posterity for want of understanding of sanskrit, erudite teachers and access to encyclopedic range of original texts & commentaries quintessential in understanding and appreciating Dvaita Vedanta.
The present website is primarily an effort in making Dr. Sharma's following work on Nyayamruta available to anybody interested in knowing about Dvaita-Advaita polemics :
This website will also host information, articles and works on Sri Vyasatirtha by other Dvaita Titans like Sri B.Venkoba Rao, Sri N.B.Kalamdani, Sri A.P.Karmarkar to name a few. As well wisher and guide of posterity, Dr. Sharma has admonished us of how relevant and practical Madhva philosophy is to us in these modern times and is the key to the better understanding and appreciating of the Supreme, ourselves and the world we live in. It is therefore important to make best use of the human birth conferred on us by Providence, in making effort to leading a philosophical life as laid out by Madhva and as exemplified by his illustrious followers (Jayatirtha, Vyasatirtha, Vadiraja tirtha, Raghavendra tirtha, Haridasa tradition and others) to best of our abilities. Bringing out the important contribution of these followers to Dvaita Vedanta and its tradition, Dr. Sharma put's it in one of his works,
"We all owe an intellectual debt to the original path-makers and their expositors who have devoted all their time and energies to making works on Dvaita intelligible to posterity, in their wealth of thought. This debt is to be discharged by studying their works in the originals and subjecting such a study to a process of manana. Such critical reflection as the process of manana would impose is sure to be rewarding in its results." - The Brahmasutras and their principal commentaries Vol I (*)
Hence, Nyaymruta.org is our minuscule attempt of discharging this debt to 'these path-makers'.
Barring the errors due to limitation of we editors, the entire thought behind the content of this website is solely derived from the inspiration and guidance from the works of Dr. B.N.K.Sharma, Sri B.Venkoba Rao and other Dvaita Titans referred in. We humbly surrender this endeavor at their lotus feet and implore them to continue to bear on us with their kindness.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude from bottom of our heart to Dr. Sudhindra.K.Bhavani(Retired Professor of Somaiyya College, Mumbai), son of Dr. B.N.K.Sharma for his gracious encouragement and support in enabling this effort see the light of the day.
We hope readers, students, scholars and researchers alike will enjoy this website. We welcome and will cherish any of your thoughts, comments and suggestions.
BhooishTAm te namOktim vidhEma - Ishavasya Upanishad
Sri Krishnarpanamastu,
Your's sincerely,
Editors
* Reference : Advaita Siddhi Vs Nyayamruta by Dr. B.N.K.Sharma, Page 3 (with some changes by Nyayamruta.org editors)
