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KARIN PREISENDANZ
well have been provoked by the epithet 'desiring the good of the world' (jagaddhitaişin) assigned to the Buddha as an authority in Dignāga's famous mangalasloka of his Pramāṇasamuccaya.13
The intense controversy of the Nyāya tradition with the Buddhist epistemologists in the wake of Dharmakīrti's formidable works continued to inspire Naiyāyikas to turn to commentarial work in the described manner. In the tenth century, Vācaspati Miśra, according to the mangalasloka-s of his Nyāyavārttikatātparyațīkā, claims to have defended the Nyāyavārttika against criticism that is based on the mere distortion of Uddyotakara's explanation of Akşapāda's work.14 Vācaspati Miśra's wish concluding the mangalavāda points again towards the Buddhist logicians as 'live' opponents. He says:
"I wish to obtain at least some merit from extracting (saving) Uddyotakara's over-aged cows (words), which have become submerged in the hard-to-traverse swamp of bad compositions."
His metaphor of the 'over-aged cows' suggests that Vācaspati Miśra was well aware of the weakness and obsoleteness of Uddyotakara's logic once Dharmakīrti had developed his new ideas on the
13 Cf. Hattori (1968), Appendix A following p. 238 (Sanskrit reconstruction), p. 1, 1-2: pramāṇabhūtāya jagaddhitaişine pranamya sastre sugatāya tāyine / pramānasiddhyai svamatāt samuccayah karis yate viprasrtäd ihaikatah II. On the relationship of the various epithets according to Dharmakīrti's and his commentators' interpretation and on the relevance of this relationship for the proofstrategy of the Pramāṇasiddhi chapter of the Pramāņavārttika cf. Franco (1997, chapter 1). Also Vātsyāyana's use of the epithet 'best of speakers' (vadatām varah) relating to Aksapada (cf. n. 11 above) may have been a reaction to the mangalasloka of a prominent Buddhist treatise, namely, of Nagarjuna's Mülamadhyamakakārikā (MMK 11, 15-16), in which the Buddha is characterized as the best of speakers':
yaḥ pratityasamutpādam prapañcopaśamam śivam/ deśayāmāsa sambuddhas tam vande vadatām varam //. 14 Cf. NVTT 1, 7-8: granthavyakhyacchalenaiva nirastākhiladusana / nyāyavārtrikatät par yatīkāsmäbhir vidhāsyate //. 15 Cf. NVTT 1, 9-10: icchāmi kim api punyam dustarakunibandhapankamagnānām / uddyotakaragavinäm atijarafīnām samuddharanät //. Cf. also the first verse of the puşpikā (NVTȚ 700, 2-3): yad alambhi kim api punyam dustarakunibandhaparkamagnānām / uddyotakaragavīnām atijaratinām samuddharanāt //.... A slightly reworded form of the latter verse appears in the concluding verses of the Nyāyasūcīnibandha ascribed to Vācaspati: yad alambhi kim api punyam dustarakunibandhaparkamagnānām / śrīgotamasugavīnām atijarafinām samuddharanāt //.... According to Umesh Mishra's interpretation Vācaspati refers here to the attempts of the Buddhists to 'do wrong to the Nyāyasūtra (cf. Mishra, 1966: 22).