Vedic learning started in
Mithila with the expansion of Vedic and Brahmanic culture eastwards along the Ganges plain.[1] Some sources consider this centre of Brahminical study to form an Ancient Mithila University.[2] From the 12th/13th to 15th century CE it was an important centre of
Nyaya Shastra and logical sciences.[3][1]
The
Ramayana refers to the court of King
Janaka in Mithila, attracting scholars and philosophers.[4] During the
Gupta period Mithila was a center for disputes between Buddhists, Jainas and Brahmins, with prominent Mimamsa authors writing defenses of Vedic ritual.[citation needed] Education took place through "Tols, Pathshāla and Chatušpathi or Chaupari,"[citation needed] with
students living at the house of their teacher. The Turkic conquests had little impact in Mithilal, leaving it as "an isoldated outpost and centre of Brahmanic and Sanskrit scholarship," whre "Hindu scholars were able to protect the purity of their ideals and traditions."[5] The Mithila school of Nyaya was an Indian school of
Nyaya philosophy, which flourished from the 12th-13th to the 15th century in Mithila.[6][7]
Mithila school of logic
Late medieaval Eastern schools of Brahmans were focused on Nyaya Shastra and logical sciences, in contrast to the Vedanta of southern Brahmins from the Vijayanagara cultural area.[3] According to Vidyabhusana, the science of logic developed out of parishad, councils of learned Brahmins.[8] The Mithila school of Nyaya was an Indian school of
Nyaya philosophy, which flourished from the 12th-13th to the 15th century in Mithila.[6][7] Students were not allowed to take any piece of written information with them after finishing their studies, to keep a monopoly on this subject.
Bronkhorst, Johannes (2007). Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India. BRILL.
ISBN9789004157194.
Bronkhorst, Johannes; Diaconescu, Bogdan; Kulkarni, Malhar (2013), "The Arrival of Navya-Nyaya Techniques in Varanasi", in Pandikattu, Kuruvilla; Pichalakkattu, Binoy (eds.), An Indian Ending. Rediscovering the Grandeur of Indian Heritage for a Sustainable Future. Essays in Honour of Professor Dr. John Vattanky SJ On Completing Eighty Years, Delhi: Serial Publishers