Dignaga

Acharya Dignāga

Dignaga (Skt. Dignāga; Tib. ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་, chok kyi langpo, Wyl. phyogs kyi glang po) (circa 6th century AD) was one of the six great commentators (the ‘Six Ornaments’) on the Buddha’s teachings. He was one of the four great disciples of Vasubandhu who each surpassed their teacher in a particular field. Dignaga was more learned than Vasubandhu in pramana. His reputation as unequalled in debate was cemented through his celebrated victory over the brahmin named Sudurjaya at Nalanda monastery.

Among his disciples was Ishvarasena, who later became the teacher of Dharmakirti.

Writings

His early (extant) works were:

• The Abhidharmakośa-vṛtti-marmapradīpa - a condensed summary of Vasubandhu's seminal work
• A brief summary of the Aṣṭasāhasrika-prajñāpāramitā sūtra

His remaining works were all pertaining to logic:

• Ālambana-parīkṣā
• Trikāla-parikṣa
• Hetu-cakra-samarthana
• Nyāyamukha
• Compendium of Valid Cognition (Pramāṇa-samuccaya), which was a condensation of all these works

Also a commentary on Vasubandhu's Ekagāthābhāṣya, the Ekagāthābhāṣya-ṭīkā, is attributed to him.

Further Reading

• Hattori, Masaaki. Dignāga, On Perception. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1968.
• Hayes, Richard P. Dignāga on the Interpretation of Signs. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer, 1988.
• Douglas Duckworth, Malcolm David Eckel, Jay L. Garfield, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas, Sonam Thakchoe, Dignaga's Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet, Oxford University Press, 2016, ISBN 978-0190623708

External Links

• TBRC Profile