Dharmakirti

For the 10th century teacher from Suvarṇadvīpa, see Dharmakīrtiśrī.

Dharmakīrti
Portrait of Dharmakirti in silver, c. 15th–16th century, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Personal
Bornc. 600 CE
South India
Diedc. 670 CE
ReligionBuddhism
EducationNalanda
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Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 600–670 CE;[1]), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.[2] He was one of the key scholars of epistemology (pramāṇa) in Buddhist philosophy, and is associated with the Yogācāra[3] and Sautrāntika schools. He was also one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism.[4] His works influenced the scholars of Mīmāṃsā, Nyaya and Shaivism schools of Hindu philosophy as well as scholars of Jainism.[5]

Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika, his largest and most important work, was very influential in India and Tibet as a central text on pramana ('valid knowledge instruments') and was widely commented on by various Indian and Tibetan scholars. His texts remain part of studies in the monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism.[6]

  1. ^ Lopez, Donald (2014). "Dharmakīrti". The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.
  2. ^ Tom Tillemans (2011), Dharmakirti, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  3. ^ Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2009). Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed. University of Chicago Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-226-49324-4.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nakamura301 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Eltschinger 2010.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference liberman2007p52 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).