Vada in Theory and Practice

by Radhavallabh Tripathi

Vada, meaning debates, dialogues, discussions, was the quintessential of Indian spirit, enabling and promoting the growth of different philosophical and knowledge systems of India. It percolated deep into our mindset and enriched the moral, ethical, religious and sociocultural edifice of anything that was essentially Indian in nature. As continuation of Anvikshiki from the bc era, vada helped thrive Indian traditional knowledge systems. It subsists on diversity and its tradition envisages pluralism. Most of our Sanskrit works, covering a wide gamut of knowledge systems, are structured in the techniques of debate. This reality applies not only to the philosophical writings, but to Indian medical systems (Ayurveda), Arthashastra of Kautilya and Kamasutra of Vatsyayana as well. Even great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata are no exceptions. Vada culture involved verbal duals, attacks and even violence of speech, and all major religious systems old or modern were parties to it. This book also elucidates how vata was vital and critical for the growth of our socio-political fabrics. It shows how some of the major conflicts in philosophical systems were centred around karma, jnana, choice between violence and non-violence, pravritti and nivritti. It also presents the manifestations of vada on a vast canvas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Modern spiritual and religious gurus like Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti and Vinoba Bhave were men of dialogues. Our scholars have applied the varied techniques of vada against the philosophical and scientific systems of the West to prove them correct. This collector s issue should enthrall a wide audience of philosophers, scholars and believers in Indian knowledge systems.

434 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2016

Reviews

[Geetha Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice

[SANJAY · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully produced book, both in content and form. Prof. Radhavallabh Tripathi is a well-known scholar of Indian traditions, and he’s done justice to his reputation with this accessible book on an esoteric subject. Some of us now already know more about Indian dialogue than we did before Prof. Amartya Sen wrote The Argumentative Indian. However, Prof. Sen’s approach to the topic was more political than scholarly and he mostly left the techniques of debate untouched.

Prof. Tripathi rectifies this shortcoming in our current corpus with insight born of deep knowledge, meticulous research and élan. Though vāda वाद traditions are no longer taught in our schools or professional institutions, these are refreshingly different from the more widely known Greek and Western traditions. Prof. Tripathi helps us understand this, without actually doing a comparative study of the two. He explains the history, techniques, and evolution in an unusually accessible manner, easy to understand even for the uninitiated. This itself is an incredible achievement as most of the standard texts on this are fairly obtuse and difficult to follow for most of us. This he does by using short sentences, and peppering the text with anecdotal aspects of vāda, which makes it easy to read this scholarly book almost like a novel. That is not at all to detract from the scholarly value of the work - the book contains extensive references and footnotes, in the modern Western style. This book would certainly serve as a more thoughtful (and reliable) companion to The Argumentative Indian on your bookshelf, especially as Prof. Tripathi manages to remain neutral, while engaged, which in itself an amazing thing given the present acrimonious social media ‘debates’ on everything under the Sun.

A bit about the physical book itself. DK Printworks specialises in doing art books, and they have made this book also a work of art. The cover is beautifully illustrated as you can see. More interesting is a deeply rounded back, very unusual for such books. The typeface is very modern and the paper quite good as well. At places sentence construction is a bit awkward, though. There are also some typos in English text - a good proof-reader would have fixed these.

All in all, an excellent book, and an extraordinary value at that.

[Prem Aparanji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to those who do not know of our own proto/pre scientific methods, critical thinking, epistemology. And rich traditions of debate and discussions.

[Yudhishtir · Rating 5 out of 5]

he book details the practice in discourse long prevalent on the land of Bharatvarsha from time immemorial . Acts as a testimony to the argument for the claim that India is the mother of democracy.
The prevalence of myriad schools of philosophy without calling for diminishing of any or demeaning any devout was what encapsulates the idea of coexistence.

The accounts of debates of Mandana Mishra and sankarcharya moderated by Ubhaya bharati , wife of the former is an example of how impartiality was exercised in the assessment.

Also sheds light on how the west viewed the ideas and thoughts prevalent here. Springing enough rebuttals of how it misinterpreted the fundamentals of the land. It was so aptly captured from the below statement:

"You arrive at loneliness through all your actions and achievements. We start from loneliness, but we do not want to remain lonely, we want to see ourselves in the other."

A book with a lot to offer on how to go about dressing an argument for it reach the listener .

A line that has had lasting impression:

The seers were departing from this world for ever. The human beings asked them — “who will be our seer if you are leaving us?” The seers replied — “henceforth tarka (argument) will be your seer”.

[Tushar Gupta]

We

[A. B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in awe at the sheer erudition of this book. Enjoyably written.