Debates

[lusthaus at macalstr.edu]

> ms> Does anyone out there know a good reference work describing
> ms> how scholarly
> ms> debate=A0used to be carried out in medieval India -- e.g.,
> ms> scholars going=
> ms>  out
> ms> on their digvijaya tours, etc.? Thanks in advance.
>
>I'm happy to see that someone else out there is interested in these things,
>since I have begun studying this topic myself (particularly the varieties of
>debate, and the rules governing them). But I am using Sanskrit materials from
>Karnataka; I don't know of any secondary literature, so I too would be
>interested if someone knows of any.
>
>
>Regards, Robert Zydenbos

I don't know of any sustained secondary sources on this, but in my work on
Hsuan-tsang several types of debates occur:

1. Some "debates" seem to be relatively spontaneous -- advocates of
different schools encounter each other and debate. One Saamkhyan challenged
Hsuan-tsang to debate, the stakes being that the loser had to become the
other's slave. Hsuan-tsang treated his slave kindly.

2. Some were organized by kings, and the various schools would select their
champion debaters. The stakes might be that the loser had to pack up and
move his school from the kingdom, or at the minimum, lose face. The winner
won royal patronage.

3. Some occurred when someone, particularly incensed by someone else's
position, would hunt him down and challenge him to a showdown. Sometimes
the challenge was accepted, sometimes declined.

4. Within Naalandaa, there seems to have been continual debating between
various Buddhist traditions (Madhyamakas, Yogaacaarins, etc.), and there
are stories of Hindus and Jains infiltrating, by pretending to be Buddhist
monks, in order to learn the secrets of Buddhist logic and debate. When
discovered they are forced to flee for their lives (and some get snuffed).
If such matters were subject to this sort of strict secrecy, the literary
descriptions and remains might be understandably limited.

5. It is easier to reconstruct or trace the ideological lines (e.g.,
between "Slokavarttika and Tattvasamgraha, etc.) than it is to reconstruct
when and where advocates actually met and under what conditions. Many of
the stories that do come down to us are tinged with hagiographic flavors,
extolling the oratorical and even magical genius of their hero. The royal
or esteemed audiences present may also reflect hagiographic impulses to
lend the stories greater importance and significance. In Tibetan accounts
of Indian debates (e.g., in Taranatha, Bu-ston) one finds "debates" between
opponents who lived centuries apart. Obviously the setting of such stories
should not be taken any more literally as historical fact.

This is an off-the-top-of-my-head typology. I, too, would be interested in
any further references.

Hsuan-tsang's travels are available in old translations, e.g., the ones by
Beal or Watters. His biography was translated from the Chinese, entitled
_The Life of Hsuan-tsang_, by a Mainland scholar (detailed bibliog.
available on request).


Dan Lusthaus
Macalester College
lusthaus at macalstr.edu