Bhāviveka’s Criticism of the Mīmāṃsaka in the <i>Prajñāpradīpa</i>: The Differences between the Chinese and the Tibetan Translations

Abstract

In the twenty-second chapter of the Prajñāpradīpa, which was translated into Chinese by Prabhākaramitra and into Tibetan by Klu’i rgyal mtshan, Bhāviveka, a Mādhyamika philosopher, criticizes the Mīmāṃsaka in a context where he makes a ‘‘digression’’ on the Tathāgata’s omniscience. In the beginning, Bhāviveka introduces a syllogism by which the Mīmāṃsaka tries to reject the Buddhist view of omniscience. Bhāviveka’s counter-argument differs in, respectively, the Chinese and the Tibetan translations. However, previous studies have studied only one of these translations.