Vol. I, No. 9.) Dignaga and his Pramana-samuccaya. 217 
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28. Dignaiga and his Pramana-samuccaya.—By Saris CHANDRA 
VipyAsytsana, M.A. 
Hindu philosophy is divided into six principal systems of 
iS ea which the Nyaya is one. This Nyaya 
Distinction be- again is divided into two schools called re- 
Meee avd csaorn spectively the ancient Nyaya and modern 
Nyaya. Nyaya. The distinction between the two 
schools is this: the ancient Ny4aya treats of 
atoms, properties of atoms, souls, the transmigration of the soul, 
mind, God, etc., as well as of processes of perception, inferences, 
and the like, while the modern Nyaya deals only with the methods 
of perception, inference, etc. The object of the ancient Nyaya is to 
explain the means of salvation, while that of the modern Nyaya is 
to give an exposition of the fundamental principles of reasoning. 
This shows that the ancient Nyaya is a mixture of physics, meta- 
physics, theology, logic, etce., while the modern Nyaya is exactly 
identical with what we understand by the term logic. 
As this modern Nyaya is the most favourite and honoured 
ae . subject of study in the Sanskrit tols (acade- 
Buddhistic ori- mies) of Bengal, it is worth while to trace 
gin of the modern . eee 
Nyaya. its origin. There can be no doubt as to the 
modern Nyaya having been developed from 
the ancient Nyaya, but nothing can be definitely stated as to how 
and when it was so developed. The first extant work on ancient 
Nyaya is undoubtedly Gotama’s Nyaya Sitra dated about 500 B.C., 
but we do not know definitely what was the first work on modern 
Nyaya. 
7 It was for a long time the universal belief of the Pandits of : 
our country that the Pramana-cintamani, compiled by Gangesa 
Upadhyaya of Mithila in the 14th century A.D, was the oldest 
work on modern Nyaya. But this belief of the Pandits was shaken 
nearly sixteen years ago by Professor Peterson, who published 
under the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal a Buddhist 
Sanskrit work on modern Ny@ya, called Nyayabindu, by Dharma- 
kirti. This work, which was dated the 7th century A.D., at once 
showed that Gafiigesa Upadhyaya’s Pramana-cintamani could not 
have been the first work on modern Nyaya Recently another re- 
volution has been caused in our theories by the literary collection 
of the late Tibet Mission. The Mission has brought from Gyantse 
the Tibetan version of another Buddhist Sanskrit work on modern 
Nyaya, called Pramana-samuccaya, compiled by the Buddhist logi- 
cian Dignaga who flourished long before Dharmakirti. The Sans- 
krit original of this work is not available in India or Nepal and has 
perhaps been lost. But the Tibetan version and numerous authori- 
tative commentaries on the same show in unmistakable terms that 
this work is the earliest at present known work on modern Nyaya. 
In Tibetan there are numerous treatises on. logic by various 
Indian Buddhist authors. These treatises are contained in the 
Tangyur, section Mdo, volumes 95-116. There the first work on 
e 
