Tuesday, May 12, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Silagupta
Tibetan-preserved epistemological works by Silagupta on testimony, exclusion, and omniscience.
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Texts
Verses on Establishing Omniscience — SilaguptaŚīlagupta's compact epistemological argument that if scripture is a valid source of knowledge, an omniscient being must exist — a cornerstone of the Buddhist Pramāṇa tradition's defense of the Buddha's authority, never before translated into English.Verses on Examining Exclusion — SilaguptaŚīlagupta's seventy-eight-verse defence of Dignāga's apoha theory — how words refer not by pointing to real universals but by excluding what they do not designate. The third of three epistemological verse treatises by this Indian Buddhist logician preserved in the Tengyur. First English translation.Verses on Examining Testimony — SilaguptaŚīlagupta’s nineteen-verse epistemological attack on the Vedic claim that scripture can reliably convey knowledge — a companion to his Verses on Establishing Omniscience, dismantling the word-meaning relationship that the Mīmāṃsā school takes for granted. Never before translated into English.