List of Figures iii
List of Tables ivAcknowledgements vVienna, 2019 Patrick McAllister vi assumption of any similarity in essence: the calf born from a particular cow is less different from that cow than it is from things not born from that cow. And insofar as cows are less different from each other than from other animals, anything born from a cow will be less different from any other calf than from what is not born from a cow. 13 10.94 Closing discussion 143.06 144.30 7.75 30 At least the CAPV is an exception to this rule, however. It starts with the statement of Ratnakīrti's own claim and various other views (CAPV 129,7-21), presents the central inference (CAPV 129,22-24), and then starts a discussion of this inference. SJS 1,1-1,17 also conforms to Thakur's statement (see the translation in Bühnemann 1980: 1-2), since Ratnakīrti opens this work with a dialogue between Kumārila and Dharmakīrti. 31 Cf. the remarks in Lasic 2000b for examples of differences between Jñānaśrīmitra's VC and Ratnakīrti's VyN, and cf. Thakur 1975a: 12 for a general assessment, as well as the beginning of McAllister 2015. Respektlos vor der Stärke der schwer abzuwehrenden Gegner ist durch (seine) Vollendung in der richtigen Erkenntnis dieser Allwissende, die Sonne der Welt, hervorgetreten. Und die Überlegenheit mit Bezug auf diesen (Gegenstand) gebührt meinem Lehrer, dem Kontinentgebirge der Erde, auf der ein vollkommen Erleuchteter (seinen) Wohnsitz genommen hat; diese Zusammenfassung aber kommt mir, dem fromm-gelehrten Ratnakīrti zu, der des (Lehrers) Ausführlichkeit vermeiden will. I thank Harunaga Isaacson and Toru Tomabechi for discussing this verse with me in March 2019. 36 The word ratnākara is commonly used to refer to the ocean (see PW VI: 252 f.).Acc. to McCrea and Patil (2010: 3), ratnākara in the phrase jitaratnākarād should be understood also as an allusion to Ratnākaraśānti, a Buddhist contemporary and opponent (in certain epistemological matters) of Jñānaśrīmitra and Ratnakīrti. The second meaning of the phrase would be that Jñānaśrīmitra "has surpassed [his opponent] Ratnākaraśānti" with his literary compositions.