The History of Buddhist Thought c26.67

c26.67

There are two small treatises in Tibetan by Nāgārjuna, which contain references to the logical method of Nyāya. This, even if not the beginning of Buddhist logic, allows us to see what were the influences on its development.² It was the school of Asanga which gave the great impulse to its growth. Asanga, says Stcherbatsky, established a body of rules on the art of debate not materially different from the rules prescribed in the Nyāya school, and Vasubandhu is recorded to have composed three logical treatises. With Asanga’s pupil Dignāga (early sixth century) and Dharmakīrti, the pupil of Īśvarasena, Dignāga’s own pupil, Buddhist logic became a widely famous system. Several schools of commentators followed, and then, says Stcherbatsky, “the popular masses began to turn their face from that philosophic, critical, and pessimistic religion, and reverted to the worship of the great brahmin gods. Buddhism was beginning its migration to the north, where it found a new home in Tibet, Mongolia, and other countries.”