Śaṅkaranandana

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Śaṅkaranandana [alt. Śaṅkarānanda] (fl. c. 9th or 10th century) (T. bde byed dga' ba) was an Indian Buddhist scholar active in Kashmir in the pramana tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakīrti.[1][2] He wrote approximately 17 works on logic and epistemology, and was influential in both Kashmir and Tibet.[1]

Name variants and epithets

Vincent Eltschinger states:

Likely active in Kashmir in the 9th or, more plausibly, the 10th century, Śaṅkaranandana (Tib. Bde byed dga’ ba; wrongly spelt/Sanskritized as Śaṅkarānanda, Śaṅkarānanta, Śaṅkananda; Frauwallner, 1933, 241; Krasser, 2001, 489–490) was known in Tibet if not already in Kashmir as “the second Dharmakīrti” (Chos kyi grags pa gnyis pa), due perhaps to the extreme terseness of his style, and as “the Great Brahmin” (Bram ze chen po).[1]

Influence

Śaṅkaranandana is cited by both Kashmiri Shaiva authors like Abhinavagupta[3] and by Tibetan Buddhist authors and translators.[1] Vincent Eltschinger states that he was "the main interlocutor of the Saiva Pratyabhijña school and as one of the most influential thinkers among the early generations of Tibetan philosophers."[2] His influence on Kashmir Shaiva thinkers was such that Abhinavagupta even calls Śaṅkaranandana his "guru" in Mālinīvijayavārttika and speaks of Śaṅkaranandana's enlightenment in another text (the interpretation of this is disputed however).[2][1] This led some modern scholars to speculate whether Śaṅkaranandana was a Shaiva at some point who later converted to Buddhism. This thesis has not been proven however. Tāranātha’s History does state that he was a non-Buddhist brahmin who converted after seeing Manjusri in a dream. Whatever the case, all of Śaṅkaranandana's extant works are of a Buddhist persuasion.[2][1]

Like other thinkers in his tradition, Śaṅkaranandana defended the idealistic Yogacara theory of "consciousness only" or Vijñānavāda through the logical refutation of any external objects of cognition.[2] Thus, according to Eltschinger, for Śaṅkaranandana "realistic or pluralistic accounts of reality rely on latent tendencies and are ultimately erroneous". For Śaṅkaranandana, the ultimate view is the non-dual view (advaya-darsana) in which a Buddha perceives only non-dual consciousness free of subject-object distinctions and of all transformations of thought produced by latent tendencies.[4]

Work

Śaṅkaranandana wrote at least 17 works on logic and epistemology.[1] Four of his works have survived in Tibetan translation, and others have survived in Sanskrit manuscripts, most incomplete or fragmentary.[5]

According to Eltschinger his magnum opus was most likely the Prajñālaṅkāra (“Ornament of Wisdom”), which was "a systematic exposition of the Yogācāra Buddhist doctrine of mind-only (vijñaptimātratā)."[1]

Among his other writings are four commentaries on Dharmakīrti's texts, including the Pramāṇavārttikaṭīkā, which comments on Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika.[1]

One of his surviving texts, the Īśvarāpākaraṇa-saṅkṣepa (Summary of a refutation of Īśvarā), a refutation of the Hindu concept of a creator deity, has been translated by into German in Helmut Krasser's habilitation study.[6][7]

Other works include:[1][8]

  • Sambandhaparīkṣānusāra (translated by Parahita-bhadra and Dga’ ba’i rdo rje into Tibetan)
  • Apohasiddhi translated by Manoratha and Rngog Blo ldan shes rab
  • Vādanyāya (a commentary on a work by Dharmakīrti)
  • Pratibandhasiddhikārikā translated by Bhavyarāja and Rngog Blo ldan shes rab
  • Laghupratibandhasiddhikārikā (“Short Proof of the Connection”)
  • Sūkṣmaprāmāṇya-, Madhyaprāmāṇya-, and Bṛhatprāmāṇya kārikās (“Short/Middle/Extensive versions of "Examination of Valid Cognition")
  • Anyāpohasiddhikārikā (“Proof of Other-Exclusion”)
  • Dharmālaṅkāra (“Ornament of the Dharma”)
  • Sarvajñasiddhikārikā (“Proof of all-knowledge”)
  • Svalpasarvajñasiddhikārikā (also known as Sarvajñasiddhisaṅkṣepa, “Summary of the Proof of all-knowledge”),
  • Saṅkṣipteśvarāpākaraṇa (also known as Īśvarāpākaraṇasaṅkṣepa, “Summary of the Refutation of [a Creator] God”)
  • Āgamasiddhi (“Proof of [the Human Origin of Authoritative] Scripture”)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "Śaṅkaranandana" (Eltschinger) in Silk, Jonathan A (editor in chief). Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume II: Lives.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Eltschinger, Vincent. Latest News from a Kashmirian “Second Dharmakīrti” In Patrick McAllister, Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, Helmut Krasser, ed., Cultural Flows across the Western Himalaya. (BKGA 83.) Wien: VÖAW, 2015.
  3. ↑ Franco, Elo; Ratié, Isabelle (2016). Around Abhinavagupta: Aspects of the Intellectual History of Kashmir from the Ninth to the Eleventh Century, p. 282. LIT Verlag Münster
  4. ↑ Eltschinger, Vincent. 2008. Śaṅkaranandana’s Sarvajñasiddhi: A Preliminary Report. Mémoires de La Commission Orientaliste 1. Roma: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente.
  5. ↑ Eltschinger, V. 2008. “Śaṅkaranandana's Sarvajñasiddhi. A preliminary report”, in Sferra, F. (ed.), Manuscripta Buddhica I: Sanskrit Texts from Giuseppe Tucci's Collection, part 1. (Serie Orientale Roma 104.) Rome: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, 115–56.
  6. ↑ Krasser, Helmut (2002) Sankaranandanas Isvarapakaranasanksepa: Texte. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ↑ Krasser (2002). Śaṅkaranandanas Īśvarāpākaraṇasaṅkṣepa mit einem anonymen Kommentar und weiteren Materialien zur buddhistischen Gottespolemik
  8. ↑ Eltschinger, Vincent. 2006. “Les Œuvres de Śaṅkaranandana: Nouvelles Ressources Manuscrites, Chronologie Relative et Identité Confessionnelle.” Annali Dell’Università Degli Studi Di Napoli “L’Orientale” 66 (1–4): 83–122.

External links

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