The Epistemological Significance of the Concluding Verse in Vasubandhu’s Viṃśikā

It is commonly thought that verses 11-15 in Vasubandhu’s Viṃśikā encapsulate by his lights a sound argument for idealism. This paper argues that the ostensibly uninteresting concluding verse and his comment thereon suggests otherwise. There, Vasubandhu maintains that a demonstration of the position that there is only representation (vijñapti-mātratā) is beyond the reach of reason (tarka-aviṣaya). If this paper’s interpretation of Vasubandhu’s project is sound, a logical demonstration of vijñapti-mātratā was not in the first place meant to ground the truth thereof. What Vasubandhu offers in verses 11-15 is a putatively valid argument—an argument whose conclusion follows from its premises. But what he self-avowedly does not offer is a necessarily sound argument—or so I shall argue.