Pramanavarttika

Introduction

Dharmakirti’s main work, a verse commentary in four chapters on Dignaga’s Pramanasamuccaya, written in the seventh century; Dharmakirti added a prose commentary of his own to the chapter on inference for oneself. The chapters treat inference for oneself, the establishment of valid cognition – including the authority of the Buddha – perception, and inference for others; their original order is disputed. Dharmakirti holds that only momentary, causally efficient particulars are ultimately real, while universals are conceptual constructions explained by “exclusion” (apoha). The work was studied intensively in India and, in Tibetan translation, became a basis of logic and debate in Tibetan monasteries.

Connections

Builds on

• Pramanasamuccayac. 520 · Dignaga

Taken up in

• Tattvasangrahac. 760 · Shantarakshita

Criticized in

• Nyayakusumanjalic. 1000 · Udayana