Indologica Taurinensia

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

Page 47

On the Relationship of the Nyāyâvatāra and the Sammati-tarka-prakarāņa
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ceived after Dharmakirti (§ 2.2); (2) the assignment of either sensory (NA) or strictly suprasensory (STP) character to pratyakşa, taken either as perception (NA) or as blanket term 'direct cognition' (STP) as well as the relation to concept of cognitive criterion (pramāņa) (98 3.1-3.2); (3) the (un)importance of the unity of iñāna and darśana at the kevala stage and different treatment of kevala ($ 3.3); (4) role of the four-phased sensuous cognition (mati-jñāna) in the epistemic schemes of STP and NA ($ 4); (5) divergent opinions on the direct, i.e. perceptual character (pratyakşa) of verbal utterances and on the thesis that things conveyed through language are grasped directly ( 5.2); (6) different attitudes to the Agamic tradition and to novel solutions (6). These points are additionally strengthened by a number of minor differences and incongruences (8 1.1) that by themselves are not only inconclusive but could probably be explained away.
Furthermore, the text of the Nyāyâvatāra does not seem to contain any serious interpolations, perhaps with the exception of some minor changes in the wording, conspicuous in the defective meter of NA 26 and 27 ($ 8.3).
'In view of the lack of any hint that that author of STP knew of any novel concepts introduced by Dinnāga, I would maintain that he must have flourished before ca. 500 CE, viz. at least about 150 years before the composition of NA.
Finally, considering Siddhasena Mahāmati's dependence on Pātrasvāmin (§ 10.1), the Mimāṁsaka evidence (§ 10.2) and Prajñākaragupta's reaction (7), we may suggest roughly the following relative chronology:
Siddhasena Divakara (STP): 450-500 Dinnāga: 480-540 Dharmakārti: 600-660 Pātrasvāmin: c. 660-720 Umveka Bhatta: c. 700-750 Siddhasena Mahāmati (NA): c. 720-780 Prajnakaragupta: c. 800 Haribhadra-sūri: c. 800