Pramāṇa Wiki
A knowledge base on Buddhist epistemology (ཚད་མ་, pramāṇa), centred on three foundational texts of the Indian and Tibetan pramāṇa tradition.
The Three Core Texts
Pramāṇasamuccaya (ཚད་མ་ཀུན་བཏུས་)
Compendium of Valid Cognition — by Dignāga (ཕྱོགས་གླང་), c. 5th–6th century CE. The foundational treatise that established pramāṇa as a systematic discipline within Buddhist philosophy. Presents the two means of valid cognition — perception (pratyakṣa, མངོན་སུམ་) and inference (anumāna, རྗེས་དཔག་) — and the theory of exclusion (apoha, སེལ་བ་).
Pramāṇavārttika (ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་)
Commentary on Valid Cognition — by Dharmakīrti (ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་), c. 7th century CE. The most influential elaboration and defence of Dignāga’s system. Four chapters covering inference-for-others (svārthānumāna), the establishment of valid cognition (pramāṇasiddhi), perception (pratyakṣa), and inference-for-oneself (parārthānumāna).
Pramāṇayuktanidhi (ཚད་མ་རིགས་གཏེར་)
Treasury of Reasoning on Valid Cognition — by Sakya Paṇḍita (ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་), 1219 CE. The major Tibetan synthesis of the Indian pramāṇa tradition, integrating Dignāga and Dharmakīrti’s thought for the Tibetan philosophical context. Eleven chapters with auto-commentary.
Scope
This wiki covers:
- Concepts: technical terms and their definitions across the tradition
- Arguments: key debates, proof structures, and philosophical positions
- Scholars: Indian and Tibetan thinkers in the pramāṇa lineage
- Primary texts: the three core texts and their commentarial literature
- Commentaries: chapter-by-chapter summaries of the commentarial literature
- Sources: summaries of secondary scholarship (books, papers, articles)
- Translations: ongoing Tibetan-to-English translation work
Commentaries
Two commentaries are summarised here chapter by chapter, both translated into English from the Chinese:
- Fazun’s Abridged Exposition of the Pramāṇasamuccaya (集量論略解) — six chapters. Dignāga’s treatise survives complete only in Tibetan, and Fazun’s exposition is the modern Chinese route back into it.
- Khenpo Sodargye’s Lectures on the Pramāṇayuktanidhi (量理宝藏论讲解) — eleven chapters, from an 84-lesson lecture series begun in 2006.
Navigation
- index — full catalogue of all wiki pages