Indologica Taurinensia

Author(s): Colette Caillat, Siegfried Lienhard, Irma Piovano, Saverio Sani
Publisher: Comitato AIT

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Piotr Balcerowicz
textbook. In view of the above, it is most debatable whether one should consider any of these kārikās an interpolation.
8.3. In addition, Bansidhar BHATT (2000: 74) dismisses the authenticity of NA 27 on metrical grounds (“it is an interpolation'), whereupon adds: 'In contradistinction to v. 27, the authenticity of v. 26 cannot be questioned despite of its defective meter. ... Probably, this verse has been somehow disturbed.' No additional reasons are offered, why one of the two verses is accepted as spurious, whereas the other one is taken as authentic. Indeed, both the verses have defective meter and both have irregular number of syllables: NA 26 has only 7 syllables in pāda b, whereas NA 27 has 9 syllables in pāda a! Since NA 26 and 27 share the same fate of being abhinna-yoga-ksema (sc. are based on identical productive-supportive principle) in metrical terms, such a conclusions seem arbitrary. Either one should reject the authenticity of both, or accept them both as genuine constituents of NA, at least in terms of metrical analysis.
8.4. Concluding the main section of his paper, BHATT (2000: 75) briefly points to some terminological affinity between Prajñākaragupta's Pramāna-vārttikâlankāra and NA, which should, as far as I can understand, prove that NA is posterior to PVA: 'Some of its [of NA 32] expressions can be compared with those of PVB e.g. samvyavahārikam etad (= pramānam)..., and vyavahāratah ... pramāṇatva-vyavasthiti - (PVB 1.5.197, pp. 25-26).' Apart from the fact, that there is only a loose similarity in terms of terminology with the above-quoted expressions (NA 32 has: pramāņâdi-vyavasthêyam and sarva-saṁvyavahartřņāṁ), so it would not be easy to prove any direct relationship between PBV and NA on this basis only, the way the conclusion is reached is rather problematic. Indeed, when we compare expressions found in NA 32 102 with terminology found in other
102. NA 32: pramānâdi-vyavasthêyam anādi-nidhanâtmikā /
sarva-samvyavahartiņām prasiddhâpi prakirtitā // - 'The distinctive character of cognitive criteria etc., by nature with no beginning nor end, even though [it is) well-known to all (people) absorbed in everyday life, is [here) declared.'