Birth of Nabadwip University
The birth of Nabadwip University from the Ancient Mithila University is an interesting topic in the history of Indian philosophy.
According to some sources, Nabadwip University was founded by Gangesa Upadhyaya, a scholar of Mithila, who developed a new version of Nyaya Shastra, known as Navya Nyaya, to combat the logic of Buddhist philosophy and to minimize its influence.
Navya Nyaya was a school of logic and epistemology that flourished in Nabadwip, a town in West Bengal, from the 13th to the 18th century. It was based on the earlier Nyaya Shastra, which was founded by Aksapada Gautama in Mithila, an ancient kingdom in present-day Bihar and Nepal. Nyaya Shastra was a system of logic and reasoning that aimed to establish the validity of knowledge and inference.
Gangesa Upadhyaya was a prominent scholar of Nyaya Shastra, who lived in the 13th century. He wrote a monumental work called Tattvacintamani, which means “The Jewel of Thought on the Nature of Things”. In this work, he revised and refined the concepts and methods of Nyaya Shastra, and introduced new terms and categories of analysis. He also addressed the objections and criticisms raised by the Buddhist philosophers, who had challenged the Nyaya view of reality, causation, perception, and inference.
Gangesa’s work was highly influential and inspired many followers and commentators, who formed the Navya Nyaya school. Some of the notable scholars of this school were Raghunatha Shiromani, Gadadhara Bhattacharya, Mathuranatha Tarkavagisa, Jagadisha Tarkalankara, and Visvanatha Nyayapancanana. They developed and expanded the Navya Nyaya system, and applied it to various fields of knowledge, such as grammar, poetry, ethics, and theology.
Navya Nyaya was considered as one of the most sophisticated and rigorous systems of logic and epistemology in the world. It had a profound impact on the intellectual and cultural life of India, and also influenced the development of logic and philosophy in Tibet and Nepal.