During these last days I was reading Malcolm D. Eckel’s recent publication Bhāviveka and His Buddhist Opponents, which is an edition and translation of Chaperts 4 and 5 of the Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and of Tarkajvālā commentary. In Chapter 5 of Tarkajvālā, ad Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā 5.83ab we find a reference to lokāyatikas which is, to my knowledge, the [...]

If we compare de Jong’s and de la Vallée Poussin’s editions of MMK, 4cd (we have already dealt with this kārikā here), we can notice the following difference: de Jong: hetāv asati kāryaṃ ca kāraṇaṃ ca na vidyate | tadabhāve kriyā kartā kāraṇaṃ ca na vidyate || de la Vallée Poussin: hetāv asati kāryaṃ ca [...]

Let us consider Mūlamadhyamakakārikā VIII, 4ab, where Nāgārjuna seems to accept a sort of “priority” of hetu on both pratyaya and utpanna: hetāv asati kāryaṃ ca kāraṇaṃ ca na vidyate | («when the [primary] cause does not exist, both the effect and the [secondary] cause are not evident»). Jacques May, reflecting on this half a [...]

In the first chapter of Sāyaṇa-Mādhava’s Sarva-darśana-saṃgraha (on Cārvāka/Lokāyata) we meet with the following half-verse: lokasiddho bhaved rājā pareśo nāparaḥ smṛtaḥ |1 That is: The king (rājā), celebrated by the people (lokasiddho; also: powerful in the world, established in/by the world, etc.), is considered (bhaved smṛtaḥ; also: is declared, is admitted) [according to Cārvākas] the [...]

During these last days I was at work on the second chapter of the Madhyamakaratnapradīpa of Bhavya from Tibetan bsTan-’gyur. I have compared two versions: sDe-dge and dGa’-ldan (available for free on line). In this chapter we find a list of a number of heretical schools and of heretical teachers. Some of these names are [...]

Let us discuss a particular reading of Bhavya’s Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā (MHK) III, 253, as it has been established by Lindtner in his critical edition, based on the unique extant Sanscrit manuscript.1 The Sanskrit version of this kārikā, according to Lindtner, runs as follows: yathā prasuptaḥ putra-strī-vimāna-bhavanādikam | paśyet siddhavaśāt tatra pratibuddho na paśyati ||2 Now, if [...]

Let us consider a passage of a Buddhist text preserved in Tibetan translation, and lost in its Sanskrit original, the Skhalita-pramathana-yukti-hetu-siddhi (’KHrul pa bzlog pa’i rigs pa gtan tshigs grub pa, «Accomplishment of Reason by Means of Argumentations for the Destruction of Errors»). This brief work is attributed to Āryadeva (colophon: slob dpon ’phags pa [...]