The new school of Nyaya philosophy known as Navya-Nyaya began with Ga@nges’a Upadhyaya of Mithila, about 1200 A.D.  Ga@nges’a wrote only on the four prama@nas admitted by the Nyaya, viz. pratyak@sa, anumana, upamana, and s’abda, and not on any of the topics of Nyaya metaphysics.  But it so happened that his discussions on anumana (inference) attracted unusually great attention in Navadvipa (Bengal), and large numbers of commentaries and commentaries of commentaries were written on the anumana portion of his work Tattvacintama@ni, and many independent treatises on sabda and anumana were also written by the scholars of Bengal, which became thenceforth for some centuries the home of Nyaya studies.  The commentaries of Raghunatha S’iroma@ni (1500 A.D.), Mathura Bha@t@tacarya (1580 A.D.), Gadadhara Bha@t@tacarya (1650 A.D.) and Jagadisa Bha@t@tacarya (1590 A.D.), commentaries on S’iroma@ni’s commentary on Tattvacintamani, had been very widely read in Bengal.  The new school of Nyaya became the most important study in Navadvipa and there appeared a series of thinkers who produced an extensive literature on the subject [Footnote ref l].The contribution was not in the direction of metaphysics, theology, ethics, or religion, but consisted mainly in developing a system of linguistic notations to specify accurately and precisely any concept or its relation with other concepts [Footnote ref 2].  Thus for example when they wished to define precisely the nature of the concomitance of one concept with another (e.g. smoke and fire), they would so specify the relation that the exact nature of the concomitance should be clearly expressed, and that there should be no confusion or ambiguity.  Close subtle analytic thinking and the development of a system of highly technical

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[Footnote 1:  From the latter half of the twelfth century to the third quarter of the sixteenth century the new school of Nyaya was started in Mithila (Behar); but from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century Bengal became pre-eminently the home of Nyaya studies.  See Mr Cakravartti’s paper, J.  A.S.B. 1915.  I am indebted to it for some of the dates mentioned in this section.]

[Footnote 2:  Is’varanumana of Raghunatha as well as his Padarthatattvanirupa@na are, however, notable exceptions.]

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expressions mark the development of this literature.  The technical expressions invented by this school were thus generally accepted even by other systems of thought, wherever the need of accurate and subtle thinking was felt.  But from the time that Sanskrit ceased to be the vehicle of philosophical thinking in India the importance of this literature has gradually lost ground, and it can hardly be hoped that it will ever regain its old position by attracting enthusiastic students in large numbers.