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''Trairūpya (''Sanskrit; English: "the triple-character of inferential sign") is a conceptual tool of
Buddhist logic Buddhist logico-epistemology is a term used in Western scholarship to describe Buddhism, Buddhist systems of ' (Epistemology, epistemic tool, valid cognition) and ' (reasoning, logic). While the term may refer to various Buddhist systems and vi ...
. The Trairūpya, ‘three conditions’, is often accredited to Dignaga (c. 480-540 CE) though is now understood to have originated with his teacher
Vasubandhu Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; floruit, fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Indian bhikkhu, Buddhist monk and scholar. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary on the Abhidharma, from the perspectives of th ...
(fl. 4th century) in the ''Vāda-vidhi'', post-reconstruction of this work by Frauwallner (1957). Trairūpya is a logical argument that contains three constituents which a logical ‘sign’ or ‘mark’ (linga) must fulfill to be 'valid source of knowledge' (
pramana ''Pramana'' (; IAST: Pramāṇa) literally means " proof" and "means of knowledge".
): #It should be present in the case or object under consideration, the ‘subject-locus' (pakṣa) #It should be present in a ‘similar case’ or a homologue (sapakṣa) #It should not be present in any ‘dissimilar case’ or heterologue (vipakṣa) When a ‘sign’ or ‘mark’ (linga) is identified, there are three possibilities: the sign may be present in all, some, or none of the sapakṣas. Likewise, the sign may be present in all, some or none of the vipakṣas. To identify a sign, we have to assume that it is present in the pakṣa, however; that is the first condition is already satisfied. Combining these, Dignaga constructed his ‘Wheel of Reason’ (Sanskrit:
Hetucakra ''Hetucakra'' or ''Wheel of Reasons'' is a Sanskrit text on logic written by Dignaga (c 480–540 CE). It concerns the application of his 'three modes’ (trairūpya), conditions or aspects of the middle term called ''hetu'' ("reason" for a conc ...
).Ganeri, Jonardon & Tiwari, Heeraman (eds.), (1988). ''The Character of Logic in India''. Albany, NY, USA: State University of New York Press. (HC:acid free), p.7-8


References

{{Indian Philosophy History of logic Buddhist logic