Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/05/2020 - 18/05/2020
All Day
Location
Seminar Hall
Categories
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDY
Rashtrapati Nivas, Shimla 171 005
Summer School
on
Navya-Nyāya
(04-18 May 2020)
Concept Note
The Navya-Nyāya system of logic represents one of the finest products of human intellect that has been sustaining India’s Intellectual Sanskrit-Śāstric writing traditions for the last few centuries. Depth in Indian Epistemology was acquired because of a close dialogue, both intra- and inter-systemic, among Indian philosophical systems. We have a recorded history of one thousand years, up to the tenth century AD, of such dialogue known by the name of Prācina Nyāya from Gautama to Udayana. The form of dialogue was writing commentaries and commentaries thereon raising objections and attempting answers to those objections. It was not the case that every time the opponents were convinced by those answers and they kept on raising same and similar objections again and again. Udayanācārya seems to have identified the cause of occasional failure of such dialogues. He seems to have thought that it was the medium of discourse that created obstacles in establishing rapport and it was he who started developing a language, which would facilitate understanding one another’s mind among the participants in the debate. This new sophisticated language, which aimed at presenting the reality by minimising the chances of ambiguity in discourse and facilitating the participants in understanding one another, is called Navya Nyāya Language.
It got fully developed by the 12th century AD and thereafter logicians, philosophers, system builders, theory builders, aestheticians, grammarians, social philosophers, i.e. almost all thinkers in all Śāstric intellectual fields preferred this medium of Navya Nyāya Language to analyse human thoughts and enrich discourses. This tradition is alive even today in classical educational institutions of our country.It has universal applicability and we need to make it available as a tool to all those who deal with language.
This summer school seeks to acquaint the participants across specific disciplines of knowledge with this unique intellectual heritage of India so that they master this art and apply it to their respective knowledge-domain of interest. It is hoped that participants of various disciplines like Sanskrit, Philosophy, Languages, Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Human Sciences, Social Sciences, Manuscriptology, Art and Aesthetics, Language technology, Machine Translation and the like will derive insights from this exposure. This summer school is keen to focus on the nature and function of Navya-Nyāya language and methodology as a powerful tool to facilitate meaningful discourse and unambiguous communication.
The school will have two components:
1) Discussions on Fundamental concepts and technical terms of Navya Nyāya and;
2) Reading of the 19th Century text called Navyanyāyabhāṣāpradīpa of Mahāmahopādhāya Maheśa Candra Nyāyaratna.
Prof.V.N.Jha, Prof.Ujjwala Jha, Prof.Srinivas Varkhedi and Prof.Amba Kulkarni and other eminent scholars have agreed to act as the Resource Persons for this Summer School.
Applications are invited from young college and university teachers/researchers from Humanities, Social Sciences, Computer Science, Language Technology, Machine Translation and the like.
CALL FOR PAPERS
A batch of 25 participants will be selected from amongst the applicants. Those interested may send their bio-data (that should include their academic qualification, experience, research interest and area of specialization) along with the note of 200-250 words about their interest in Navya-Nyāya to:
1. Dr. Anil Pratap Giri
Associate Professor
Department of Sanskrit
Mahatma Gandhi Central University,
Gandhi Bhawan,Bankat,
Motihari, District-East Champaran
Bihar- 845401
Mob. 91-7200526855 Email: anilpratapgiri@gmail.com
With a copy to:
2. Ms. Ritika Sharma
Academic Resource Officer,
Indian Institute of Advanced Study,
Rashtrapati Nivas, Shimla- 171005
Tel: 0177-2831385 Email: aro@iias.ac.in
The last date for submission of abstract (200-250 words) is 22 March, 2020 till 12:00 midnight. The Institute intends to send Invitation letters to selected participants by April, 2020. IIAS, Shimla will be glad to extend its hospitality (free hospitality is provided only to the participant) during the period and is willing to reimburse, if required, rail (AC-II Tier) travel expenses from the place of current residence in India, or the port of arrival in India, and back.
Note: Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and the Institute reserves the right to cancel the selection/participation of a candidate found guilty at any stage