Nyāya
Nyāya, “rule, method, reasoning”
Smṛti has other meanings too: see all meanings of Smṛti.
Grammar: masculine noun, from ni and the root i (to go): “that by which one is led”, a rule, a method; the śāstra of right reasoning.
Meaning: the śāstra of reasoning, by which a thing is rightly examined and known; one of the vidyās (branches of sacred learning) that the Agni Purāṇa names with Mīmāṃsā, Dharmaśāstra and Purāṇa.
In the scriptures: at the opening of the Agni Purāṇa, Agnideva, who says “I, who am Vishṇu, am Kālāgni Rudra“, teaches Vasishṭha Maharshi that the two vidyās, parā and aparā, are both forms of Vishṇu. Nyāya-śāstra is among the aparā vidyā, with the four Vedas, the six Vedāṅgas, Kośa, Mīmāṃsā, Dharmaśāstra, Purāṇa, Āyurveda, Saṅgīta-śāstra, Dhanurveda and Artha-śāstra; the parā vidyā is the one that teaches Brahma (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 1). The Purāṇa says that all the subjects of learning, Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā and the other vidyās, are Hari alone, the one Vishṇu, in manifest and unmanifest forms; Śrī Mahāvishṇu alone is of the form of the eighteen vidyās (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 174).
In the rite for the king, the fourteen vidyās are asked to protect him: the four Vedas, the six Vedāṅgas, and Mīmāṃsā, Nyāya, Dharmaśāstra and Purāṇa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219).
At the close of the Purāṇa, Agnideva says again that chandas, śikshā, vyākaraṇa, nighaṇṭu, jyotisha, nirukta, dharma-śāstra, mīmāṃsā, nyāya, āyurveda, purāṇa, dhanurveda, gāndharva, artha-śāstra, vedānta and the rest are all forms of Śrī Hari, the aparā vidyā. Among the vidyās the Agni Purāṇa itself shows is Nyāya in detail (nyāya-vistara) (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 383).
Related terms: Mīmāṃsā · Ānvīkshikī · Vidyā · Aparā Vidyā · Dharmaśāstra
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 1, 174, 219, 383