Nyaya Sutras

Foundational text for the Nyaya school,
one of the six schools of traditional
Hindu philosophy. The Nyaya Sutras
are traditionally attributed to the
philosopher Gautama; the most significant commentary was written by
Vatsyayana in the fourth century. The
Nyaya Sutras begin with an exposition
of the cause of the human bondage,
explained as stemming from a five-part
causal chain: pain, birth, activity,
defect, and wrong notion. Each of
these elements is caused by the one
succeeding it, and is eliminated with
the destruction of its cause. The root
cause for bondage and reincarnation
(samsara) is thus wrong notions,
which must be corrected to attain final
liberation of the soul (moksha). In
their quest for correct understanding,
the Nyaya Sutras devote great attention
to the pramanas, the means by which
human beings can gain true and accurate knowledge, and to the rules and
procedures for applying them. The
Nyaya Sutras describe four such pramanas: perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana), analogy (upamana),
and authoritative testimony (shabda).
These ideas are accepted by virtually all
Indian philosophical schools and are
the Nyayas’ major contribution to
Indian philosophy.
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Nyaya Sutras