Dharmakirti

Dharmakirti is the greatest of Buddhist logicians — the “Kant of India” of some modern comparisons — whose Pramanavarttika became the definitive statement of Buddhist epistemology.

Life

Born in South India (Trimalai? — at Chitamalli near Tiruchirappalli by tradition), he studied under Isvarasena, Dignaga’s disciple, and taught at Nalanda in its maturity. Legends of his debate triumphs over Brahmin opponents (and of his expulsion of rival teachers) fill the Tibetan biographies; the chronology is disputed between a 6th- and a 7th-century floruit.

Teachings/Works

The Pramanavarttika (“Commentary on Valid Cognition”) in four chapters — inference-for-self, inference-for-others, perception, and the proof of the Buddha’s authority — established that perception knows the efficiently real (artha-kriya), inference knows universals, and causal efficacy defines existence. His Seven Treatises (Pramanavarttika, Pramanaviniscaya, Nyayabindu, Hetubindu, Vadanyaya, Sambandhapariksha, Santanantara-siddhi) are the canon.

Legacy

Nyaya, Mimamsa, and Vedanta wrote their mature logics against Dharmakirti; Tibet made him the second authority after Dignaga (his portrait guards Tibetan monastic libraries); contemporary philosophy of language reads his apoha theory seriously.

Verification notes

• Both 6th- and 7th-century datings have scholarly defenders.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).