Vol. I, No. 9.) Digniiga and his Pramana-samuccaya. 219 
[ N.S. ] 
attained erudition in the Tripitaka of the Sravaka. Afterwards he 
became a disciple of Acaryya Vasubandhu, with whom he studied 
all the Pitakas of the Mahayana and Hinayana. When he had 
specially obtained incantation formula from a mantra-knowing 
Acaryya and practised sorcery, he saw the face of Manjusri and 
learned the dharma (Law) from him. He resided ina solitary and 
woody country in the land of Orissa in a cavern of a mountain 
called Bhorasila, and gave himself entirely up to contemplation. 
A few years later he was invited at Nalanda, where he 
defeated the Brahman Sudurjaya and other Tirtha dialecticians 
and led them into the doctrine of Buddha He expounded many 
Siitras to the religious body, spread the Abhidharma, and composed 
several logical and dialectical Sastras. He is said to have com- 
posed one hundred sastras in all. Returning to Orissa he busied 
himself with contemplation. Seeing that the Sastras on Dialectics, 
composed earlier by him, remained scattered about, he resolved to 
wae collect them. Accordingly, putting together 
maven oo fragments from particular works, he engaged 
ciya himself in compiling the Pramanasamuccaya 
(Tib. Tshad-mahi-mdo-kun-las-btus-pa, or 
simply, Tshad-ma-kun-btus) in which at the opening lines he pays 
obeisance to Buddha :— 
AAAI TAT ANG S52 | 
PFVIF AN HVAT ASIA | 
“Having bowed down before Him who is Logic incarnate, the 
benefactor of all creatures, the teacher, Sugata and the protector.”’... 
While he was writing the opening lines the earth trembled 
and all the places were filled with light and a great tumult was 
audible. A Brahman named I[svara.Krsna,! surprised at this 
wonder, came to Acaryya Dignaya, and, finding that he had gone 
out to collect alms, wiped out the words he had written. When in 
this manner he had wiped them out twice, Dignaga wrote them a 
third time and added—“ Let no one wipe this out even in jest and 
sport, for none should wipe out what is of great importance ; if the 
sense is not right and one wishes to dispute on that account, let 
one appear before me in person.” When, after he had gone to col- 
lect alms, the Brahman came to wipe out the writings and saw 
what was added, he waited. When the Aciryya had returned they 
began controversy, either staking his own doctrine. When he had 
vanquished the Tirtha several times and challenged him to accept 
the Buddhist doctrine, the Tirtha scattered ashes, pronounced in- 
cantation formula on them and burnt all the goods of the Acaryya; 
' Krsn-ISvara, or simply Krsna, seems to be the sameas Isvara Krsna, the 
celebrated author of Samkhya-Karika, which was translated into Chinese by 
Paramartha, A.D. 557-56), noticed in Nanjio’s Catalogue, No. 1300. The 
Tibetan name is 45) QW’ AQ' XY = Krsna-’1svara. 
