Book Title: Indologica Taurinensia
Author(s): Colette Caillat, Siegfried Lienhard, Irma Piovano, Saverio Sani
Publisher: Comitato AIT
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On the Relationship of the Nyāyâvatāra and the Sammati-tarka-prakarāņa
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works, we discover similarities not only with Prajñākaragupta and his PVA, but with a number of other Buddhist works that precede Prajñākaragupta. The two expressions which BHATT has in mind bear also resemblance to some expressions found in the Pramāna-vārttika: PV1 2.58cd: arthakriyânurodhena pramānatyam vyavasthitam II. PV1 1.5ab: prāmānyaṁ vyavahārena sāstram moha-nivartanam 1, PV1 4.183: anumānânumeyârtha-vyavahāra-sthitis tv iyaṁ / This only shows that both Siddhasena and Prajñākaragupta were influenced by Dharmakirti. On this basis it would not be possible to establish any relative chronology between Siddhasena and Prajñākaragupta.
9. The authenticity of NA 16, viz. the illustration of a skilled archer, has frequently been questioned, most recently by BHATT (2000: 72). Indeed it is rather surprising to find, in such short treatise, a single explicit example which does not seem absolutely necessary at all: one could easily imagine the treatise without it.
Let us first take a closer look at the context in which this puzzling simile transpires, viz. NA 14-16:
'[14] The thesis is the acceptance of the inferable property; [it] is not revoked by perception, etc.; the pronouncement of it has to be made here as showing the domain of the logical reason.
(15) Otherwise, for a (person] to be apprised, who is confused regarding the domain of the logical reason intended by the proponent, the logical reason might appear to be suspected of being contradictory, just like...
(16) ...for a person watching an archer's skill, the archer who hits without the specific mention of the target [is endowed with both) skill and its op
posite. 103
Conspicuously, NA 16 is announced with yathā in NA 150, through which both verses are syntactically connected. One might,
103. NA 14-16 [14]
[15]
sādhyâbhyupagamah pakşah pratyakşâdy-anirākṣtah/ tat-prayogo 'tra kartavyo hetor gocara-dipakaḥ // anyathā vādy-abhipreta-hetu-gocara-mohinah/ pratyāyyasya bhaved dhetur viruddhârekito yathā // dhānuska-guna-samprekşi-janasya parividhyataḥ / dhānuşkasya vină laksya-nirdesena gunetarau //
[16]
