MAHAYANIST SCRIPTURES
In a previous chapter I have discussed the Pali Canon and I shall
subsequently have something to say about the Chinese and Tibetan
Canons, which are libraries of religious and edifying works rather
than sacred books similar to the Vedas or the Bible. My present object
is to speak of the Sanskrit literature, chiefly sutras, which appeared
contemporaneously with the rise of Mahayanism in India.
The Mahayanist scriptures are the largest body of sacred writings
extant in the world, but it is not easy either to define the limits of
the Canon or to say when it was put together. According to a common
tradition Kanishka played for the Church of the Great Vehicle much the
same part as Asoka for the Theravadins and summoned a Council which
wrote commentaries on the Tripitaka. This may be reasonably held to
include a recension of the text commented on but we do not know what
that text was, and the brief and perplexing accounts of the Council
which we possess indicate not that it gave its imprimatur to
Mahayanist sutras but that it was specially concerned with the
Abhidharma works of the Sarvastivadin school.
In any case no Canon formed in the time of Kanishka can have been
equivalent to the collections of writings accepted to-day in China and
Tibet, for they contain works later than any date which can be
assigned to his reign, as do also the nine sacred books revered in
Nepal. It was agreed among Indian Buddhists that the scriptures were
divided among the three Pitakas or baskets, but we may surmise that
there was no unanimity as to the precise contents of each basket. In
India the need for unanimity in such matters is not felt. The Brahmans
always recognized that the most holy and most jealously preserved
scriptures could exist in various recensions and the Mahabharata shows
how generations of respectful and uncritical hearers may allow
adventitious matter of all sorts to be incorporated in a work.
Something of the same kind happened with the Pitakas. We know that the
Pali recension which we possess was not the only one, for fragments of
a Sanskrit version have been discovered.
There was probably a large floating literature of sutras, often
presenting several recensions of the same document worked up in
different ways. Just as additions were made to the list of Upanishads
up to the middle ages, although the character of the later works was
different from that of the earlier, so new sutras, modern in date and
in tone, were received in the capacious basket. And just as the
Puranas were accepted as sacred books without undermining the
authority of the Vedas, so new Buddhist scriptures superseded without
condemning the old ones. Various Mahayanist schools had their own
versions of the Vinaya which apparently contain the same rules as the
Pali text but also much additional narrative, and Asanga quotes from
works corresponding to the Pali Nikayas, though his doctrine belongs
to another age.[119] The Abhidharma section of the Pali Canon seems
however to have been peculiar to the Theravada school. The
Sarvastivadin Pitaka of the same name was entirely different and,
judging from the Chinese Canon, the Mahayanists gave the title to
philosophic works by such authors as Asanga and Vasubandhu, some of
which were described as revelations from Maitreya.
Specially characteristic of Mahayanist Buddhism are the Vaipulya[120]
sutras, that is sutras of great extension or development. These works,
of which the Lotus is an example, follow the same scheme as the older
sutras but are of wider scope and on a much larger scale, for they
often consist of twenty or more chapters. They usually attempt to give
a general exposition of the whole Dharma, or at least of some aspect
of it which is extolled as sufficient for the right conduct of life.
The chief speaker is usually the Buddha, who is introduced as teaching
on the Vulture Peak, or some other well-known locality, and surrounded
by a great assemblage many of whom are superhuman beings. The occasion
of the discourse is commonly signalized by his sending forth rays of
light which illuminate the universe until the scene includes other
worlds. As early as the Anguttara Nikaya[121] we find references to
the danger of a taste for ornate and poetic sutras and these
compositions seem to be the outcome of that taste. The literary ideas
and methods which produced them are illustrated by the Sutralankara of
Asvaghosha, a collection of edifying tales, many of which use the
materials supplied by the Pali Nikayas and Vinaya but present them in
a more effective and artistic form. It was thought a pious task to
amplify and embellish the simple narratives handed down by tradition.
