Buddhist Philosophy as Presented in Mimamsa-Sloka-Varttika

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Studies of the Buddhist Philosophy and Logic occupy a very important place in the modern philosophical world. As the original Buddhist sources, having been destroyed and lost in course of time, are scanty in number, it may prove beneficial to have study of a non-Buddhist treatises like Mimamsa-Sloka-Varttika of Kumarila Bhatta, which contains vast material related to the Buddhist philosophy and logic.

In course of refutation, Kumarila Bhatta, the renowned Mimamsaka and the philosopher of the 7th Cen. A.D., has given a store of information regarding the Buddhist doctrines in his Magnumopus, Mimamsa-Sloka-Varttika. It was, therefore, decided to take up this study. The relevant portions from the Śloka-Värttika have been compiled, classified on well- defined lines, discussed and compared with the original Buddhist sources wherever possible.

It is for the first-time that Kumarila's presentation of the Buddhist-Philosophy in his Sloka- Varttika has been evaluated in a Systematic way, and thus, it may prove to be a new pavement in the modern learning of Indian Philosophy.

Prof. Vijaya Rani is a learned scholar of Indian Philosophy, specially of the Buddhist Philosophy and Logic. She did her Ph.D. on an abstruse topic related to the Buddhist Philosophy and Bhatta Mimaṁsa, under the meticulous guidance of Late Prof. D.N. Shastri and Late Prof. S.N.Shastri, both renowned scholars of Indian and Buddhist Philosophy.

She joined the Deptt. of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, Kurukshetra University, in 1977. After holding different positions there, she got retired as the Chairperson of the Deptt. Under her profound guidance, more than 20 Ph.D. and 35 M.Phil. students completed their research work on different topics. Besides that, she has attended and presented research papers in several International and National Conferences. She has to her credit, about 40 Research papers & several Scholarly Books on Indian Philosophy.

It gives me genuine pleasure to introduce to the academic world the present work by Dr. (Mrs.) Vijaya Rani of the Department of Sanskrit, Kurukshetra University.

Literature on the early phase of the Buddhist logical and epistemic theories are, specially of Dinnaga school, are scanty. Most of the works of Dinnaga are lost in original Sanskrit but the post-Dinnaga writers of the Buddhist school come to our help in reconstructing Dinnaga's theories on many problems of philosophy. In addition to this, the non-Buddhist philosophers specially Kumarila Bhatta, Uddyotakara, Vacaspati and Jayanta Bhatta have criticised the Buddhist position, whose works partly help us to reconstruct Dinnaga's philosophy. In this book Dr. (Mrs.) Vijaya Rani has concentrated her attention on Kumarila's Slokavarttika and has made a critical assesment of Kumarila's presentation of the Buddhist position. She was promoted to this task on three grounds: First, Kumarila criticised the Buddhist position and his presentation appears, by and large, faithful and authentic, although it has been proved in the body of this work that there are occasions where Kumarila is not clear. Secondly, barring a few instances Kumarila's work throws light on Dinnaga's doctrines which are either not extant in Sanskrit or partly extant. Thirdly, through such analysis on non- Buddhist texts where Buddhist position has been criticised one can expect to solve some of the knotty problems of chronology of some philosophers of ancient India. Dr. (Mrs.) Vijaya Rani has dealt with such problems as the cognition and its validity, the theory of dependent- origination, the theory of momentariness, the theory of no- soul, a critique of external reality and the theory of Apoha, which led the non-Buddhist philosophers like Kumarila to carry on a vehement attack on Dinnaga. I have reasons to believe that this serious study of the present author will be well-received by the scholars of Buddhism and will serve as an impetus to other scholars to analyse the works of other non Buddhist philosophers in their attempts to reconstruct the philosophy of Dinnaga.

I congratulate Dr. (Mrs.) Vijaya Rani for this work, a product of commendable research.

The present book is the result of my research work on "The Buddhist Philosophy as presented in Mimamsa-Sloka- Varttika' which was submitted for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Kurukshetra University in 1977.

Study of the Buddhist philosophy occupies a very important place in the modern philosophical studies. Unfortunatly a large number of the original sources of the Buddhist philosophy have been lost. In course of time, they have been either destroyed or taken away to the foreign countries like China, Tibet, Mangolia etc.

During the past few decades, by the efforts of some renowned scholars like Prof. Stcherbatsky, H.N. Randle, Pt. Rahul Samkrtyayana, and S.C. Vidyabhusana, it has come to light that the treatises of non-Buddhist philosophy, especially those belonging to the Nyaya-vaisesika and the Purva-mimamsa schools, contain vast material related to the Buddhist philosophy. They give a store of information regarding Buddhist doctrines which they propose to refute. The Mimamsa-Sloka- Varttika of Kumarila is a very important one among such works. A large part of that work is devoted to the refutation of Buddhism.

So far only a few scholars have undertaken the Buddhist studies on the basis of non-Buddhist treatises, such as Prof. Th. Stcherbatsky (in his Buddhist logic vol. II), Prof. D.N. Shastri (in 'Critique of Indian Realism'), Prof. S.N. Shastri (in his 'Vacaspati Misra Dvara Bauddha Darsana Ka Vivecana') and Prof. Nagin J. Shah (in his 'Akalanka's criticism of Dharmakirti's philosophy'). Besides there are some other modern works and a number of articles of Indian philosophy and logic, in which the portions related to the Buddhists, scattered in the non-Buddhist treatises, have been referred to and explained occasionally. 'History of Indian Logic' (by S.C. Vidyabhusana), 'Indian Logic in the Early Schools' and 'Fragments from Dinnaga' (by H.N. Randle), 'Darsana-digdarsana' and other works (by R. Samkrtyayana), 'Central Philosophy of Buddhism' (by T.R.V. Murti) and 'Dignaga, on Perception' (by M. Hattori) can be mentioned as the names of such works. But an exhaustive study of the Buddhist doctrines on the basis of Purva-mimamsa treatises specially of the Mimamsa-sloka- varttika of Kumārila Bhatta, has not been done so far. Therefore, I took up this work, although it was of a very intricate nature. The basic source of this study is Mimamsa-sloka- varttika, although necessary help from its four commentaries has also been taken.