VINCENT ELTSCHINGER BUDDHIST EPISTEMOLOGY AS APOLOGETICS STUDIES ON THE HISTORY, SELF-UNDERSTANDING AND DOGMATIC FOUNDATIONS OF LATE INDIAN BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY ÖSTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN PHILOSOPHISCH-HISTORISCHE KLASSE SITZUNGSBERICHTE, 851. BAND BEITRÄGE ZUR KULTUR- UND GEISTESGESCHICHTE ASIENS NR. 81 Herausgegeben von Helmut Krasser ÖSTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN PHILOSOPHISCH-HISTORISCHE KLASSE SITZUNGSBERICHTE, 851. BAND Buddhist Epistemology as Apologetics Studies on the History, Self-understanding and Dogmatic Foundations of Late Indian Buddhist Philosophy Vincent Eltschinger Vorgelegt von k. M. HELMUT KRASSER in der Sitzung am 13. Dezember 2013 Diese Publikation wurde einem anonymen, internationalen Peer-Review-Verfahren unterzogen. This publication has undergone the process of anonymous, international peer review. Die verwendete Papiersorte ist aus chlorfrei gebleichtem Zellstoff hergestellt, frei von säurebildenden Bestandteilen und alterungsbeständig. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. ISBN 978-3-7001-7583-4 Copyright © 2014 by Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien Druck und Bindung: Prime Rate kft., Budapest Printed and bound in the EU http://hw.oeaw.ac.at/7583-4 http://verlag.oeaw.ac.at Contents Foreword ............................................................................................ ix Introduction: On Critical Examination and Apologetics .......................................... 1 Chapter 1: Apocalypticism, Heresy and Philosophy .......................................... 35 1.1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 35 1.2. Mleccha and pāṣaṇḍa/pāṣaṇḍin in Brahmanical Apocalypti- cism ................................................................................................... 40 1.2.1. Introduction .............................................................................. 40 1.2.2. The Doctrine of the yugas in the MDhŚ ................................... 41 1.2.3. The kaliyuga and its End in the MBh ....................................... 41 1.2.4. The kaliyuga in the YP ............................................................. 50 1.2.5. Conclusion ................................................................................ 53 1.2.6. The kaliyuga and its End in the Early Purāṇas ......................... 54 1.2.7. Kaliyuga and Heresiology in the ViP ....................................... 57 1.2.8. Kaliyuga and Heresiology in the Mīmāṃsā ............................. 66 1.2.9. Conclusion ................................................................................ 70 1.3. Indian Buddhist Apocalypticism ..................................................... 73 1.3.1. Introduction .............................................................................. 73 1.3.2. The Timetables and the Causes of Decline .............................. 73 1.3.3. Monastic Degeneration and Early Mahāyāna ........................... 77 1.3.4. The Buddhist Appropriation of the kaliyuga ............................ 81 1.3.5. Narendrayaśas .......................................................................... 85 1.3.6. Conclusion ................................................................................ 89 Chapter 2: Buddhist Esoterism and Epistemology ............................................. 93 2.1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 93 2.2. Śaivism, Early Medieval India and the Rise of Buddhist Tantrism ............................................................................................ 96 2.2.1. Preliminary Remarks ................................................................ 96 2.2.2. Buddhist Tantrism as the Internalization of the Early Medieval Political Landscape ..................................................... 100 2.2.3. Buddhist Esoterism as an Adoption-cum-Adaptation of Śaiva Tantrism ............................................................................ 106 2.2.4. Summary ................................................................................ 113 2.2.5. Remarks on the Chronology of Early Buddhist Tantrism ...... 114 2.2.6. Dharmakīrti and the Early History of Tantrism...................... 120 2.2.7. Buddhist Hostility towards Śaivism in Early Buddhist Tantric Scriptures ........................................................................ 136 2.2.8. Conclusion: Towards a New Modality of Mahāyānist Self-Assertion? ............................................................................ 149 2.3. Buddhist Epistemology ................................................................. 154 2.3.1. Remarks on the Historiography of the Buddhist Episte- mological School ......................................................................... 154 2.3.2. On the Buddhist Epistemologists' Self-Understanding .......... 169 2.3.3. The Decline of Abhidharma Scholasticism and Inter- sectarian Polemics ....................................................................... 174 2.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 189 Chapter 3: Turning Hermeneutics into Apologetics ......................................... 191 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................... 191 3.2. Evaluative Rationality ................................................................... 193 3.2.1. The Epistemologists’ Concept of yukti .................................. 193 3.2.2. yukti and āgama in Traditional Buddhist Scholasticism ........ 196 3.2.3. Personal or Textual Authority? .............................................. 201 3.2.4. Assessing Scriptures ............................................................... 210 3.2.5. Conclusion .............................................................................. 218 3.3. Practical Rationality ...................................................................... 219 3.3.1. The Epistemologists’ Concept of prekṣā ................................ 219 3.3.2. Religious Practice as Rational Action .................................... 221 3.3.3. Certainty and Rationality ........................................................ 224 3.3.4. The Revised kāryānumāna Theorem ...................................... 227 3.3.5. The Logic of Buddhist Gradualism ........................................ 234 3.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 244 Chapter 4: Nescience, Epistemology and Soteriology ..................................... 