A talk on ‘Technical language of Navya Nyaya’ was organised on February 27 by Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences (CNCS).The talk was delivered by Dr. Amba Kulkarni, Department of Sanskrit Studies, University of Hyderabad.
She said that natural languages have ambiguity and because of this languages cannot be directly used for logical deductions and scholarly debates. She gave the example of the word ‘Bank ’.The word bank can have two meanings. Commercial bank and river bank. Ambiguity is widely used by writers to give multiple meanings in literature.
Nyaya School of philosophy existed in India from 2nd Century C.E. To make the language fit for logical communication Navya Nyaya School came by 10th century C.E. The main objective of Navya Nyaya was to describe reality. It developed a special vocabulary to bring in precision to communication.
Dr.Amba Kulkarni also talked about the usage of computers to decipher languages, especially construction of bilingual dictionaries for translation from Sanskrit to Hindi and other Indian languages.
By Joyel K.Pious, MA-Communication