Dignaga Sein Werk Und Seine Entwicklung

Author(s): Erich Frauwallner
Publisher: Erich Frauwallner

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und verwendet. Und mag er noch so viel altes Material verbaut haben, was er geschaffen hat, bleibt als Ganzes neu und groß. Und so bestätigt sich aufs neue, daß die buddhistische Schule der Erkenntnistheorie und Logik in allem Wesentsichen die Schöpfung eines einzigen Mannes ist, Dignāga's.
Summary
By comparing the different expositions of Dignāga's Hetucakram the author comes to the conclusion that the Hetucakraṇamaruh contains the most archaic one. It is therefore the oldest logical work by Dignāga. In this tract, indeed, he laid down his first important discovery in the field of logic which alone made an exact inference possible. The next work in the chronological order is the Hetumukham. In it Dignāga modified the hitherto existing dialectic of Buddhism as expounded last in Vasubandhu's Vādavidhiḥ in accordance to his new theories. During the long interval between the Nyāyamukham and the Prāmaṇasamuccayaḥ an essential change happens in the interests of Dignāga: The dialectic is replaced by the theory of knowledge in general. Accordingly he rearranges in the Pramāṇasamuccayaḥ the subjects of his former works and adds chiefly the doctrine of the concept: the apoha-doctrine. Most probably Dignāga developed this theory in his lost works written between the Nyāyamukham and the Pramāṇasamuccayaḥ and above all in the Hetumukham. With the great synthesis of all the results till then achieved the literary activity of Dignāga seems to have ended. We know nothing about later works of his.
Regarding the non-logical minor works of Dignāga, often containing views different from those expressed in his logical works, especially the Traikālyaparīksā offers us much help in understand. ing them. This work consists almost entirely of verses taken from Bhartrhari but slightly modified by Dignāga to his aim. Therefore he must have advocated views alike to those expounded in the modified verses at the time when he wrote the Traikālyaparīksā. Such views, however, correspond with the Yogācāra school of
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