Commentary on Valid Cognition

Dharmakīrti

Commentary on Valid Cognition (Skt. Pramāṇavārttika; Wyl. tshad ma rnam ' grel) — Dharmakirti's main treatise on pramana, the most important of his Seven Treatises on Valid Cognition.

Outline

It has four chapters:

1. Inference (rang don rjes su dpag pa)
2. Valid cognition (tshad ma grub pa)
3. Sense perception (mngon sum)
4. Logic (gzhan gyi don)

Commentaries

Indian

• Dharmakirti himself wrote a long commentary on the first chapter. It is known as the Svopajñaṛtti, or Svavṛtti (Wyl. rang 'grel)
• Devendrabuddhi, Pramāṇavārttikapañjikā (tshad ma rnam 'grel kyi 'grel pa)
• Prajnakaragupta, Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra (tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi rgyan)
• Shakyabuddhi, Pramāṇavārttikaṭīkā (tshad ma rnam 'grel kyi 'grel bshad)

Tibetan

• Khedrup Jé, tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi tIk chen rigs pa'i rgya mtsho and tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi tIk chung rigs pa'i snye ma
• Mipham Rinpoche, tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi gzhung gsal bor bshad pa legs bshad snang ba'i gter

Translations

• The controversial scholar Gendün Chöpel apparently translated the text into English, but sadly this work has been lost.
• Nagatomi, Masatoshi. A Study of Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika: An English Translation and Annotation of the Pramāṇavārttika Book I, PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 1957.

Further Reading

• John D. Dunne, Foundations of Dharmakirti's Philosophy, Wisdom Publications, 2004
• Tillemans, Tom J.F.: "Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika. An annotated translation of the fourth chapter (parārthānumāna). Volume 1 (k. 1-148)". Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 675. Band. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna) 2000