The Mahayanist scriptures are composed in Sanskrit not in Pali, but it
is only rarely--for instance in the works of Asvaghosha--that Buddhist
Sanskrit conforms to the rules of the classical language. Usually the
words deviate from this standard both in form and meaning and often
suggest that the text as we have it is a Sanskritized version of an
older work in some popular dialect, brought into partial conformity
with literary usage. In the poetical portions, this process of
sanskritization encountered greater difficulties than in prose,
because metre and prosody often refused to admit the changes required
by grammar, so that this poetical dialect cannot be called either
Sanskrit, Pali or Magadhi but remains a mixture of learned and popular
speech. But Sanskrit did not become a sacred language for the
Mahayanists like Latin for Roman Catholics. It is rather Pali which
has assumed this position among the Hinayanists, for Burmese and
Sinhalese translations of the Pitakas acquired no authority. But in
the north the principle[122] that every man might read the Buddha's
word in his own vernacular was usually respected: and the populations
of Central Asia, the Chinese, the Tibetans, and the Mongols translated
the scriptures into their own languages without attaching any
superstitious importance to the original words, unless they were
Dharanis or spells.
About the time of the Christian era or perhaps rather earlier, greater
use began to be made of writing for religious purposes. The old
practice of reciting the scriptures was not discontinued but no
objection was made to preserving and reading them in written copies.
According to tradition, the Pali scriptures were committed to writing
in Ceylon during the reign of Vattagamani, that is according to the
most recent chronology about 20 B.C., and Kanishka caused to be
engraved on copper plates the commentaries composed by the council
which he summoned. In Asvaghosha[123] we find the story of a Brahman
who casually taking up a book to pass the time lights on a copy of the
Sutra of the Twelve Causes and is converted. But though the Buddhists
remained on the whole true to the old view that the important thing
was to understand and disseminate the substance of the Master's
teaching and not merely to preserve the text as if it were a sacred
formula, still we see growing up in Mahayanist works ideas about the
sanctity and efficacy of scripture which are foreign to the Pali
Canon. Many sutras (for instance the Diamond Cutter) extol themselves
as all-sufficient for salvation: the Prajna-paramita commences with a
salutation addressed not as usual to the Buddha but to the work
itself, as if it were a deity, and Hodgson states that the Buddhists
of Nepal worship their nine sacred books. Nor was the idea excluded
that certain words, especially formulae or spells called Dharani, have
in themselves a mysterious efficacy and potency.[124] Some of these
are cited and recommended in the Lotus.[125] In so far as the
repetition of sacred words or spells is regarded as an integral part
of the religious life, the doctrine has no warrant in the earlier
teaching. It obviously becomes more and more prominent in later works.
But the idea itself is old, for it is clearly the same that produced a
belief in the Brahmanic mantras, particularly the mantras of the
Atharva Veda, and early Buddhism did not reject mantras in their
proper place. Thus[126] the deities present themselves to the Buddha
and offer to teach him a formula which will protect his disciples from
the attacks of evil spirits. Hsuean Chuang even states that the council
which sat at Rajagriha after the Buddha's death compiled five
Pitakas, one of which consisted of Dharanis,[127] and it may be that
the collection of such texts was begun as early as the collection of
discourses and rules. But for many centuries there is no evidence that
they were in any way confounded with the Dharma.
The Mahayanist scriptures are so voluminous that not even the clergy
were expected to master any considerable part of them.[128] Indeed
they make no claim to be a connected whole. The theory was rather that
there were many vehicles plying on the road to salvation and many
guide books. No traveller thought of taking the whole library but only
a few volumes which suited him. Most of the Chinese and Japanese sects
avowedly base themselves upon three sutras, selected according to the
taste of each school from the hundreds quoted in catalogues. Thus the
T'ien-t'ai sect has for its scriptures the Lotus, the Nirvana-sutra
and the Prajna-paramita, while the Shin-shu sect admits only the three
Amidist sutras.
The following are the names of some of the principal Mahayanist
scriptures. Comparatively few of them have been published in Europe
and some exist only in Chinese or Japanese translations.
