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124 MANGALA R. CHINCHORE

philosophical trend is also quite considerably true of the philosophy of a prominent philosophcr like DińnSga. The comprchensive and appropriate fashioning, formulation and articulation of his philosophical position along with its respective conceptual framework must not have become availabie to him no sooner than he embarked upon his philosophical enterpnse. It could be conjectured without grave hazard that he might have been required to go through a torturous process of prolonged slruggle in spite of his acumen, till finally he succeeded in putting forth his philosophical position comprehensively in his Pramana-samuccaya as a llower of his maturę philosophical investigation. Prior to that, he is accredited to have written many works which broadly speaking seem to fali into two categories : major and minor, or in the language of Ny&ya, Vadagranthas and Prakaranagranthas. Although T.P. is a work of the lattcr kind, it is doubtlessly true that various issues and problems he discussed in all of them, different concepts he requisitioned the services of, togelher with inler-school as well as intra-school conlroversics he kickcd up or responded to - all these have their respective share in evolulion, growth, dcvclopmcnt, fashioning, fonnulalion and articulation of his philosophical position and shaping its conceptual framework. It would, therefore, be fallacious and mislcading to rely upon any one of his singular lcxt, solitary conccpt, isolatcd discussion of a certain issue or segregated response to a view advanced by his prcdccessor or conlemporary - Buddhist or non Buddhist. It also cannot be forgotten that his friends and foes, prcdcccssors and contcmporaries were not reared, nurtured and broughl up like Leibnizian Monads into watcrlight compartmcnls and shells of their respective isolated cultural, intellectual as well as civi!izational climate. Rather, they shared many features of them and differed, sometimes most violcntly and uncompromisingly, from one anolher in upholding different philosophical positions and backing them by well-reasoned conceptual frameworks and paradigms. All these havc their mile conlributed to the evolution, formulation and articulation of their respcclivc philosophical positions. As this holds true with regard to any major philosophcr, so too conceming Dińnaga. On this comprchcnsive background of our being able to discover major aspects of Dihnaga’s philosophical position and its conceptual framework, we bring out belo w some clues helpful in mapping place of works like T.P. in evolution of Dińnaga^łs conceptual gcography.

1. In any worthwhile allcmpl at comprchcnding Dińnaga*s philosophy comprehcnsiveIy and discovering its conceptual framework, importance of analysis and interprclation of works like T.P. cannot be ignored. In such a task one cannot afford to considcr any work of his to be insignificant eilher bccause it is minor, traditionally neglected or not seriously taken notę of. Just as cvcn a little finger of our hand is important in the enlire structure and function of our body, so too a smali treatise like T.P. has an important role to play in Dińnaga’s