Praman Varttikam

SR No.: 002370
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Rahul Sankrutyayan
Publisher: Kitab Mahal
Total Pages: 642
Language: Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 14 MB

Page 9

( e ) Vasubandhu, Dinnāga and Dharmakirti were mere legendary names, which were only heard, when the long forgotten tomes of the old masters were dusted on ceremonial occasions. Thanks to the modern researches, now we know that these legendary persons and a host of their successors have left their monumental works which are unique in their quality : 1,37,000 ślokas are no small quantity, but we know that it is only a fraction of the vast literature, which escaped destruction by migrating to a sympathetic land in the foreign garb of Tibetan translations.1 Except these and a few small treatises translated into Chinese, we have no knowledge of the existence of any other works. In my first journey to Central Tibet (1929-30); I was rather pessimistic, and after my return I began to restore the Pramānavārtika from Tibetan into Sanskrit. But I had to stop soon after, when I got the news of an incomplete Ms. of the P.V. from Nepal. My hope revived slightly, and I made my second pilgrimage to that country (in 1934). But after getting the Mss. of the Vādanyāya (with Sānta-rakṣhita’s commentary), a portion of Prajñākara's bhäsya on P. V. and many more works, my optimism increased considerably, which was justified by the two subsequent journeys (1936 and 1938). Slowly but steadily the veil of darkness lifted itself. We recovered almost all Pramāņa-vārtika, Vādanyāya, subcommentaries on the Hetubindu (by the help of which the original texts can be restored from Tibetan more
See my appendixes D-J to the Vādanyāya (J. B.O.R. S. Vols. XXI, XXII)
2 For the Catalogue of the discovered mss. see J. B. O. R. S. (1935, 1937, 1939).