1. Prajna-paramita or transcendental knowledge[129] is a generic name
given to a whole literature consisting of treatises on the doctrine of
sunyata, which vary greatly in length. They are classed as sutras,
being described as discourses delivered by the Buddha on the Vulture
Peak. At least ten are known, besides excerpts which are sometimes
described as substantive works. The great collection translated into
Chinese by Hsuean Chuang is said to consist of 200,000 verses and to
comprise sixteen different sutras.[130] The earliest translation of
one of these treatises into Chinese (Nanjio, 5) was made about 170
A.D. and everything indicates that portions of the Prajna-paramita are
among the earliest Mahayanist works and date from about the first
century of our era. Prajna not only means knowledge of the absolute
truth, that is to say of sunyata or the void, but is regarded as an
ontological principle synonymous with Bodhi and Dharma-kaya. Thus
Buddhas not only possess this knowledge in the ordinary sense but they
_are_ the knowledge manifest in human form, and Prajna is often
personified as a goddess. All these works lay great stress on the
doctrine of sunyata, and the non-existence of the world of experience.
The longest recension is said to contain a polemic against the
Hinayana.
The Diamond Cutter is one of the best known of these transcendental
treatises and the two short works called Heart of the Prajna-paramita,
which are widely read in Japan, appear to be brief abstracts of the
essence of this teaching.
2. The Saddharma-Pundarika, or Lotus of the Good Law,[131] is one of
the best known Mahayanist sutras and is highly esteemed in China and
Japan. It purports to be a discourse delivered by Sakyamuni on the
Vulture Peak to an assemblage of Bodhisattvas. The Lotus clearly
affirms the multiplicity of vehicles, or various ways of teaching the
law, and also the eternity of the Buddha, but it does not emphasize,
although it mentions, the doctrine of sunyata. The work consists of
two parts of which the second (chaps. XXI-XXVI) is a later addition.
This second part contains spells and many mythological narratives,
including one of an ancient Bodhisattva who burnt himself alive in
honour of a former Buddha. Portions of the Lotus were translated into
Chinese under the Western Tsin Dynasty 265-316 A.D. and it is quoted
in the Maha-prajna-paramita-sastra ascribed to Nagarjuna.[132] The
first part is probably not later than the first century A.D. The Lotus
is unfortunately accessible to English readers only in a most unpoetic
translation by the late Professor Kern, but it is a great religious
poem which starting from humanity regards religion as cosmic and
universal, rather than something mainly concerned with our earth. The
discourses of Sakyamuni are accompanied in it by stupendous miracles
culminating in a grand cosmic phantasmagoria in which is evoked the
stupa containing the body of a departed Buddha, that is a shrine
containing the eternal truth.
3. The Lalita-vistara[133] is a life of Sakyamuni up to the
commencement of his mission. Though the setting of the story is
miraculous and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas innumerable are freely spoken
of, yet the work does not enunciate the characteristic Mahayanist
doctrines so definitely as the other treatises here enumerated. It is
said to have originally belonged to the school of the Sarvastivadins
and to have been subsequently accepted by the Mahayanists, and though
it is not an epic but a collection of ballads and legends, yet it
often reads as if it were a preliminary study for Asvaghosha's
Buddhacarita. It contains Sanskrit versions of old legends, which are
almost verbal renderings of the Pali text, but also new material and
seems to be conscious of relating novelties which may arouse
scepticism for it interrupts the narrative to anathematize those who
do not believe in the miracles of the Nativity and to extol the merits
of faith (_sraddha_ not _bhakti_). It is probably coeval with the
earlier Gandharan art but there are no facts to fix its date.[134]
4. The Lankavatara[135] gives an account of the revelation of the good
Law by Sakyamuni when visiting Lanka. It is presumably subsequent to
the period when Ceylon had become a centre of Buddhism, but the story
is pure fancy and unconnected with history or with older legends. It
relates how the Buddha alighted on Mt. Malaya in Lanka. Ravana came to
pay his respects and asked for definitions of virtue and vice which
were given. The Bodhisattva Mahamati (apparently Manjusri) proceeded
to propound a series of more abstruse questions which are answered at
considerable length. The Lankavatara represents a mature phase of
speculation and not only criticizes the Sankhya, Pasupata and other
Hindu schools, but is conscious of the growing resemblance of
Mahayanism to Brahmanic philosophy and tries to explain it. It
contains a prophecy about Nagarjuna and another which mentions the
Guptas, and it appears to allude to the domination of the Huns. This
allusion would make its date as late as the sixth century but a
translation into Chinese which is said to correspond with the Sanskrit
text was made in 513. If so the barbarians referred to cannot be the
Huns. An earlier translation made in 443 does not agree with our
Sanskrit text and perhaps the work existed in several recensions.
