Yamari's Pramanavarttikalankaratika Suparisuddha (diplomatic and critical editions, partial translation and studies)
Final Report Abstract
The wider research context of the project is the question whether Buddhist epistemology is a secular science like medicine, grammar and architecture, or whether it is fundamentally religious and an integral part of the Buddhist religion. This question has been debated not only by modern scholars over the last 100 years, but also within the Buddhist tradition itself. In the post-Dharmakīrtian period, two towering figures took opposing positions on it: Dharmottara (8th c.) and Prajñākaragupta (9th c.). The former maintained that Buddhist logic and epistemology constitute a worldly science, while the latter evoked their religious presuppositions and implications. Although the importance of Prajnakaragupta’s Pramāṇavarttikālaṅkāra (PVA) for the history of Buddhist philosophy is widely recognized, it has hardly been studied in modern scholarship, inter alia because no commentary on it had survived in Sanskrit. However, a voluminous Sanskrit manuscript of the first chapter of Yamari’s commentary, the Pramāṇavarttikālaṅkāra nibandha (PVAN 1), unexpectedly became available through photocopies kept at the China Tibetology Research Center, Beijing. The ongoing project has five objectives: (1) to provide a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of PVAN 1, accompanied by a critical edition of its Tibetan translation; (2) to recover Yamari’s thought through the translation and study of selected parts of PVAN 1; (3) to make available a tool for better understanding PVA 1 and (4) to offer improved readings of its often problematic Sanskrit text; and (5) to contribute to the understanding of Jayanta’s commentary on the PVA (PVAT), lost in its Sanskrit original, of whose text hundreds of quotations can be identified in PVAN 1. The relationship between the texts of PVAN 1 and PVAṬ 1 has been analyzed and innovatively visualized with the help of tools developed in the DH. The philological–historical studies, with translations of selected parts of the sophisticated Sanskrit prose, focused on Yamari’s interpretation of foundational topics of the Buddhist religion, his original perception of the intellectual history of Buddhist logic and epistemology, and his contribution to central topics of controversy with non-Buddhist philosophers. The project will continue at the Institute of South Asia, Buddhism and Tibetan Studies at the University of Vienna with funding of the Austrian Science Foundation.
Publications
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“A Diplomatic Edition of the Introductory Section of Yamāri’s Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāraṭīkā Supariśuddhā, Folios 3a1–10a1.” China Tibetology 26: 3–20
Li, Xuezhu & Chu, Junjie
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“A Study of the Opening Section of Yamāri’s Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāranibandha (P phe 208a7–210b8; D phe 174b1–176a6)” [in Japanese]. South Asian Classical Studies 11: 75–126
Matsuoka, Hiroko
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“A Diplomatic Edition of the Introductory Section of Yamāri’s Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāraṭīkā Supariśuddhā, Folios 10a1–14b2.” China Tibetology 28: 78–87
Li, Xuezhu; Chu, Junjie & Franco, Eli
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“A Diplomatic Edition of the Introductory Section of Yamāri’s Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāraṭīkā Supariśuddhā, Folios 14b2–20a5.” China Tibetology 30: 40–52
Li, Xuezhu; Chu, Junjie & Franco, Eli
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“Yamāri and the Order of Chapters in the Pramāṇavārttika.” In L’Espace du sens. Approches de la philologie indienne / The Space of Meaning. Approaches to Indian Philology, edited by S. D’Intino and Sheldon Pollock, 247–267. Paris: Collège de France, Publications de l’Institut de civilisation indienne
Franco, Eli
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“Prajñākaragupta.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by J.
Silk et al., 363–365. Leiden: Brill
Franco, Eli.
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“Introductory Notes to Yamāri’s Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāraṭīkā Supariśuddhā.” In Sanskrit Manuscripts in China III: Proceedings of a Panel at the 2016 Beijing International Seminar on Tibetan Studies, August 1 to 4, edited by B. Kellner et al., 33–44. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House
Chu, Junjie; Franco, Eli & Li, Xuezhu
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“Yamāri on the Relationship between Absolute and Relative Means of Knowledge.” In Illuminating the Dharma: Buddhist Studies in Honour of Venerable Professor KL Dhammajoti, edited by T. Endo, 131–150. Hong Kong: Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong
Franco, Eli
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“On the Unreliability of Tibetan Translations for the Reconstruction of Sanskrit Works.” In Śabdānugamaḥ: Indian Linguistic Studies in Honor of G. Cardona, Vol. 1, edited by P. M. Scharf, 421–458. Providence: The Sanskrit Library
Franco, Eli & Preisendanz, Karin
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“Prajñākaragupta on Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra 2.1 in the Light of Yamāri’s Interpretation.” In Verità e bellezza. Essays in Honour of Raffaele Torella, edited by F. Sferra, 433–456. Napoli: UniorPress
Franco, Eli
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“Yamāri on the ādivākya of the Pramāṇavārttika.” In Proceedings of the Sixth International Dharmakīrti Conference, Seoul, August 21 to 26, 2022
Matsuoka, Hiroko
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“Yamāri on the Scope of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika and Devendrabuddhi’s Transmission Thereof.” In: To the Heart of Truth: Felicitation Volume for Eli Franco on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, edited by H. Matsuoka et al. 2 vols. Wien 2023. 389–412
Chu, Junjie
