Sanskrit debate

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This work illustrates the rules of classical Indian debate literature by presenting new translations of two Sanskrit texts that oppose each other's philosophical traditions. In the third century CE, Vasubandhu, a Buddhist philosopher-monk, argued that the world of lived experience is solely a construct of the mind in his Vimsatika (Twenty Verses). In contrast, the seventh-century Hindu philosopher-priest Kumarila composed Niralambanavada (Non-Sensory Limit Debate) to assert the objective reality of objects, countering Vasubandhu's claim that waking life and dream experiences are indistinguishable. Kumarila employs formal Indian logic to demonstrate the irrationality of Vasubandhu's assertions. Vimsatika is often misunderstood, but Kumarila's critique allows for a contextual reading of it. This re-examination reveals a hermeneutic of humor essential for understanding its deeper message. Vasubandhu's work uses the structure of Sanskrit logic and debate to satirize the entire field of Indian philosophy, challenging existing theories of epistemology and ontology by asserting that both knowledge and the known are products of the imagination.