Dignāga in the context of Je Tsongkhapa

Buddhist logico-epistemology is a term used in Western scholarship to describe Buddhist systems of pramāṇa (epistemic tool, valid cognition) and hetu-vidya (reasoning, logic).

While the term may refer to various Buddhist systems and views on reasoning and epistemology, it is most often used to refer to the work of the "Epistemological school" (Sanskrit: Pramāṇa-vāda), i.e., the school of Dignaga and Dharmakirti which developed from the 5th through 7th centuries and remained the main system of Buddhist reasoning until the decline of Buddhism in India.

The Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (Sanskrit: अष्टसाहस्रिका प्रज्ञापारमिता सूत्र; English: The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand [Lines]) is a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra in the category of Prajñāpāramitā sūtra literature. The sūtra's manuscript witnesses date to at least c. 184 BCE – c. 46 BCE, making it among the oldest Buddhist manuscripts in existence. The sūtra forms the basis for the expansion and development of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtra literature. In terms of its influence in the development of Buddhist philosophical thought, P.L. Vaidya writes that "all Buddhist writers from Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Maitreyanātha, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Dignāga, down to Haribhadra concentrated their energies in interpreting Aṣṭasāhasrikā only," making it of great significance in the development of Madhyāmaka and Yogācāra thought.

The sūtra deals with a number of topics, but is primarily concerned with the conduct of a bodhisattva, the realisation and attainment of the Perfection of Wisdom as one of the Six Perfections, the realisation of thusness (tathātā), the attainment of irreversibility on the path to buddhahood (avaivartika), non-conceptualisation and abandonment of views, as well as the worldly and spiritual benefit of worshipping the sūtra.