In 2026, for the first time in modern history, the complete works of the renowned Buddhist epistemologist and logician Dharmakīrti (between mid-6th and mid-7th centuries CE) will be available in their original language, Sanskrit.

Dharmakīrti’s original ideas, expressed in concise language and rigorous arguments, profoundly shaped Indian philosophy and grounded Tibetan intellectual currents still alive today. His significance has been likened to that of Aristotle in European philosophy.

Four of his treatises became accessible in Sanskrit only recently, thanks to manuscripts preserved in Tibet and a cooperation between the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, initiated by Lhagpa Phuntshogs and Ernst Steinkellner.

To celebrate this milestone, Ernst Steinkellner, Vincent Eltschinger, Pascale Hugon, John Taber, and Birgit Kellner will give short presentations recounting their philological adventures and the historical and philosophical significance of this development.

Registration

Please register by 2 October 2026 at office.ikga(at)oeaw.ac.at if you wish to attend the celebration (in-person only).

This celebration is being held in the framework of the international symposium “What do we perceive? Direct realism, representationalism, idealism and illusionism in South Asian philosophy.”