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Mahāmahopādhyāya Sri Yaśovijaya's JAINA-TARKA-BHASĀ
OR A Manual of Jaina Logic
1. On the Organ of Knowledge :
After bowing to Jina, who is . saluted by the groups of Indras, and who gives instructions in the real nature of things, I compose the Manual of Logic, that consists of (three parts viz.) the organ of knowledge, the partial truth, and the different ways of putting a thing.
[i. The investigation into the definition of the pramāna in general].
*1. Pramāņa is the definitive cognition of the self and the others.
Here ‘self' is the very nature of the knowledge itself, the others' are objects other than that, and the definitive' is that, which ascertains both of them as they are.
Here the word cognition' is used to avoid undesirable extension to indeterminate intuition. The word 'definitive' is used to avoid that (undesirable extension) to doubt, error and indecision. The epithet ‘self and the others' has been used to indicate the nature (of the pramāņa) and by way of refutation of the Mimāṁsakas etc. who hold the non-perceptibility of knowledge and of those who believe in the non-dualistic existence of knowledge etc. and deny the existence of external objects.
Now, if right cognition ( itself) is meant to be pramāņa, then what else is to be said as its resultant ? Correct; but its resultant is the definite cognition of the self and objects.
