Verse 3181-3182

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

अतोऽनादित्वसामान्यं बुद्धानामभिधीयते ।
मीमांसकायमानैस्तैर्यद्वेदाध्यायिनामिव ॥ ३१८१ ॥
तदज्ञानविशेषत्वान्न तेषां याति तुल्यताम् ।
प्रमाणत्वाप्रमाणत्वे स्यातामेवं ह्यनादिनी ॥ ३१८२ ॥

ato'nāditvasāmānyaṃ buddhānāmabhidhīyate |
mīmāṃsakāyamānaistairyadvedādhyāyināmiva || 3181 ||
tadajñānaviśeṣatvānna teṣāṃ yāti tulyatām |
pramāṇatvāpramāṇatve syātāmevaṃ hyanādinī || 3182 ||

“Thus then, when the Buddhists, like pseudo-Mīmāṃsakas, assert the similarity of Buddha and other persons to Vedic scholars, on the ground of all these being without beginning,—this is only a form of ignorance, and does not make them equal; because even so, what would be without beginning would be only the unreliability and reliability of these two sets of persons (Buddha, etc. and Vedic scholars) respectively.”—(3181-3182)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

If the similarity that is pointed out between Buddha and others on the one hand and the Vedic Scholars on the other, is in regard to both being beginningless,—then our answer is that mere beginninglessness does not establish their reliability; because neither, reliability nor unreliability is incompatible with beginninglessness; all that would happen would be that beginninglessness would belong to the Reliability of Vedic Scholars, while it would belong to the Unreliability of Buddha and others; and neither Reliability nor Unreliability would belong to both, on the ground of beginninglessness.—This is the upshot of the whole argument.—(3181-3182)

This same idea is further clarified by means of an example:—[see verses 3181-3182 above]