5. The Suvarna-prabhasa or Glitter of Gold[136] is a Vaipulya sutra
in many ways resembling the Lotus. It insists on the supernatural
character of the Buddha. He was never really born nor entered into
Nirvana but is the Dharma-kaya. The scene is laid at Rajagriha and
many Brahmanic deities are among the interlocutors. It was translated
into Chinese about 420 A.D. and fragments of a translation into Uigur
have been discovered in Turkestan.[137] The contents comprise
philosophy, legends and spells.
6. Ganda-vyuha[138] or the Structure of the World, which is compared
to a bubble. The name is not found in the catalogue of the Chinese
Tripitaka but the work is said to be the same as the Avatamsaka sutra
which is popular in the Far East under the name of Hua-yen in China or
Ke-gon in Japan. The identity of the two books could not have been
guessed from the extracts and analyses which have been published but
is guaranteed by high authorities.[139] It is possible however that
the Ganda-vyuha is only a portion of the larger work called
Avatamsaka. So far as can be judged from the extracts, this text
preaches in a fully developed form, the doctrines of Sunyata,
Dharma-kaya, the omnipresence of the Buddha and the redemption of the
world by the exertions of Bodhisattvas. Yet it seems to be early, for
a portion of it was translated into Chinese about 170 A.D. (Nanjio,
102) and about 405 Kumarajiva translated a commentary on it ascribed
to Nagarjuna (Nanjio, 1180).
7. Tathagata-guhyaka. This work is known by the analysis of
Rajendralala Mitra from which it appears to be a Tantra of the worst
class and probably late. Its proper title is said to be
Sriguhyasamaja. Watanabe states that the work catalogued by Nanjio
under No. 1027 and translated into Chinese about 1000 A.D. is an
expurgated version of it. The Sikshasamuccaya cites the
Tathagata-guhya-sutra several times. The relations of these works to
one another are not quite clear.
8. Samadhiraja[140] is a Vyakarana or narrative describing different
forms of meditation of which the Samadhiraja is the greatest and best.
The scene is laid on the Vulture's Peak and the principal
interlocutors are Sakyamuni and Candraprabha, a rich man of
Rajagriha. It appears to be the same as the Candrapradipa-sutra and
is a complete and copious treatise, which not only expounds the topic
from which it takes its name but incidentally enumerates the chief
principles of Mahayanism. Watanabe[141] states that it is the
Yueeh-teng-san-mei-ching (Nanjio, 191) translated about 450 and again
in 557 A.D.
9. Dasabhumisvara.[142] An account of the ten stages in the career of
a Bodhisattva before he can attain to Buddhahood. The scene is laid in
the paradise of Indra where Sakyamuni was temporarily sojourning and
the principal interlocutor is a Bodhisattva named Vajragarbha. It is
said to be the same as the Dasabhumika-sutra first translated into
Chinese about 300 A.D. (Nanjio, 105 and 110) but this work appears to
be merely a portion of the Ganda-vyuha or Avatamsaka mentioned
above.
These nine works are all extant in Sanskrit and are known in Nepal as
the nine Dharmas, the word Dharma being an abbreviation for
_Dharmaparyaya_, revolution or exposition of the law, a term
frequently used in the works themselves to describe a comprehensive
discourse delivered by the Buddha. They are all quoted in the
Sikshasamuccaya, supposed to have been written about 650 A.D. No
similar collection of nine seems to be known in Tibet or the Far East
and the origin of the selection is obscure. As however the list does
not include the Svayambhu Purana, the principal indigenous scripture
of Nepal, it may go back to an Indian source and represent an old
tradition.
