Dharmakirti's Theory of Hetu-centricity of Anumana.

• Author: Hattori, Masaaki

The author, Ms. Mangala Chinchore, states in the introduction that "roughly speaking, the present work is directed at articulating and assessing the worth of Dharmakirti's theory of anumana as presented in his Hetubindu, although references to his other works ... are not neglected" (p. XIV). The Hetubindu is a short treatise intended for a systematic exposition of the nature and function of hetu, which is an important element of anumana. The author uses the text of the Hetubindu as presented in Hetubindutika of Bhatta Arcata with ... Aloka of Durveka Misra, ed. Pt. Sukhlalji Sanghavi and Muni Shri Jinavijayaji (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1949) (G.O.S. XXIII). An excellent edition and a German translation of the Hetubindu by Ernst Steinkellner (Dharmakirtis Hetubinduh, Teil I: Tibetischer Text und rekonstruierter Sanskrit-Text; Teil II: Ubersetzung und Anmerkungen [Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1967!), which was published long before the publication of the present book, was most probably not accessible to her. However, the present re-. viewer soon came to realize that the author was not seriously affected by the inaccessibility of a better text, because she does not appear to care much about what is written in the text.

From the title of the book it might be presumed that an examination of the three kinds of hetu, i.e., svabhavahetu, karyahetu and anupalabdhi, which are treated in the Hetubindu, or of such concepts as svabhavapratibandha, tadatmya, tadutpatti, etc., which are important for the understanding of Dharmakirti's theory of anumana, is presented in this book. However, the author treats these subjects only briefly, and does not pay any attention to the interpretations given in recent years by scholars of Buddhist logic. It is stated by the author that she has attempted to elucidate Dharmakirti's theory of anumana "from a methodological perspective" (p. XV). According to her, Dharmakirti intended, by handling anumana in his various treatises, to establish the hetu-centrality of anumana. With a view to showing that hetu plays a central role in his theory of anumana, she gives a detailed analysis of "structural or constitutive conditions of anumana," i.e., paksa, sadhya and hetu, and of "regulative conditions of anumana," i.e., paksadharmata and vyapti, in chapters III and IV (pp. 66-109). We find here a very elementary (and, as will be pointed out below, a rather distorted) description of the...