Candrakīrti’s Linguistic Explanation of pratītyasamutpāda from the Perspective of the Pāṇini and Cāndra Grammars

Abstract

Candrakīrti (ca. seventh century) presents a linguistic analysis of the word pratītyasamutpāda. His interpretation mostly agrees with that of Vasubandhu (ca. fourth–fifth century), but in addition Candrakīrti analyses the word pratītya by paraphrasing it with apekṣā. Several years ago, Mattia Salvini pointed out that Candrakīrti’s interpretation is related to a statement in Candragominʼs Cāndravyākaraṇa (ca. fifth century ad). In this paper I re-examine Candrakīrti’s analysis and come to the conclusion that instead of the Cāndravyākaraṇa his interpretation is rather based on Pāṇiniʼs Aṣṭādhyāyī (ca. fifth–fourth century bc).