Verse 460

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

अर्थसंवादकत्वे च समाने द्वेष्यताऽस्य का ।
तदभावे तु नैव स्यात्प्रमाणमनुमादिकम् ॥ ४६० ॥

arthasaṃvādakatve ca samāne dveṣyatā'sya kā |
tadabhāve tu naiva syātpramāṇamanumādikam || 460 ||

The character of ‘being in accordance with the real state of things’ being equally present in all forms of valid cognition,—why should there be a prejudice at all?—In case the said character be not present in inference and the rest, then these latter would not be valid means of right cognition at all.—(460)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

It has been argued (under Text 456) that—“Sense-perception is the highest among the Means of Right Cognition”;—that also is not true. This is shown in the following—[see verse 460 above]

The ‘validity’ of the Means of Right Cognition consists only in their having the capacity to bring about the right notion of things; and if this is admitted as belonging to all the Means of Right Cognition,—then, why should Perception be regarded as the ‘highest’ among them?—It might be said that “it is Perception alone that is in strict accordance with the real state of things”,—then, this character of being in strict accordance with the real state of things being absent in Inference and the rest, these latter would not be ‘Means of Right Cognition’ at all; because the very idea of being a ‘Means of Right Cognition’ is based upon accordance with the real state of things; and this (ex hypothesi) would be absent in Inference and the rest.—(460)