[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Shri Harsha's Khandana Khanda Khadya (English)

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

On Tue, 27 Jul, 2021, 5:16 pm Raghav Kumar Dwivedula, <
raghavkumar00 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you Vinodhji for your reply.
>
> I was puzzled only by your last sentence referring to Sri
> Satchidanandendra Saraswati Ji since there was no obvious connexion with
> Sri Harsha's text or even the use of tarka etc., generally speaking.
>
>
>
> On Tue, 27 Jul, 2021, 3:18 pm Vinodh, <vinodh.iitm at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It appears that my previous email did not reach the group because of the
>> large size of the attachment (a screenshot from the book in the original
>> post). So I’m forwarding just the text below.
>>
>> 🙏
>>
>> On Tue 27. Jul 2021 at 14:54, Vinodh <vinodh.iitm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Namaste Raghav ji
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, I do not have sufficient knowledge to answer your
>>> question regarding the historical sequence of texts and the relation to
>>> other schools of thought.
>>>
>>> Perhaps, if I may, I would like to share a couple of things that I found
>>> very interesting about Sriharsha's work. They are about its relation to
>>> 20th century logic and about the use of Sriharsha's arguments against the
>>> Advaitic school of thought itself and how one could possibly reconcile
>>> this.
>>>
>>> 1. Sriharsha's arguments against logic resembles in some way the work of
>>> the 20th century Logician / Mathematician / Philosopher Kurt Goedel
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Gödel> related to his Incompleteness
>>> Theorems.
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel%27s_incompleteness_theorems> The
>>> first incompleteness theorem essentially states that is that in any system
>>> of logic which have axioms (assertions of assumptions about "truth"), there
>>> will always be statements  that will be true but can never be proved within
>>> the system. The second theorem essentially states that any system of logic
>>> cannot prove its own consistency. Reading about Sriharsha's arguments
>>> against Nyayikas, who are essentially logicians, reminded me of Goedel and
>>> his Incompleteness theorems. Goedel's theorems dealt a big blow to the
>>> mathematician community in 1930s because mathematicians seemed to be sure
>>> that, given a particular statement, it can always be shown to be true or
>>> false. And what Goedel's incompleteness theorem meant was that there could
>>> be certain statements, which have neither been proved or disproved for
>>> centuries and have had entire lives spent on them, may be one of those true
>>> statements which can never be proved within a system of logic. In a similar
>>> way, I could imagine that the power of Sriharsha's arguments in his
>>> Khandana Khanda Khadya could be equally devastating for the Nyayikas.
>>>
>>> 2. What I found quite interesting in the Introduction by the translator
>>> of the Khandana Khada Khadya was a note regarding a rebuttal by Shankara
>>> Mishra to Sriharsha's arguments by using it against the Vedantin's view.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> With regard to this rebuttal, however, clarity can be obtained by the
>>> following excerpt from the article on "Is Advaita a framework?"
>>> <https://adbhutam.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/is-advaita-a-framework.pdf> (which
>>> you have also noted in another thread):
>>>
>>> "It is the folly of someone if he attaches himself with something,
>>> some 'ism'. Sriharsha, the authorof the 'Khandana-khanda-khAdya' says:
>>> अभीष्टशसद्धावशप खंडनानांअखशडडराज्ञाशमव नैवमाज्ञा ।
>>> तताशन कस्मान्न याशभलाषंसैद्धाशन्तके ऽप्यध्वशन योजयध्वम्॥
>>> [Though what is intended is secured by the arguments refuting the
>>> other schools, they are not like an edict of a king who is deemed to be
>>> above it. Therefore, there is no reason as to why they (arguments) may not
>>> be levelled as desired, even against the path delineated by the siddhAnta.]
>>> Shankaracharya has said in the adhyAsa bhAshya: All shAstra-s,
>>> including those directed at teaching the means for moksha, belong to the
>>> realm of avidya. And that includes
>>> 'advaita' as a framework."
>>>
>>> In the above, Sriharsha himself admits that the arguments for refuting
>>> the other schools can be levelled as desired even against the Vedantin
>>> himself.
>>>
>>> Therefore, as the shruti says, what can be conveyed by words and
>>> arguments are only what the Truth is *not* ('na iti, na iti') because
>>> the Truth is beyond words and imagination ('yato vaacho nivartante apraapya
>>> manasa saha'), words and imagination being dependent on It and not the
>>> other way around. Words and the logic that is conveyed by using them are
>>> only useful in showing that the logic and words are themselves useless in
>>> expressing the Truth directly. They are only indirectly pointing to the
>>> Truth, which is beyond any words or logic, by showing what the Truth is
>>> not. The 20th century Advaitic philosopher Satchidanandendra Saraswati
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchidanandendra_Saraswati> in his work
>>> titled Vedanta Prakriya Pratibhijna (translated into English as "The
>>> Method of the Vedanta: A Critical Account of the Advaita Tradition"
>>> <https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ZMkbWhjE2M4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>)
>>> critically examines several Advaitic texts as well as texts from other
>>> schools of thought and claims that this is the way the shruti shows the
>>> Truth.
>>>
>>> Om tat sat
>>> 🙏
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 2:33 AM Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <
>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Namaste Vinodh ji
>>>> Thanks for sharing that readable summary of khanDana-khanDa-khAdya
>>>>
>>>> Given that the nyAya school is the main pUrvapaxI for Sri Harsha, were
>>>> there any post-Shankara nyAya texts which particularly analyse and
>>>> dismiss
>>>> advaitic assertions. I am aware of pre-Shankara texts of nyAya but not
>>>> after him.
>>>>
>>>> Or is it that the older naiyAyikas just switched allegiance to dvaita as
>>>> seen in nyAyAmRta etc.?
>>>>
>>>> Om
>>>> Raghav
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, 26 Jul, 2021, 2:03 pm Vinodh via Advaita-l, <
>>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > Thank you for sharing the Engilish translation of this wonderful work
>>>> of
>>>> > Sriharsha. 🙏
>>>> >
>>>> > Here is a summary of the main theme of this work, in which Sriharsha
>>>> > refutes the views of the Nyaya philosophy (logicians) and establishes
>>>> the
>>>> > indefinability of this universe:
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Preceptors%20of%20Advaita%20-%2019.html
>>>> >
>>>> > On Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 11:16 PM V Subrahmanian <
>>>> v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
>>>> > wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > > This is Ganganatha Jha's translation of Shri Harsha's Khandana
>>>> Khanda
>>>> > > Khadya.
>>>> > >
>>>> > > https://archive.org/details/sriharsha/page/n3/mode/2up
>>>> > >
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>>>> > > <
>>>> >
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>>>> > >
>>>> > > .
>>>> > >
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