What do the Shameless Ones Nonsensically Profess? Genealogy of a Buddhist-Jain Philosophical Dialogue

Abstract

This chapter addresses the reasons why Jainism became marginal in the philosophical dialogues in which Buddhists engaged themselves. It examines how Buddhist authors depict Jain philosophers and how these depictions serve the Buddhist agenda. Especially, in his Pramāṇavārttikasvavṛtti, Dharmakīrti (c. 550–610 CE) attacks the anekāntavāda, the theory according to which everything is non-one-sided, which stands at the core of Jain conceptions of the world. This refutation was the beginning point of a tradition of refutations of Jainism, as is witnessed in the Tattvasaṃgraha of Śāntarakṣita (725–788 CE) and in the commentary thereof, the Pañjikā of Kamalaśīla (740–795 CE); by Jitāri (ca. 8-9th c.) in his Anekāntavādanirāsa; or by Karṇakagomin (ca. 900 CE) in his Pramāṇavārttikasvavṛttiṭīkā. Investigating the main moments of this exchange presents an opportunity to reflect on strategies of engagement with the other in Buddhist philosophy. In the third movement of this chapter are discussed selected argumentative strategies that Buddhists adopted and their philological and soteriological consequences.