|Part of a series on| The Nyāya Sūtras are an ancient Indian
text on of philosophy composed by Akṣapāda Gautama (also Gotama;
c. 2nd century BCE). The sutras contain five chapters, each with
two sections. The core of the text dates to roughly the 2nd
century BCE, although there are significant later
interpolations. The Nyaya is sometimes called Tarka-Vidyā or the
Science of Debate, Vāda-Vidyā or the Science of Discussion.
Tarka is the special feature of the Nyāya. Thus some of its
features and categories are better understood from that
perspective. Gotama is sometimes given the honorific titles
"Akṣapāda" (probably in the sense "having his eyes fixed in
abstraction on his feet") and "Dīrghatapas" ("performing long
penance"). He is also sometimes accorded the religious titles
"Ṛṣi" or "Maharṣi". In the Nyāya Sutras Gotama developed and
extended the Vaiśeṣika epistemological and metaphysical system
through 528 aphorisms. Later commentaries expanded, expounded,
and critically discussed Gotama's work, the first b