The Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍakhādya of Śrīharṣa: An English Translation, Volume I

The volume begins with a substantial introduction explaining Śaṅkara’s non-dual Vedānta, the realist commitments of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, and the dialectical strategy of the Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍakhādya. It outlines the Nyāya theory of sixteen categories and its threefold method of enumeration, definition, and examination. Śrīharṣa challenges this framework at its foundation by arguing that philosophical debate does not require acceptance of the ultimate reality of the categories under discussion. The introduction further explains the distinction between empirical and absolute reality, the self-luminous character of cognition, the role of Vedic testimony in establishing non-duality, and the inadequacy of perception as a universal proof of difference. Chapter I then proceeds through an extended critique of Nyāya epistemology and semantics, treating definitions of valid cognition, apprehension, recognition, memory, negation, perception, inference, analogy, verbal testimony, presumption, non-apprehension, and fallacious reasoning. The volume concludes with a separate index.