Definition of Pramana: (Pramanaparayana in the Prakaranapancika)

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Foreword:

The prominent orthodox philosophical systems arose in strict continuity with the Vedic tradition and looked upon the Veda as the most infallible authority. These two philosophical systems are called Purva-Mimamsa and Uttara-Mimamsa. Purva-Mimamsa is also called by the name of Mimamsa. The Mimamsa-sutra is held as the source book of this system. This sutra was attributed to a one Jaimini. The earliest commentary on the Mimamsa-sutra was by Sabara-Svamin, and so this commentary is called Sabara-bhasya. The greatest Mimamsakas after Sabara-svamin were Prabhakara and Kumarila. Both wrote commentaries on the Sabara-bhasya. Prabhakara was a student of Kumarila-bhatta. The differences between Kumarila Bhatta and Prabhakara were very strong, sometimes even fundamental. So the Mimamsa-school was splitted into two branches, which are called Bhatta and Prabhakara schools. The most notable exponent of the Prabhakara view was Salikanatha, who lived possibly in the 9th century A.D. His Prakarna-pancika is taken to be the standard exposition of this school.

The Purva-Mimamsa is famous more for its philosophy of language than for its logic and epistemology. But the fact remains that both the schools of the Purva-Mimamsa, viz., the Bhatta and Prabhakara, throw much light on some intricate problems of logic and epistemology, especially in the field of inference. The present work on the 'Pramana (i.e. the source of knowledge) section of the Prakaranapancika is meant for highlighting the view of Salikanatha, the most well-known of the Prabhakara-philosophers on the definition of pramana in general. Salikanatha's discussion touches upon many other related epistemological issues of importance like the nature of error, status of recollection and serial cognition and so on. Apart from translations of the text into English and Bengali the present work contains a long introduction and notes which are highly interpretative in character.

We thank Prof. Nandita Bandyopadhyay for presenting the scholastic work to the academic world through DSA (Sanskrit), Jadavpur University. We are grateful to our student Sm. Reeta Bhattacharya for helping us in many ways in bringing out this book.

March 30,2004

Manabendu Banerjee
Co-ordinator,
DSA (Sanskrit),
Jadavpur University