Dignaga
Also called: Dinnaga · Topic: Buddhism, Jainism and Heterodox Traditions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Dignaga was a Buddhist thinker from south India who lived in c. 5th–6th century CE. He founded the Buddhist school of logic and epistemology, the study of how we know things. He made reasoning a central part of Buddhist philosophy and shaped debates across Indian schools of thought.
Example
In his work Pramāṇasamuccaya, Dignaga argued that there are only two valid means of knowledge. These are pratyakṣa (perception, what we see and sense directly) and anumāna (inference, what we work out by reasoning). He rejected other means accepted by Brahmanical schools, such as the authority of the Vedas.
Don't confuse with
- Vasubandhu: Vasubandhu wrote the Abhidharmakosha and helped found the Yogachara school. Dignaga is known mainly for logic.
Related concepts
- Mahayana
- Hinayana
- Bodhisattva
- Avalokiteshvara
- Maitreya
- Tara
- Vajrayana Buddhism
- Nagarjuna
- Madhyamaka
- Yogachara