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India has been a home to a large number of diverse religious, philosophical and spiritual traditions. Hinduism and Buddhism as they stand today are two major religious traditions that emerged in this geography and which share a deep cultural, religious, and spiritual history.
At the core of this religious and spiritual pluralism is the dynamic Indian tradition of Vada or Philosophical Dialogue.
The term Vada is derived from the root 'vad' or 'to speak' and it has a variety of meanings including dialogue, discourse, thesis, argument, doctrine, discussion, controversy, and dispute, among others. The Indian tradition of Vada can easily be traced back to Vedic literature with the earliest word used to denote philosophical discussion being 'Brahmodya' and one of the most graphic examples of this kind of dialogue was the Vada between Yajnavalkya and Gargi.
Highlighting the diversity and pluralism inherent in the Vada tradition, Radhavallabh Tripathi in his ground-breaking book 'Vada in Theory & Practice' observes "Vada subsists on diversity. No Vada is possible if there is only one point of view. Also, Vada does not happen in singularity, it always is a prerequisite to the other and mostly promotes the presence of many others. India's history of ideas and debates presents a multilinear view. The tradition of Vada envisages pluralism."
One of the best exemplar of this dynamic and pluralistic nature of the Indian Vada Tradition is the Hindu-Budhhist Philosophical Dialogue that happened in the first millenium CE. Tripathi describes it as the "one of the finest examples of intellectual refinement through Vada. As both the sides sharpened their weapons for attacking their adversaries, they enriched and sharpened their own systems of thought and tools of analysis."
The Hindu schools that participated in this philosophical dialogue were the Darshanas of Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Samkhya-Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta, which are collectively known as Astika Darshanas as they accept Veda as the authoritative source of knowledge. The Buddhist schools that participated in the dialogue were the philosophical schools such as Sarvastivada, Sautranika, Vaibhashika, Madhyamaka, and Vijnanavada.
We wish to shed light on this important aspect of Indian philosophical and intellectual history through a series of Symposiums and talks focussing on Hindu-Buddhist Dialogue.
Towards this end, the present Symposium seeks to highlight the Hindu Darshanas' philosophical engagement with Buddhist schools and prominent Buddhist doctrines such as Anatta (non-self), Sunyata (emptiness), and Vijnanavada.
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