________________
( 82 ) quotations from Kumārila, Uddyotakara and others. He has demolished all the arguments advanced in favour of the static philosophy by the new opponents like Umbeka, Mandana, Vāsudevabhațţa and the. Naiyyāyika Samkara. Out of the 619 pages (including Svavstti) as many as 513 pages are devoted to a refutation of the static conception of “Sāmānya” (universal) etc. and the authority of scriptures which shows the main purpose of the book.
Karnakagomin's commentary seemed to be a much sought for text-book for the study of P. V. as the finds of three Mss., two in Tibet and one in Nepal, show. About the life and time of Karnakagomin we know nothing, except from his criticism of Mandana (822 A. D.) and his silence on Udayana (984 A. D.), we can only say that he lived between 822 and 984 A. D.--say in the ninth century. Apart from the present work, he wrote an independent treatise Nairātmya-siddhi, which is mentioned here four times. The theme of this work seems to be the demolition of all arguments in favour of Brahmanic thing-in-itself, criticism of the conception of any permanent substratum behind the phenomena of the world of change, refutation of any noumenon behind the phenomena. I am leaving the discussion of the subject here for the forth-coming edition of Prajñākara’s Bhāșya, as the two make a complete whole.
MSS. PSVT. Dharmakirti wrote his own commentaries on two of his works viz., PV first chapter and Sambandha-Parīkṣā, of which the first (PSV) has 3500 ślokas. Tibetan translation of PSV (PSVT) was known to us. It has about 115 leaves (410-535a) of the volume Mdo.
