LAMBERT SCHMITHAUSEN

A FURTHER NOTE ON HETUCAKRAD:

AMARU 8-9

This short paper records an observation which happened to come to mymind in the process of comparing a German translation with the originalTibetan text of Dign�aga’sHetucakrad. amaru(HCD. ), a translation made,from English versions, by my respected colleague, Dr. Klaus GLASHOFF,a professor of mathematics who is deeply interested in Buddhist logic.I admit that my note is by no means an adequate homage to ourdistinguished colleague Kamaleswar BHATTACHARYA , but not being ina position, at present, to produce anything substantial I dare, after all,to present it to him for want of anything better.

In a most stimulating article published on pp. 237–239 of vol. 36(1993) of theIndo-Iranian Journal, Eli FRANCO rightly declared himselfpuzzled by the fact that in spite of the popularity of the HCD. and thenumber of existing translations and interpretations no one seems tohave been aware, or at least to have expressly stated an awareness, ofthe difficulty offered by vv. 8–9, which “seem to have been taken eitheras a mere repetition of v. 5: : : , or rendered in an incomprehensiblemanner: : : , or simply ignored: : : ”.

The text of the verses is as follows:

steng ’og mi mthun logs dang sbyar//yang dag gtan tshigs gnyis yin no//logs dang mi mthun steng ’og sbyar//’gal ba’i gtan tshigs gnyis yin no//8zur bzhi thad dang snol mar sbyar//thun mong ma nges rnam pa bzhi//logs gnyis thad kar sbyar bas na//thun mong ma yin ma nges pa’o//9

FRANCO tentatively proposes the following translation:

[The reasons placed at] the top and bottom, which are the two valid reasons, are tobe connected to the opposite sides. (8ab)[The reasons placed at] the opposite sides, which are the two contradictory reasons,are to be connected to the top and the bottom. (8cd)[The reasons placed at] the four corners, which are the fourfold inconclusive[reasons]in as much as they are too broad, are to be connected to the facing corners[straightacross]. (9ab)By connecting the two opposite sides crosswise[one obtains the reason] which isinconclusive in as much as it is too narrow.” (9cd)

Journal of Indian Philosophy27: 79–82, 1999.c 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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80 LAMBERT SCHMITHAUSEN

FRANCO’s ingenious interpretation “takes its clue in the title of thework, namely ‘The drum of thewheelof reasons’. And a wheel issomething which turns. Further, since Dign�aga thought of his wheelnot so much as a circle but as a square (for strictly speaking a circledoes not have corners), the only meaningful turns would be by 90,180 or 270 degrees”,1 but in view of the symmetrical arrangement ofthe reasons a rotation by 180 degrees would merely repeat the basicposition. Since the basic position is, according to v. 5,

[A] too broad (1) valid (2) too broad (3)

contradictory (4) too narrow (5) contradictory (6)

too broad (7) valid (8) too broad (9)

a rotation by 90 or 270 degrees (which in view of the symmetry of thefigure amounts to the same) would yield the following position:

[B] too broad (7/3) contradictory (4/6) too broad (1/9)

valid (8/2) too narrow (5) valid (2/8)

too broad (9/1) contradictory (6/4) too broad (3/7).

According to FRANCO, vv. 8–9 describe (or prescribe?) the movementfrom position (A) to position (B). However, the question suggestingitself is that of thepurposeof this rotation. Apart from this, FRANCO

himself admits (in n. 7) that his translation presupposes “that in theTibetan translation an attribute was mistaken for a predicate”. I myselfprefer to understand the syntactical construction of 8ab, 8cd and 9abin accordance with 9cd, i.e. to takesbyar to stand forsbyar bas na,and to takemi mthun(in 8a and c) in the sensemi mthun phyogs =vipaks.a. The translation I propose is as follows:

[What comes about by] connecting the top and the bottom[of the three alternatives“presence”, “absence” and “both” of thehetu in the sapaks.a] with the side (i.e. themiddle alternative) of thevipaks.a (i.e. absence of thehetu in the vipaks.a) are thetwo valid reasons. (8ab)[What comes about by] connecting the top and the bottom of thevipaks.a with theside [of the sapaks.a] are the two contradictory reasons. (8cd)[What comes about by] connecting the four corners sideways (i.e. horizontally) andcrosswise is the fourfold[reason that is] inconclusive[on account of being] common(s�adh�aran. a) [to both sapaks.a and vipaks.a]. (9ab)[What comes about] by connecting the two sides sideways is the[reason that is]inconclusive[on account of being] peculiar (as�adh�aran. a) [to the subject]. (9cd)

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A FURTHER NOTE ON HETUCAKRAD:

AMARU 8-9 81

My interpretation does not refer the positions mentioned in vv. 8–9 tothose of thehetus(as in v. 5) but refers them to the possibilities ofpresence, absence and both [presence and absence]2 of the hetu in thesapaks.a as well as in thevipaks.a pointed out in v. 4 of the HCD. . Thevv. 8–9 make perfectly good sense as soon as we imagine these sixpossibilities to be arranged in a hexagonal (and, roughly, wheel-like)structure:

(sapaks.a:) (vipaks.a:)

(top:) presence (=st) presence (=vt)[C] (side:) absence (=ss) absence (=vs)

(bottom:) both (=sb) both ( = vb)

As for the purpose of vv. 8–9, I understand them as a kind of instructionfor construing the ninehetusof thehetucakraproper (HCD. v. 5) fromthe basic data supplied by HCD. v. 4. Verse 8ab instructs the reader tocombinest andsb with vs in order to obtain the two valid reasons,i.e., thehetusplaced on top (no. 2) and in the bottom (no. 8) of thehetucakraproper (see fig. A):

presence (=st) presence (=vt)8ab: absence (=ss) absence (=vs)

both (=sb) both ( =vb)

!!!aa

a

Analogously, according to 8cd the two contradictory reasons (in fig.A: 4 and 6) result from connectingsswith vt andvb, and according to9ab the fours�adh�aran. a reasons (in fig. A: 1, 9, 3 and 7) come about byconnectingst with vt andsb with vb (horizontally) as well asst withvb andsb with vt (crosswise). Finally, connectingsswith vs yieldsthe as�adh�aran. a reason (in fig. A: 5):

presence (=st) presence (=vt)8cd: absence (=ss) absence (=vs)

both (=sb) both ( =vb)

aaa!!

!

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82 LAMBERT SCHMITHAUSEN

presence (=st) presence (=vt)9ab: absence (=ss) absence (=vs)

both (=sb) both ( =vb)JJJJ

presence (=st) presence (=vt)9cd: absence (=ss) absence (=vs)

both (=sb) both ( =vb)

NOTES

1 Perhaps what Dign�aga had in mind was rather an octogon, which would at anyrate better fit with his calling it a wheel:

top (2)corner (1) corner (3)

side (4) center (5) side (6)corner (7) corner (9)

bottom (8)2 I.e., presence in some of the probandum-possessors (or non-possessors) and absencein others.

JesteburgGermany

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