On the Origin of Indian Logic from the Viewpoint of the Pāli Canon

In this paper, I show that in the Pāli Canon there was a tradition of Buddhist logic, but this tradition was weak, and the proto-logic we can reconstruct on the basis of the early Pāli texts can be evaluated as a predecessor of the Hindu logic. According to the textual analysis of the Pāli texts, we can claim that at the time of the closing of the Pāli Canon (excluding the later addition of the Milindapanha into it by the Burmese tradition) there did not exist the Nyāya philosophy known by the Nyāya Sūtra. Meanwhile, we can assume that the Milindapanha, the best logical source of early Pāli literature, was written under influences of the Gandhāran Buddhists and this text preceded the Nyāya philosophy.

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