Veṅkaṭanātha’s Engagement with Buddhist Opponents in the Buddhist Texts he Reused
Issue: Vol 33 No. 1-2 (2016)
Journal: Buddhist Studies Review
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies
DOI: 10.1558/bsrv.31642
Abstract:
Veṅkaṭanātha (1269—1370) was the most important systematiser of the Viśiṣṭādvaita school of Vedānta. This article describes his use of Buddhist sources and shows how Veṅkaṭanātha reused Buddhist texts to a much more significant extent than his predecessors Yāmuna and Rāmānuja. The reused text-passages come mostly from the epistemological school of Buddhist philosophy (Dignāga, Dharmakīrti and his followers) but there are important exceptions, attesting that Veṅkaṭanātha was also aware of Buddhist schools such as the Vaibhāṣikas, of whom only little is preserved today. Given that Buddhist philosophy was no longer an active presence in South India at the time of Veṅkaṭanātha, his interest in it must be due to factors other than his polemical agenda. Perhaps, his project of enlarging Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta made him confront outsiders such as Buddhist thinkers and his intellectual interest in philosophy made him engage in a genuine confrontation with them.
Author: Elisa Freschi
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