Hetubindu Tika

Author(s): Dharmakirti Mahaswami, Archatt Bhatt, Durvek Mishra Pandit, Sukhlal Sanghavi, Jinvijay, B Bhattacharya
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

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literature attracted, by its fragrance, the devotees of learning from all parts of India as also from the countries like Central Asia and China and it seemed as if it was sedulously pursuing the profession of spreading the eighteen Nikāyas. The Buddhist literary movement in the southern direction beyond the boundaries of India was carried mainly in the Pali language while in the northern countries like Gandhara and Kašmira it mainly depended on the Sanskrit language. In the lower planes of India the activities were carried in both these languages. The Tripitaka was the central theme of this movement in the beginning. The Saryāstivādins mainly adopted the Sanskrit language while the Mahasanghikas served their purpose through the Prakrit languages.1 It seems that the Sanskrit Pitakas had reached China even before the entrance of the Science of Organ of Knowledge and the Science of Reasoning and that the work of translation of them into Chinese had already begun.
The activity of the Indian and the non-Indian authors concerning the Buddhist literature can be divided into four types: (1) Translations; (2) Expositions, commentaries and sub-commentaries; (3) Composition by the same author of self-complete Basic Works as well as Short Introductory Works to particular subjects; (4) Composition of Short Primary Works for tiros on the basis of the Basic Works or the Introductory Works.
As an instance of the third type of activity we can point to the Mülamadhyamaka-karikā of Nāgārjuna and his Vigrahavyāvartini which was composed as an Introductory Work to the former. Dignāga himself informs us in the beginning of his Pramnārasamuccayaể that he composed this Basic Work after he had composed a number of separate Introductory Works. One century and a half after Dignāga appeared Dharmakirtti who composed, following the footsteps of Dignāga as it were, the Basic Work like the Pramānavāritika and the Introductory Works such as the Nyāyabindu and the Vådanyāya. There was much development of the Buddhist Science of Organ of Knowledge and the Science of Reasoning in between the times of Dignāga and Dharmakirtti. The whole literary activity of Dharmakirtti centred round the two Sciences. The Pramanavārttika is a Basic Work in verse in the form of an exposition of the Pramanasamuccaya of Dignaga. The Nyāyabind:1 and the Hetubindu are the works of quite a different type. The Nyāyabindui is composed in prose, and the Hetubindu, like the Vādanyāya, is an elaborate exposition in prose of an introductory verse. Even as the introductory verse of the Nyāyapraveśa is a brief compilation of the contents of the whole work, exactly so the introductory vérse of the Hetubindu is a very brief compilation of the subject matter of the whole text that follows. We can easily understand that Dharmakirtti entitles his Basic Work as Pramānavārttika because it is an exposition of the Pramānasamuccaya, But we can clearly perceive the reflected image of the old custom in the sphere of thought
1 Kimura: Hinyāna and Mahāyāna-pp. 6, 7. 2' Karikā 1 and the Vrtti.