By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)
This is the Tengyur’s major section on Logic and Epistemology (ཚད་མ་, tshad ma, pramāṇa), containing sixty-six works (D.4232-D.4297) in twenty volumes. Seven works by Dignāga (ཕྱོགས་གླང་, phyogs glang) begin the section (D.4232-D.4238), starting with his famous Pramāṇasamuccaya (ཚད་མ་ཀུན་བཏུས་, tshad ma kun btus).
Nine works of Dharmakīrti (ཆོས་གྲགས་, chos grags) follow (D.4239-D.4245, D.4247, and D.4248), including his two major works, the Pramāṇavārttika (ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་, tshad ma rnam ’grel, D.4239) and the Pramāṇaviniścaya (ཚད་མ་རྣམ་ངེས་, tshad ma rnam nges, D.4240), the most important works in the Indo-Tibetan tradition of logic. It may be that the Pramāṇavārttika is the most commented upon work in the entire cannon, with no less than eight commentaries in twelve volumes (D.4246, D.4249-D.4255), or over half the total number of volumes in the entire section. Thirteen commentaries on Dharmakīrti’s other works follow (D.4257-D.4269), along with minor works on issues stemming from Dharmakīrti’s foundational works (D.4270-D.4276).
The late Indian philosopher Dharmottara’s works are grouped together (D.4277-D.4282), most of which were translated in the late eleventh century in Kashmir by Ngok Lotsawa Loden Shérap (རྔོག་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་, rngog lo tsā ba blo ldan shes rab). The most important independent work after Dharmakīrti’s corpus is the Tattvasaṁgraha (དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་བསྡུས་པ་, de kho na nyid bsdus pa) by Śāntarakṣita and its commentary by Kamalaśīla (D.4295, D.4296). The single commentary on Dignāga’s Pramāṇasamuccaya concludes the section, a late translation by the thirteenth/fourteenth-century translator Lodrö Tenpa (བློ་གྲོས་བརྟན་པ་, blo gros brtan pa).
Literature: Chapter One of Georges B. J. Dreyfus, Recognizing Reality: Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), offers an overview of the tradition.