Indian Knowledge System(IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan
Week 05_Clip 01
Indian scheme of knowledge
Hello everyone, my name is Venkata Raghavan. I welcome you to yet another lesson in this
Introduction to Indian Knowledge Systems. This chapter is called Knowledge: Framework and
Classification. What we are trying to do in this chapter is we are trying to find out what are the
various knowledge creation frameworks that the Indian philosophers and Indian thinkers try to
develop.
As I am sure you will agree with me, human beings have always being striving to come up with
some new things, some new knowledge, add to the existing bank of knowledge etcetera. So,
how do they do this? You cannot just randomly start you know adding to the existing bank of
knowledge that you have. It requires a systematic method, a robust method, a reliable method
which will allow you to resolve your ambiguities and add to the existing bank of your
knowledge.
And this knowledge that you have so created, should not be in conflict with the existing
knowledge that you have till then. So, what happened in the Indian tradition? What were the
knowledge creation mechanisms or procedures or methods that the Indians had developed in
order to add to the knowledge?
You might have been seeing that there is lot of knowledge in the field of Linguistics or in
Metallurgy or in Philosophy, in so many of these areas Indians have made some or the other
innovation and throughout the history, there has been some or the other new knowledge being
added. So, what methods did they follow? What procedures did they follow? This is something
we will try and acquire in this particular part.
To begin with, the first thing that is a unique feature of the Indian tradition is that it was an
“Oral tradition”. So, as you can guess what sort of a procedure would they have followed in a
primarily oral tradition in order to add to knowledge? Yes, it is some sort of an oral discussion
or debate or vada, which is called in Sanskrit, it is called a vada.
So, they entered into a series of discussions in order to oral discussions in order to enter, create
new knowledge. And, the main intention behind entering into a vada was to discern the true
© All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan and is permitted for use only within the course "Indian
Knowledge System (IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document,
including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author.
Indian Knowledge System(IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan
Week 05_Clip 01
nature of something. It was not to prove that, I am great or my party is better than your party
or some your party did like this my party did like that, but it was to get to the true nature of
something.
And, the most important school which developed or which contributed to systematically telling
what are the various procedures you must follow in a discussion; what you must avoid in a
discussion; what is the various end products of a discussion etcetera, that particular darshana
was called nyaya.
So, it is the one of the Astika Darshanas and it contained within itself or developed a very
reliable body of knowledge, which contained the Procedural, Psychological as well as a Logical
aspects of conducting a debate. So, we will try and see what are some of the features that were
there, that were developed by the Nyvya tradition.
So, the most important aspect of an oral discussion, which is called vada is that who are the
participants in that. There are two participants; logically, there should be even if not physically
you should assume an opponent. So, there should be Vadin, who is the proponent of a
knowledge claim and then there should be a Prativadin, who is responding to that particular
knowledge claim.
In some cases, the Prativadin will be real, in some cases it will be assumed in order so that you
your argument can be a little more robust. So, these two participants enter into an argument.
Why do they enter into an argument? What is the Goal? It is to adopt one or the other
hypotheses.
So, I have an hypothesis let us say that, “Light is a wave”. The other person has a hypothesis
that, “Light is a particle”. So, the purpose of entering into a discussion is not to prove that my
hypothesis is correct or their hypothesis is correct. But, to come to a conclusion which is
acceptable to both of us.
And what is the means that we will adopt? It is some reliable mechanism of gathering
evidences. These are called pramanas, we will try we will see what these pramanas are, how
what kind of way we should set them and demonstrate them, we will see in the later parts of
© All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan and is permitted for use only within the course "Indian
Knowledge System (IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document,
including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author.
Indian Knowledge System(IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan
Week 05_Clip 01
the lesson, we will see that. And as the end product of doing this, what will we get? What will
be the result? It will be some new knowledge; which will not be opposed to the existing tenet.
So, please understand, this last part is important. If you have come up with a knowledge claim,
based on the knowledge bank that you already have, but this new knowledge is in conflict with
the knowledge bank, it means that something has gone wrong in the knowledge creation
process. So, the end result would be a new knowledge which is not opposed to the established
tenets.
So, what is the general procedure let us say, to give a very algorithmic kind of a representation
of how a discussion would proceed, I just like to show how discussion would be carried on.
Let us take one example or as a sort of algorithmic way I will try and present this.
So, supposing two of us have entered into a discussion. So, we have a problem, we have a
doubt about something; whether, let us say “Light is a particle” or “Light is a wave” something
like that, we have a discussion about this. A vada we enter into this particular topic.
