The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

107 - The Philosophical Systems
complete translations. Quite recently one or two of these have been
discovered in manuscript in India itself and are likely to be made
available in a complete form soon.
The chapter begins with the statement that the recognized teacher of
Buddhism is Jinēndra which is another name for Buddha, and this
name should not be confounded with Jina Vardhamāna or Mahāvīra,
the founder of Jainism. According to this teacher the accepted
pramāṇas are only two, Pratyakṣa and Anumāna. It is generally
assumed that the Buddhists always recognized only two pramāṇas
which, on the face of it, seems a very unlikely position. 69 A certain
number of pramāṇas must have been enunciated and applied, and
each system, Buddhism among them, must have examined these, and
recognized only those that seemed valid by a method of inclusion or
by that of rejection. It will be clear from the Maṇimēkhalai that the
other four pramāṇas were also current at the time which were alike
applicable to Buddhism; 70 and of these six, Buddhist teachers actually
[71] selected two by the method of inclusion. Pratyakṣa (Suṭṭuṇarvu)
is defined ‘they say Śuṭṭuṇarvu is Pratyakṣa, and leave out of
consideration Nāma, Jāti, Guṇa and Kriyā, name, class, quality, and
action as these could be included in Anumāna.’ Dignāga defined it in
69 Pratyakṣam Kalpanāpoḍam Nāma Jātyādyasamyuttam.
70 Mah. Pandit Haraprasad Śāstri. J.B. and O.R.S., vol. viii, p. 23. For we
know distinctly from Chinese and Japanese sources that Analogy and
Authority were great polemical instruments in the hands of the early
Buddhists, i.e., all early Buddhists from Buddha to Vasubandhu were
indebted to Akṣapāda for their pramāṇas or polemical instruments of right
knowledge. Maitreya discarded Analogy, and Dignāga discarded Authority,
and made Nyāya pure logic, in the English sense of the term.’