Ambika Datta Sharma

Ambika Datta Sharma is Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy in Dr Hari Singh Gaur Central University, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India. Pin 470003. His research interest covers classical Indian Philosophy (especially Buddhist Epistemology and Advaita Vedanta,) along with colonial and post-colonial cultural consciousness. He authored and edited some important research titles in Indian Philosophy. He is the recipient of UGC Research Award, Naresh Mehta Smriti Samman, Pranavananda Darshan Puraskar, Ekatma Parva Samman and Shankara Fellowship. 

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Issue: 12:1/2 (The forty fifth issue)

The paper discusses anumāna and its variety in general from the point of view of inferential cognition for the sake of oneself as well as for the sake of others; i.e. svārthānumāna and parārthānumāna as given in the Buddhist tradition of logic, especially with parārthānumāna, its nature and role. The paper argues that the Buddhist intent of division of anumāna into svārthānumāna and parārthānumāna was to bring Buddha-vacanas under the category of parārthānumāna and to save them from being classified under śabda pramāṇa. It contends that such a division was not just an epistemological demand, but had a deeper philosophical significance in the Buddhist conceptual framework. Such a division is, therefore, intended to reject the role of śabda as an extra causal means or pramāṇa. The paper identifies the logical commitment in Buddhist tradition as hetu-centric commitment as it differs from the Nyāya tradition of vyāpti-centric one.