Sarvadarshanasangraha 12.78

12.78

-vimatā pramā vijñānasāmagrījanyatve sati tadatiriktajanyā na bhavati/

This long harangue of our opponent, however, is but a vain attempt to strike the sky with his fist; for (a.) we mean by our phrase "self-proved" that while right knowledge is produced by the instrumental causes of knowledge, it is not produced by any other cause (as "defect," &c.) The following is our argument as drawn out in full:—Right knowledge is not produced by any other instrumental causes than those of knowledge, while, at the same time, it is produced by these, because it is not the site of wrongness of knowledge,—just like a jar.[48] Nor can Udayana's[49] argument be brought forward as establishing the dependence of authoritativeness on something external, for it is swallowed up by the dragon of the equally potent contradictory argument. "Right knowledge is not produced by any cause which is other than the causes of knowledge and is also other than 'defect,'[50] from the very fact of its being knowledge—like wrong knowledge." Again, since right knowledge can arise from the causes of knowledge per se, it would be a needless complexity to suppose that anything else is a cause, whether you call it a guṇa or the absence of a "defect" (doṣa).[51]