Prajñākaragupta on Yogic Perception and Omniscience

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify Prajñākaragupta’s interpretation of yogic perception, focusing especially on the notion of avisaṃvādi in Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika III 286, on which E. Franco has recently provided a new reading, pramāṇasaṃvādi, on the basis of Prajñākaragupta’s description (PVA 327.32–33). By examining the same portion, this paper concludes as follows: 1. By considering Dharmakīrti’s argument on yogic perception in the Pramāṇaviniścaya and the Sanātānāntarasiddhi, the reading pramāṇaṃ saṃvādi is preferable to Franco’s suggestion; 2. A Sanskrit manuscript and a Tibetan translation reveal that Prajñākaragupta takes the verse as an antaraślokaḥ to which no explanation is added. Therefore, the portion (PVA 327.32–33) should be considered his own argument, not a paraphrase of the verse; 3. From Prajñākaragupta’s viewpoint, the notion of avisaṃvādi is understood in the context of the Buddha’s omniscience as a kind of yogic perception, which guarantees his words on all objects, including supra-sensible objects like the other world (paraloka) because, as Dharmakīrti has argued in Pramāṇavārttika I 215, the Buddha’s words have verifiability for other perceptible and inferable objects.