---
type: Concept
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: 0.9.0
id: jalpa
title: Jalpa
iast: Jalpa
devanagari: जल्प
description: Victory-oriented disputation, in which winning is the goal and eristic devices (including chala, jāti, and nigrahasthāna) are permitted alongside valid reasoning; the middle debate mode; NOT honest truth-seeking debate (vāda), NOT outright lying, NOT idle quarrel.
darshana:
- Nyāya
text_source: Nyāya Sūtra 1.2.2
tags:
- jalpa
- disputation
- debate
- nyaya
- dialectic
not:
- term: honest truth-seeking debate
  why: In jalpa the aim is to win, not to find the truth, and one may use quibbles (chala), futile rejoinders (jāti), and drive the opponent to a point of defeat. Vāda forbids exactly these. The difference between jalpa and vāda is the difference in goal, truth versus victory, and it changes which moves are permitted.
  instead: 'Present jalpa as competitive disputation with a legitimate use: defending a true position against a skilled and unscrupulous opponent, where one may deploy the full array of dialectical tactics to avoid defeat, so long as one still uses valid means to support one''s own thesis.'
- term: lying or fabrication
  why: Jalpa is not a licence to assert falsehoods; the disputant still argues from pramāṇa for a thesis. What is added, relative to vāda, is the permission to use eristic defensive tactics against the opponent, not permission to lie.
- term: a pointless quarrel
  why: 'Jalpa has a recognised protective function in the tradition: a holder of a true view may need it to fend off a clever adversary who is playing to win. It is structured competitive debate, not aimless squabbling.'
related:
- /concepts/vada.md
- /concepts/vitanda.md
- /concepts/nigrahasthana.md
- /concepts/hetvabhasa.md
timestamp: '2026-07-02'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Jalpa -- जल्प

**Not:** truth-seeking debate, lying, pointless quarrel

## What It Actually Means

Jalpa is the second mode of debate: disputation aimed at victory. Like vāda, the jalpa-debater defends a thesis with valid means of knowledge and reasoning; unlike vāda, the goal is to win, and so the eristic apparatus, chala (quibbling on words), jāti (unfair or futile rejoinders), and the driving of the opponent to a nigrahasthāna (point of defeat), becomes admissible. Nyāya does not moralise this into pure vice. The tradition recognises a real use: a person who actually holds the true view may face an opponent whose only aim is to win, and jalpa is the mode that lets truth's defender survive that contest without unilaterally disarming. The careful placement of jalpa between honest vāda and purely destructive vitaṇḍā shows the subtlety of Nyāya's dialectics: it distinguishes debates not by their surface but by their aim and permitted means, and it maps the full spectrum from cooperative inquiry to bare demolition.

## Audience Metaphor

Vāda is a sparring session where both want to improve. Jalpa is a title fight: you are there to win, and within the rules you will use every legal feint and counter. You are not allowed to bribe the judges (lie), but you are allowed to be cannily defensive in a way the friendly sparring session would frown on. The tradition allows it mainly so that the fighter who is actually right is not forced to fight with one hand tied.

## Citations

1. Nyāya Sūtra 1.2.2 (definition of jalpa) -- see [references/nyaya-sutra.md](../references/nyaya-sutra.md)
2. Vātsyāyana, Nyāya Bhāṣya, on the protective use of jalpa -- see [references/nyaya-bhashya.md](../references/nyaya-bhashya.md)
3. Jayanta Bhaṭṭa, Nyāyamañjarī -- see [references/nyayamanjari.md](../references/nyayamanjari.md)
