Tantrayukti (तन्त्रयुक्तिः)
Tantrayukti (Samskrit : तन्त्रयुक्तिः) means the methodology of composing shastra works. The ancient Indians were widely and rightly known for their assiduous pursuit of knowledge (ज्ञानम्) which is considered to be the most sacred thing in the world. They laid down the rules in construction of a shastra, approaching it in an orderly manner, defining all aspects (lakshanas) of a given subject, referring previous literature about a particular topic, presenting new thoughts and theories thereby establishing a comprehensive methodology of composing and interpreting the shastra which are lately seen in the modern day scientific compositions or treatises.[1]
परिचयः|| Introduction
Samskrit literature abounds with hundreds of treatises pertaining to ancient Bharatiya Vijnana shastras of which more than half a dozen books provide us the information detailing how a scientific or methodical structure of a shastra is composed. A number of devices relating to words, structures and meanings related to the composition of a shastra are described in authoritative and famous texts such as
- Vishnudharmottara Purana, contains discussions on sundry topics like poetics, arts, sculpture
- Panini Maharshi's Ashtadhyayi, a world famous grammar treatise
- Kautilya's Arthashastra, a work on polity and statecraft
- Charaka Samhita, greatest extant work on Ayurveda
- Sushruta Samhita, a renowned work on surgery
- Vagbhata's Ashtangasangraha and Ashtangahrdayam, books on Ayurveda
- Neelamegha's Tantrayuktivichara, a medical treatise
All these works, belonging to divergent disciplines, portray the depth of Indian thinkers, who looked at the scientific treatises from all possible angles, critically examined the various conceptual aspects of the scientific works along without neglecting the subtle aspects. The lesser known fact is that these great Indian thinkers after a thorough research, in-depth comprehensive study of the shastras available to them, formulated a methodology for building scientific theories having 95 constituents, namely
- तन्त्रयुक्तयः (tantrayuktayaḥ) ॥ 36 Tantrayuktis
- व्याख्यानि (vyākhyāni) ॥ 15 Vyakhyas
- कल्पनाः (kalpanāḥ) ॥ 7 Kalpanas
- आश्रयानि (āśrayāni)॥ 20 Ashrayas
- ताच्छील्यानि (tācchīlyāni)॥ 17 Taatchilyas
Tantrayukti refers to methodical elements and devices (Yuktis) of Tantra (theory) and there are about 36 such tantrayuktis, though different texts give a different number.[2]