Audrey Guilbault

This project focuses on the ca. ninth century commentator Prajñākaragupta, who wrote “The Ornament” on the influential Indian Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti's “Critical Commentary on Epistemology.” Considered as a philosophical work, Prajñākara's “The Ornament” is notable for its distinctive take on Dharmakīrti's epistemological system and for its extensive engagement with the Yogācāra Buddhist program of meditative cultivation. This study examines Prajñākara's treatment of the category of “yogic perception” as a route to considering the relationship between epistemology and soteriology. This investigation yields insight into Prajñākara's theory of knowledge in general and perceptual knowledge in particular, and it provides the occasion for an in-depth study of Prajñākara's striking defense of irrealism about time.