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157
The Number of Pramaņas according to Bhartṛhari
latter if the new element contained in the latter does not agree with what it has and yet cannot be denied; in other words, while there is no pure sense experience, the primacy of sense experience as a generally reliable guide to what is 'out there' is not set aside in B's philosophy. When pratyakṣa produces enough evidence that is at variance with one's agama, the composition of agama changes to the necessary extent. Thus, man navigates through the stream of life with pratyakça and agama (assuming this is what Mokṣäkaragupta means by sabda) as his oars. Inference, as one cognition leading to another, may be deemed part of sabda in B's view, since B considers all cognitions to be infused with language.
While Mokṣākaragupta's statement can thus be defended, we should note that we do not know if this is the sense he had in mind. Secondly, the statement goes against the evidence collected in 2.119. If one must attribute acceptance of only two pramānas to B, it may perhaps be more defensible to maintain that pratyaksa and anumana, working in contact with agama, are the pramāņas that B accepts.
Bibliography and Abbreviations.
AKLUJKAR, ASHOK, 1971: Nakamura on Bhartṛhari. IIJ 13.161-175.
-, 1988: Prāmāanya in the philosophy of the Grammarians. Expected to be published in a felicitation volume. New Delhi.
B = Bhartṛhari.
Mokṣakaragupta. Tarkabhāṣā. (a) Ed. EMBAR KRISHNAMACHARYYA. [Gaekwad Oriental Series 94]. Baroda 1942. (b) Ed. H. R. RANGASWAMI IYENGAR. Mysore 1952.
PANDEYA, MURALIDHARA, 1969: pramāneṣu sabdasya sthānam. In: Samskṛti (Da. Aditya Natha Jha Abhinandanagrantha). Delhi. 145-154. PATHAK, SHRIDHARSHASTRI - CHITRAO, SIDDHESHVARSHASTRI, 1927: Word Index to Patanjali's Vyakarana-Mahabhäṣya. [Government Oriental Series - Class C, no. 3]. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. SUBRAMANIA IYER, K. A., 1969: Bhartṛhari. A Study of the Vakyapadīya in the Light of the Ancient Commentaries. [Deccan College Building Centenary and Silver Jubilee Series 68]. Poona: Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute.
19 Note particularly that B does not speak of sabda. Even if his agama is understood as an equivalent of sabda, it is clearly not an equivalent of sabda in the narrow sense 'testimony, what the reliable texts or persons convey' that is found in the writings of other thinkers making sharp distinctions between various pramāņas.