247 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................... 247 4.2. Nescience as Erroneous Cognition (mithyopalabdhi) ................... 248 4.2.1. Nescience as Counter-Insight ................................................. 248 4.2.2. Nescience, saṃvṛti, and apoha ............................................... 255 4.3. Nescience as Personalistic False View (satkāyadṛṣṭi) ................... 266 4.3.1. The False View of Self as a Specification of Wrong Per- ception ......................................................................................... 266 4.3.2. Dependent Origination ........................................................... 278 4.3.3. Dharmakīrti’s Sources for the Equation avidyā = satkā- yadṛṣṭi .......................................................................................... 293 4.4. Nescience, Inference, and the Path toward Salvation .................... 298 4.4.1. Introduction ............................................................................ 298 4.4.2. Perception and Insight ............................................................ 300 4.4.3. Erroneous Superimposition and Its Causes ............................ 306 4.4.4. Inference and Its Corrective Function .................................... 311 4.4.5. Inference and the Path ............................................................ 313 4.4.6. The cintāmayī prajñā .............................................................. 318 Abbreviations and Bibliography ..................................................... 329 Indices ............................................................................................. 371 Foreword The present volume is a collection of four studies which, though originally published as independent essays, have been conceived as chapters of an or- ganic book dedicated to the socio-historical context and the dogmatic foun- dations of early Indian Buddhist epistemology. The volume was intended as—and remains—a general introduction to this religio-philosophical cur- rent’s apologetic dimensions, properly speaking—proofs of the possibility of rebirth, insight, compassion, liberation and omniscience, i.e., a demon- stration of the rationality of the Buddhist salvational path. Parts of the ma- terials presented in Chapter 1 (“Apocalypticism, Heresy and Philosophy”) were first presented on the occasion of the international conference “World View and Theory in Indian Philosophy” (Barcelona, Casa Asia, 26–30 April 2009), and then twice in Japan (Tokyo University, 30 September 2009; Ryukoku University, 27 November 2009); the original study was published under the same title in a volume edited by Piotr Balcerowicz (World View and Theory in Indian Philosophy. Delhi 2012: Manohar [War- saw Indological Studies Series 5], pp. 27–84). Chapters 2 and 3 go back to two papers delivered at the XIVth World Sanskrit Conference (Kyoto Uni- versity, 1–5 September 2009): Whereas “Buddhist Esoterism and Episte- mology” was initially published in the proceedings of the Kyoto panel ed- ited by Eli Franco (Periodization and Historiography of Indian Philosophy. Vienna 2013: De Nobili [Publications of the De Nobili Research Library 37], pp. 171–273), “Turning Hermeneutics into Apologetics” first appeared in the volume of proceedings edited by myself and Helmut Krasser (Scrip- tural Authority, Reason, and Action. Vienna 2013: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press [Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens 79], pp. 71–145). The research that resulted in Chapter 4 (“Nescience, Epistemol- ogy and Soteriology”) was originally presented in the framework of the XVth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (Atlan- ta, Emory University, 23–28 June 2008) and published in two parts in the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (vol. 32/1–2, 2009 [2010], pp. 39–83, and vol. 33/1–2, 2010 [2011], pp. 27–73). Except for “Nescience, Epistemology and Soteriology,” which retrieves its original unity and was added section 4.4.6 on the cintāmayī prajñā, the studies un- x BUDDHIST EPISTEMOLOGY AS APOLOGETICS derwent no substantial modification. Besides unifying styles, spellings and bibliographical information as well as adding all relevant cross-references, I have updated what was necessary. Thus, Chapter 1 incorporates materials drawn from and references to Giovanni Verardi’s recently published (2011) Hardships and Downfall of Buddhism in India. Chapter 2 has benefitted from Christian Wedemeyer’s Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism (2013) and Eltschinger 2012. As for Chapter 3, it now takes into consideration Richard Nance’s recent (2011) Speaking for Buddhas: Scriptural Commen- tary in Indian Buddhism. The studies that served as a basis for Chapters 1, 2 and 4 were funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, project P21050-G15: “Tradition und Wandel in der indischen buddhistischen Logik”). Part of the research work that led to Chapter 1 was also made possible by the Numata Foundation, to whose generous support I owe an extremely fruitful stay in Kyoto (Ryuko- ku University, September-December 2009). I am very grateful to these institutions as well as to Ernst Steinkellner, Helmut Krasser and Shoryu Katsura. I wish to express my most sincere thanks to Diwakar Acharya, Piotr Balcerowicz, Johannes Bronkhorst, Danielle Feller, Peter Flügel, Erika Forte, Eli Franco, Gérard Fussman, Dominic Goodall, Harunaga Isaacson, Kyo Kano, Shoryu Katsura, Birgit Kellner, Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Helmut Krasser, Hiroshi Marui, Jan Nattier, Marion Rastelli, Isabelle Ratié, Alexander von Rospatt, Masamichi Sakai, Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, Peter Skilling, Ernst Steinkellner, François Voegeli, Toshihiko Watanabe, Yuko Yokochi, Chizuko Yoshimizu, and Kiyotaka Yoshimizu for their very pre- cious help. I am also very grateful to Cynthia Peck-Kubaczek and Katha- rine Apostle, who improved the English of the original papers and the introduction. My deepest gratitude goes to two exceptional scholars, Alexis Sanderson and Lambert Schmithausen, for their extremely careful reading and improvement of the studies that were to become Chapters 1 and 4. Last but not least, I would like to address my most heartfelt thanks to Karin Preisendanz and Ernst Steinkellner for encouraging me not to postpone any further this publication, a habilitation thesis submitted to the University of Vienna. Leipzig April-June 2013