Can a vijñānavādi consistently admit the existence of other mind? Dharmakīrti vs ratnakīrti

Abstract

In the history of classical Indian philosophy, the contribution of the Buddhist philosophers is unique and extraordinary. For almost more than one thousand years Indian philosophical tradition has seen the debating attitude consisting of the Nyāya and the Buddhist philosophers as the proponent and opponent on philosophical issues through ‘refutation and conjecture’ (khaṇḍana-maṇḍana) and later on, the continuation of this debate between AdvaitaVedāntin Śaṅkarācārya and the Buddhist philosophers, and then again through the debate between the Advaita and Nyāya philosophers when the Buddhist philosophers– in the stature of Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, Diṅnāga and Dharmakīrti— are no more alive. On account of internal weakness, like moral degradation and lacking of logical vigour facing the revival of Vedic-Upaniṣadic thought-web through the great Śaṅkarācārya and his disciples and of external attacks from the Muslims, which results in physical destructions of the Great Institutions like Nālandā, Vikramaśīlā and other Mahāvihāras and forceful conversion to Islam by the patronage of Muslim rulers, conjointly Buddha’s Saddharma along with its philosophy, contribute towards the decline and the driving way of Buddhism from the soil of India at large with the solitary exceptions that remained in the hill tracts among the tribal people. But the rich cultural heritage was preserved mainly in translation by the Tibetan (Bhoṭadeśa) and Chinese scholars. Some of the texts were copied in Sanskrit, the language of their origin, were preserved by them. Because of recent restoration of some of them and the bringing back of manuscripts by Mahāpaṇḍita Rāhul Sāṅkṛtyāyāna India regained a part of its past glory of cultural heritage.