The University of Nalanda c7.151

c7.151

We have already referred to the philosophical works of Āsaṅga and Vasubandhu. Among the works composed by these eminent Buddhists Vasubandhus' *Tarka-śāstra* was, perhaps the first regular Buddhist work on Logic. In one of his works called *Ronki* in the Chinese language, he maintained that a thesis could be proved by two propositions only, *viz.*, a proposition and a reason, and that, therefore, the necessary terms in a syllogistic inference are only three (*i.e.*, minor, major and the middle term).² Unfortunately, these works are lost, otherwise it would have been very instructive and interesting to compare the Buddhist syllogism, as formulated by Vasubandhu, with that of Aristotle. Because, as noted above, the syllogism as formulated by Vasubandhu is similar in many respects to that of Aristotle.