Besides the nine Dharmas, numerous other sutras exist in Sanskrit,
Chinese, Tibetan and the languages of Central Asia. Few have been
edited or translated and even when something is known of their
character detailed information as to their contents is usually
wanting. Among the better known are the following.
10. One of the sutras most read in China and admired because its style
has a literary quality unusual in Buddhist works is commonly known as
the Leng-yen-ching. The full title is Shou-leng-yen-san-mei-ching
which is the Chinese transliteration of Surangama Samadhi.[143] This
sutra is quoted by name in the Sikshasamuccaya and fragments of the
Sanskrit text have been found in Turkestan.[144] The Surangama-Samadhi
Sutra has been conjectured to be the same as the Samadhiraja, but the
accounts of Rajendralala Mitra and Beal do not support this theory.
Beal's translation leaves the impression that it resembles a Pali
sutta. The scene is laid in the Jetavana with few miraculous
accessories. The Buddha discusses with Ananda the location of the soul
and after confuting his theories expounds the doctrine of the
Dharma-kaya. The fragments found in Turkestan recommend a particular
form of meditation.
11. Taranatha informs us that among the many Mahayanist works which
appeared in the reign of Kanishka's son was the Ratnakuta-dharma-paryaya
in 1000 sections and the Ratnakuta is cited not only by the
Sikshasamuccaya but by Asanga.[145] The Tibetan and Chinese
canons contain sections with this name comprising forty-eight
or forty-nine items among which are the three important treatises
about Amitabha's paradise and many dialogues called Paripriccha, that
is, questions put by some personage, human or superhuman, and
furnished with appropriate replies.[146] The Chinese Ratnakuta is
said to have been compiled by Bodhiruchi (693-713 A.D.) but of course
he is responsible only for the selection not for the composition of
the works included. Section 14 of this Ratnakuta is said to be
identical with chapters 11 and 12 of the Mulasarvastivadin
Vinaya.[147]
12. The Guna-karanda-vyuha and Karanda-vyuha are said to be two
recensions of the same work, the first in verse the second in prose.
Both are devoted to the praise of Avalokita who is represented as the
presiding deity of the universe. He has refused to enter Buddhahood
himself until all living creatures attain to true knowledge and is
specially occupied in procuring the release of those who suffer in
hell. The Guna-karanda-vyuha contains a remarkable account of the
origin of the world which is said to be absent from the prose version.
The primeval Buddha spirit, Adi-Buddha or Svayambhu, produces
Avalokita by meditation, and Avalokita produces the material world and
the gods of Hinduism from his body, Siva from his forehead, Narayana
from his heart and so on. As such doctrines are not known to have
appeared in Indian Buddhism before the tenth century it seems probable
that the versified edition is late. But a work with the title
Ratna-karandaka-vyuha-sutra was translated into Chinese in 270 and
the Karanda-vyuha is said to have been the first work translated
into Tibetan.[148]
13. The Karunaa-pundarika[149] or Lotus of Compassion is mainly
occupied with the description of an imaginary continent called
Padmadhatu, its Buddha and its many splendours. It exists in Sanskrit
and was translated into Chinese about 400 A.D. (Nanjio, No. 142).
14. The Mahavairocanabhisambhodhi called in Chinese Ta-jih-ching or
Great Sun sutra should perhaps be mentioned as it is the principal
scripture of the Chen-yen (Japanese Shingon) school. It is a late work
of unknown origin. It was translated into Chinese in 724 A.D. but the
Sanskrit text has not been found.
There are a great number of other sutras which are important for the
history of literature, although little attention is paid to them by
Buddhists at the present day. Such are the Mahayanist version of the
Mahaparinirvana recounting the death and burial of the Buddha and the
Mahasannipata-sutra, which apparently includes the Suryagarbha and
Candragarbha sutras. All these works were translated into Chinese
about 420 A.D. and must therefore be of respectable antiquity.
