The Pramanavarttika of Dharmakirti
By Vidhushi Khara Bhattacharya
Summary
This short note discusses a manuscript of Dharmakīrti’s “Pramāṇavārttika”, an influential treatise on Buddhist logic and epistemology. The author reports on a newly available palm‑leaf manuscript that preserves variants of certain verses not found in existing editions. The note compares the readings with those in the Tibetan translation and with commentaries by Śākyabuddhi and Prajñākaragupta. It notes differences in the definitions of perception (pratyakṣa) and inference (anumāna) and points out how the new readings may affect the interpretation of Dharmakīrti’s proof for the existence of consciousness. The author suggests that the manuscript may belong to a different recension and calls for a critical edition using all available sources.
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Conclusion
The note concludes that the newly discovered manuscript of the “Pramāṇavārttika” provides valuable textual variants that can refine our understanding of Dharmakīrti’s epistemology. A comprehensive critical edition that collates Sanskrit, Tibetan and commentary sources is necessary to assess these differences and to reconstruct the original text.