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 4 - Purvabhaga of Tarkabhasa: Contents
67 (of 73)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
154
The Buddhists believe that validity is extrinsic but argue that the
141 invalidity is intrinsic. According to them any verbal knowledge is ipso facto
false, being infected by concepts (vikalpas). Here it may be mentioned that,
according to the Buddhists, knowledge of an object which arises for the first
time alone is valid and all other knowledge regarding the object which arises
later on are invalid. The latter is not valid because it apprehends what has
already been apprehended.
According to the Naiyayikas, the validity of empirical knowledge is
extrinsic. It has to be verified by inference from conditions, that is to say, from
other knowledge. They say that validity is extrinsic in the case of production
and apprehension. If validity requires the causes of the knowledge for its
production, there would be validity even in the case of invalid knowledge,
since there are causes of the knowledge. If they are not present, the production
of the knowledge would be inconsistent. Invalidity does not require the causes
of the knowledge, because on the strength of the same reason already stated,
the result would be invalid even in the case of valid knowledge. So, the
141.
ki帽c膩pr膩m膩峁噛am apyeva峁� svata, eva prasajyate,
na hi svato satas tasya kutascid api sambhava岣�. TS. p. (II) 911.
