During a restoration project of an 11th-century stepwell in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, workers discovered a sealed stone chamber containing a leather-bound bundle of manuscripts. Among them is the Arthapatti-Viveka-Mala, a 10th-century treatise dedicated to the logic of Arthapatti, or postulation. This logical tool is used to assume a fact that explains an otherwise inexplicable phenomenon, and the manuscript offers a brilliant defense of this method against rival schools that sought to reduce it to mere inference.
The text is written in an elegant Grantha-influenced Nagari script and provides numerous examples from daily life to illustrate complex logical paradoxes. Researchers from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute state that the manuscript’s presence in a coastal stepwell suggests that philosophical education was deeply embedded in the civic and architectural life of medieval maritime communities. The find highlights the intellectual diversity of the Konkan coast during the Silhara dynasty.