April 8, 2024

This eulogy comes a little too late. Three years late. For someone I've never met, nor did we know each other while he was alive. There have been a couple of priests I have met who studied under him. His name was Fr John Vattanky, SJ. A Jesuit who resided and taught in Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. There is a lot of information on him on the internet, so I'll simply stick to a reflective note. But what can I write about him? What does he mean to me? To answer that, I'll have to travel back ten years to St. Joseph's, a Jesuit college where I earned my BA. It was here that my desire to study began. I read a lot, debated a lot, met fantastic people, fell in love, etc. etc. The turning from a jock to a nerd. My intellectual development at college got the Jesuit priests encouraging me to venture into topics least spoken about. By unknown, I mean ideas rather than food or travel, so philosophy was the perfect subject to pursue that curiosity.

For the whole of my undergraduate, I was prejudiced like the rest of mainstream academia that philosophy was largely a western project. The Greeks, the scholastics, Descartes, Kant, Russell, etc. etc. It wasn't until I started my master's degree in philosophy at Manipal University that I realized India too had a continuous philosophical heritage that was restricted to certain communities. Our then professor, Nirmalya Guha, who now teaches at IIT Benares, motivated us with his own version of Matthew 7.7, that is, ask and it will be given, seek and you will find; to knock, and it will be opened to you. Professor Guha taught many courses in Indian philosophy, but his expertise was in one branch called Navya Nyaya, a dialect in Sanskrit developed by Indian logicians (also called Naiyayikas) between the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. These logicians found that literary Sanskrit had ambiguity, because literature always hinges on the vagueness of meaning with the play of words, but the goal of logic was exactly the opposite. Thus started the development of navyanyaya, a subject in philosophy few people dare to make an attempt at. As Fr Vattanky himself wrote in his book A System of Logic (2001): “And just as in spite of proficiency in English one cannot understand a book on mathematics though in English unless one knows mathematics, even so a person who can read easily and even speak fluently classical literary Sanskrit will not be in a position to follow the technical discussions in Dinakari or even in Muktavali unless he systematically studies Navyanyaya. It is useful to bear these facts in mind when one starts on this book.” Professor Guha first acquainted me with Fr Vattanky’s work. He had written an article for a festschrift (a book written in honor of a professor) commemorating Fr. Vattanky’s eightieth birthday.

Why did Fr Vattanky research this topic, one would wonder? If my atte, that is my dad's eldest sister had met Fr Vattanky, she would have asked him that question. The fundamental tenet held by my aunt and the majority of people is this: Why should a Christian learn about subjects related to Hinduism? This inquiry also concerns me, since I am now pursuing a PhD in Navyanyaya and studying at Poorna Prajna Vidyapeeth in Bengaluru, under the tutelage of Sundheendra Acharya. The Vidyapeeta I attend is run by the Pejawar Mutt from Udupi, while Fr Vattanky’s Vidyapeeta stayed was a Jesuit seminary. Just one generation separated these two Christians by birth, who were both from a Vidyapeeta and lifelong students of navyanyaya.

These days, when I introduce myself, I get looks and raised eyebrows from people who want to know how my name and the language are related. Sometimes honest, but sometimes it feels like they view me as an imposter. These are the moments when I think of Fr Vattanky. I’m reminded of Valerian Saldanha, an Udupi-based professional astrologer, as well as Yesudas, the asthana vidwan of the Krishna Mutt. Public perception is that people like these have wandered off course. Anomalies. Swimming against the current. From my experience I can tell you that we are undoubtedly juggling many lives. Once, a very pious Catholic made fun of me, saying that I should maintain a tuft since I studied Sanskrit. I responded by saying that the apostolic letter Romanae Sedis Antistes, published in 1623 by Pope Gregory XV, permitted Catholic Bahmons to wear padukas, retain their shikha, and use their yajnopavita. I wonder if Fr Vattanky went through many difficulties. We would be able to empathize with each other.

The question of why study historical concepts, their use in the present, and how you plan to continue in this manner in the future is a persistent source of pressure from society. Nyaya did not sit well with even Swami Vivekananda. He once said to a disciple: “I have heard that in your country there is much logic chopping of the Nyaya school. What is there in it? ...…on these subjects the Pandits of the Nyaya school discuss for months! What does it help towards the Knowledge of the Atman?” To write at the level that Fr. Vattanky accomplished, one must have some tapas, a letting go of wants, if not for riches and power, in order to follow this lifelong intellectual path. Compare Vivekanada’s words to Kuruvilla Pandikatt’s line on Fr Vattankey: “Many would admire him [Vattankey] working hard and listening patiently to the Indian scholars (pundits) and taking painstaking notes regularly and on a daily basis.” Remarkably, at eighty years old, Fr. Vattanky began studying Syriac. He serves as a role model for me because of this. Something beyond merely mentioning his publications.

For me, learning navya nyaya is a self-humbling activity. The more we study, the more we recognise how little we actually know. Learning dismantles borders and helps us see beyond these tenuous religious lines towards humanity. It's definitely not a solo endeavour; rather, it requires the support of individuals in your immediate vicinity. Most of books include an acknowledgment. Mangalams are included with Sanskrit literature. "I salute that prince of monks, my teacher's teacher, named Narasimha, whose students have dismissed the dualists, as lions do elephants," reads one passage from the Vedanta Paribhasha. Fr Vattankey thanks his family and brother Kuriakose. If I ever publish a book, I would like to thank my friends, family, and teachers for their support over this lengthy intellectual trip in search of the truth. Some people I have never met would also be on that list, like my great-grandfather Thomas D'Souza, who was given the title ‘Satyavadi’.

Fr John Vattanky passed away on 21 February 2021 at the ripe old age of 89.