So, firstly, I set forward a New Claim. So, I am the Proponent let us say and you are the
Respondent something like that. So, I set forward a New Claim; that, “Light is a wave”. Now,
the Opponent or the Respondent has a choice; they can either tentatively Accept it or they can
Reject it. Now let us assume, that the Opponent or the Respondent Accept this. So, tentatively
I have Accepted this proposition or your claim that, “Light is a wave”.
Then, I have the additional task of Presenting a detailed proof of my claim. Now, is this detailed
proof acceptable? Yes, if it is Accepted, it goes on to become Knowledge. So, until now it was
only a Claim; but now, I have Presented Evidence and the Evidence has been Accepted. So, it
becomes a Knowledge. But it is also possible that the Evidence that I have given is Not
Accepted. Though the Claim is, ok, the Evidence that I have given is not yet acceptable.
So, what I have to do? I have to provide some clarification. In most cases, it gets admitted into
the Bank of Knowledge, it is called as a Sidhanta. But what happens if my claim initial claim
itself is Rejected? I claimed, Light is a particle or a wave whatever it is that I had claimed, it
itself is Rejected.
© All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan and is permitted for use only within the course "Indian
Knowledge System (IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document,
including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author.
Indian Knowledge System(IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan
Week 05_Clip 01
So, if it is Rejected let us say, you have the option of providing some Response. Now, is this
Response Acceptable to me? I also have the choice. It is not always the Respondent or the
Opponent who has the choice, we also have a choice. So, is it Accepted? If it is not Accepted,
it goes loops back to the Response, I have to go on giving the Response, why I do not accept
this counter claim etcetera.
Hopefully, because it is a vada and it is not some parliamentary debate, where each is trying to
win over the other, both of us are trying to find out the truth, it does not end up in this infinite
loop. I tentatively Accept whatever it is the Response that you are giving. So, what is the next
job that you have? You have to now give the Counter Claim.
So, if I had Claimed that, “Light is a wave”, your Counter Claim would be that, “Light is a
particle”. So, this is the Counter Claim. And this new Counter Claim becomes the New Claim
and it goes back to that part. So, suppose, I do I accept your New Counter Claim? Yes, I Accept
your Counter Claim; then it is your job now to provide the detailed proof and then whether I
Accept the detailed proof, if required provide some clarification and finally, admit that into the
Bank of Knowledge.
So, in this way, the knowledge, the Vada Parampara used to go on to create new knowledge.
So, at some point in the Year let us say, during the monsoon season; because the people could
not move around so easily, that is one of the times. But it is not necessary that only at that time,
but traditionally, that was the time chaturmasya was the time when people used to sit around.
So, this kind of vada would happen, and at the end of which new knowledge would be created.
So, the details of this, how what sort of Proof was accepted; what was the kinds of Fallacies
that were pointed out; how was the Clarification provided; what sort of end product was given,
what sort of siddhanta was given, we will try to know as a lesson proceeds. But I will just try
to show, as a sort of small snapshot of how this Vada Parampara took place in order to create
new knowledge.
So, based on the small flowchart type thing that I had shown, I hope the misconception that the
Indian thought process was driven by some dogma or some blind beliefs etcetera, rooted in
some religious say text, is kept aside. And we are ready to entertain the reality that the, not only
© All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan and is permitted for use only within the course "Indian
Knowledge System (IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document,
including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author.
Indian Knowledge System(IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan
Week 05_Clip 01
the philosophical traditions but also all shastra or all disciplines had encouraged a very healthy
tradition of arguing and debating the tenets of each other school.
And they had carried it out in a very professional, rational manner in order to get to the truth.
Especially, when it comes to the philosophical tradition, because truth was the all-important
end product, we can be sure that they entered into the vada, with “the spirit”, with the “very
noble spirit” of attaining or arriving at the true cognition or the arriving at the true nature of the
object about which they were debating.
So, what are the various Objects that were deemed doing a discussion over; what are the
legitimate Means by which we can acquire those knowledge; what was the Nature of cognition
itself, these are the kinds of details we will try and see in this particular chapter; starting with
the examination of the nature of knowledge itself; what is knowledge and why what are its
various kinds and what are the various things about which we can have knowledge and finally,
what are the means by which we can have knowledge.
© All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Dr. R. Venkata Raghavan and is permitted for use only within the course "Indian
Knowledge System (IKS)- Humanities and Social Sciences" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document,
including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author.
