Nataliya Kanaeva

The publication introduces for the readers the beginning portion of the composition by Indian lokāyatika and skeptic Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa “Lion, [upsetting]the obstacles [in the way to correct understanding of] categories” (Tattvopaplavasiṁha). This Sanskrit text was translated into Russian for the first time. It contains interesting information about the Indian skepticism of VIII–IX centuries. It became surprising for the reader that Jayarāśi actually disproved the main ideas of cārvāka-lokāyata school (four physical elements as the substances and perception as the only tool for obtaining reliable knowledge), though he declared himself as lokāyatika. In the translated fragment Jayarāśi crushes a realistic theory of perception of Nyāya-school through logical analysis of the definition of perception in the Nyāya-sūtras. He took up various contingencies of knowledge without sublation from its causes, and he demonstrated that the teaching of nyāya-school didn’t guarantee the reliability of knowledge. The perceiver may see it as truthful, but it may be false because the damaged organs of perception, or because the knower uses unjustified theoretical tools, like universals (jāti) or concept of arthaprāpti (achieving of an object) as a criterion of reliability.