and thus by the
similarity of the sense-datum with the object {_prama@na_) we come
to think that our awareness has this particular form as "blue"
(_prama@naphala_). If this sameness between the knowledge and its
object was not felt we could not have spoken of the object from
the awareness (_sarupyamanubhutam vyavasthapanahetu@h_). The
object generates an awareness similar to itself, and
it is this correspondence that can lead us to the realization
of the object so presented by right knowledge [Footnote ref l].

____________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: See also pp. 340 and 409. It is unfortunate that, excepting
the _Nyayabindu, Nyayabindu@tika, Nyayabindu@tika@tippani_ (St Petersburg,
1909), no other works dealing with this interesting doctrine of perception
are available to us. _Nyayabindu_ is probably one of the earliest works in
which we hear of the doctrine of _arthakriyakaritva_ (practical fulfilment
of our desire as a criterion of right knowledge). Later on it was regarded
as a criterion of existence, as Ratnakirtti's works and the profuse
references by Hindu writers to the Buddhistic doctrines prove. The word
_arthakriya_ is found in Candrakirtti's commentary on Nagarjuna and also
in such early works as _Lalitavistara_ (pointed out to me by Dr E.J.
Thomas of the Cambridge University Library) but the word has no
philosophical significance there.]

155

Sautrantika theory of Inference [Footnote ref 1].

According to the Sautrantika doctrine of Buddhism as described
by Dharmakirtti and Dharmmottara which is probably the
only account of systematic Buddhist logic that is now available to
us in Sanskrit, inference (_anumana_) is divided into two classes,
called svarthanumana (inferential knowledge attained by a person
arguing in his own mind or judgments), and pararthanumana (inference
through the help of articulated propositions for convincing
others in a debate). The validity of inference depended, like the
validity of perception, on copying the actually existing facts of
the external world. Inference copied external realities as much
as perception did; just as the validity of the immediate perception
of blue depends upon its similarity to the external blue thing
perceived, so the validity of the inference of a blue thing also,
so far as it is knowledge, depends upon its resemblance to the
external fact thus inferred (_sarupyavas'addhi tannilapratitirupam
sidhyati_).