Reviving the Ancient Shastrarth Tradition

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently praised Nalanda University during the 135th episode of his Mann Ki Baat radio show.
He appreciated the institution for bringing back the ancient Indian practice of Shastrarth.

The word comes from Shastra, which means scriptures, and Artha, which means interpretation.
It represents an ancient Indian system for disciplined, structured, and open public debate.
This is not a casual argument, but a formal intellectual discussion where scholars test their ideas against opposing views.

The practice goes back thousands of years and appears frequently in the Upanishads and early Vedic assemblies like Sabhas and Samitis.
Ancient residential universities like Nalanda, Vikramashila, and Takshashila used this debate style as their main teaching method for international scholars.
Famous debates include the 8th-century discussion between Adi Shankaracharya and Mandana Misra, and Swami Dayanand Saraswati participating in the 1869 Kashi debate.

The main goal is to look past personal opinions and find objective philosophical or scientific truths through open peer review.
It helps test new academic books, logical systems, and commentaries before society accepts them into mainstream learning.

The Purva Paksha Principle requires a debater to explain the opponent view so well that the opponent accepts the description as completely fair.
The Uttara Paksha step happens next, where the scholar presents a counter-argument to break down the rival logic using facts and valid reasoning.
Participants must back every claim with recognized knowledge sources called Pramanas, such as direct perception or logical inference, while emotional outbursts lead to instant disqualification.
Neutral referees known as Madhyasthas monitor the entire proceedings and give the final academic verdict.
Historically held in Sanskrit, the tradition now works across multiple languages while demanding high verbal precision and clear expression.