Jnanasrimitra And His Work

Author(s): Anantlal Thakur
Publisher: Anantlal Thakur

Page 2

In the history of Indian thought the Buddhist and Brāhmaṇical systems of Logic present a unique picture of parallel development. There is, however, a fundamental difference in their outlook: that between idealism and realism. This led to mutual refutation which continued in an unbroken line for generations of scholars resulting in the growth of a rich and vigorous literature. The Buddhist philosophers had bitter rivalry with other schools of thought also. But nowhere else it is so systematic and of such a long duration as in the case of the Nyayaśāstra. Each logician tried to uphold the position of his predecessor in the same school by refuting the views of the opponent of the latter in the opposite camp. This rivalry became more and more marked with the progress of time. And it became highly difficult to study the works of one author when those of his immediate predecessors in both the schools were not available. Let us take one example: Vācaspatimiśra I wrote his Nyāyavārtikatātparyaṭika in order to vindicate the position of Uddyotakara as given in his Nyayavārtika. Naturally he criticised the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti who in his Pramaṇavārtika had refuted Uddyotakara. Thus Logic was a living science and anything introduced in either of these schools is the result of historical necessity.
In the continuous development of these two schools there was so long a big gap between Vacaspatimiśral and Udayanācārya and we had no works of any outstanding Buddhist philosopher whose criticism provoked Udayana to vindicate the position of Vācaspati. That there was no such Buddhist work seemed to be impossible, for the Buddhist views criticised in Udayana's works are not found in pre-Vacaspati Buddhist philosophy. Again, those were the heydays of Buddhist philosophers at Nālandā