Les oeuvres de Śaṅkaranandana: nouvelles ressources manuscrites, chronologie relative et identité confessionnelle

Abstract

The Kashmirian philosopher Śaṅkaranandana, who might have been a senior contemporary of Abhinavagupta, belongs to the few Buddhist epistemologists whose works remain a terra (paene) incognita. Now, new Sanskrit manuscripts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region have shed entirely new light on this ‘second Dharmakīrti’s’ works, their internal chronology as well as confessional identity. As close scrutiny of these and other materials has revealed, Śaṅkaranandana, though a Brahmin, authored at least 17 works of strict Buddhist and especially Dharmakīrtian obedience. Among these works, note should be made of a hitherto unknown commentary (now lost) on Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇaviniścaya, likely to belong to the ‘Great Brahmin’s’ earliest literary production. As for the hypothesis of Śaṅkaranandana’s conversion (from Buddhism to Śaivism, or the other way around), it lacks any sound textual basis. The present paper aims at presenting these new materials and the preliminary hypotheses that they make possible.