Besides the sutras, there are many compositions styled Avadanas or
pious legends.[150] These, though recognized by Mahayanists, do not as
a rule contain expositions of the Sunyata and Dharma-kaya and are not
sharply distinguished from the more imaginative of the Hinayanist
scriptures.[151] But they introduce a multiplicity of Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas and represent Sakyamuni as a superhuman worker of
miracles.
They correspond in many respects to the Pali Vinaya but teach right
conduct not so much by precept as by edifying stories and, like most
Mahayanist works they lay less stress upon monastic discipline than on
unselfish virtue exercised throughout successive existences. There are
a dozen or more collections of Avadanas of which the most important
are the Mahavastu and the Divyavadana. The former[152] is an
encyclopaedic work which contains _inter alia_ a life of Sakyamuni. It
describes itself as belonging to the Lokottaravadins, a section of the
Aryamaha-sanghikas. The Lokottaravadins were an ancient sect,
precursors of the Mahayana rather than a branch of it, and much of the
Mahavastu is parallel to the Pali Canon and may have been composed a
century or two before our era. But other parts seem to belong to the
Gandharan period and the mention of Chinese and Hunnish writing points
to a much later date.[153] If it was originally a Vinaya treatise, it
has been distended out of all recognition by the addition of legends
and anecdotes but it still retains a certain amount of matter found
also in the Pali and Tibetan Vinayas. There were probably several
recensions in which successive additions were made to the original
nucleus. One interpolation is the lengthy and important section called
Dasabhumika, describing the career of a Bodhisattva. It is the only
part of the Mahavastu which can be called definitely Mahayanist. The
rest of the work marks a transitional stage in doctrine, just as its
language is neither Prakrit or Sanskrit but some ancient vernacular
brought into partial conformity with Sanskrit grammar. No Chinese
translation is known.
The Divyavadana[154] is a collection of legends, part of which is
known as the Asokavadana and gives an edifying life of that pious
monarch. This portion was translated into Chinese A.D. 317-420 and the
work probably dates from the third century of our era. It is loosely
constructed: considerable portions of it seem to be identical with the
Vinaya of the Sarvastivadins and others with passages in the works of
Asvaghosha.
The Avadanas lie on the borderland between scripture and pious
literature which uses human argument and refers to scripture for its
authority. Of this literature the Mahayanist church has a goodly
collection and the works ascribed to such doctors as Asvaghosha,
Nagarjuna, Asanga and Vasubandhu hold a high place in general esteem.
The Chinese Canon places many of them in the Pitakas (especially in
the Abhidharma Pitaka) and not among the works of miscellaneous
writers.
The Mahayanist scriptures are still a living force. In Nepal the nine
Dharmas receive superstitious homage rather than intelligent study,
but in Tibet and the Far East the Prajna-paramita, the Lotus and the
sutras about Amitabha are in daily use for public worship and private
reading. I have heard the first-named work as well as the
Leng-yen-ching expounded, that is, read aloud with an extempore
paraphrase, to lay congregations in China, and the section of it
called the Diamond Cutter is the book which is most commonly in the
hands of religious Tibetans. The Lotus is the special scripture of the
Nichiren sect in Japan but is universally respected. The twenty-fourth
chapter which contains the praises of Avalokita is often printed
separately. The Amitabha sutras take the place of the New Testament
for the Jodo and Shin sects and copies of them may also be found in
almost every monastery throughout China and Annam. The Suvarna-prabhasa
is said to be specially popular among the Mongols. I know Chinese
Buddhists who read the Hua-yen (Avatamsaka) every day. Modern Japanese
writers quote frequently from the Lankavatara and Kasyapa-parivarta
but I have not met with any instance of these works being in popular
use.
I have mentioned already the obscurity surrounding the history of the
Mahayanist Canon in India and it may seem to throw doubt on the
authenticity of these scriptures. Unauthentic they certainly are in
the sense that European criticism is not likely to accept as
historical the discourses which they attribute to the Buddha and
others, but there is no reason to doubt that they are treatises
composed in India early in our era and representing the doctrines then
prevalent. The religious public of India has never felt any difficulty
in accepting works of merit--and often only very moderate merit--as
revelations, whether called Upanishads, Puranas, Sutras or what not.
Only rarely have such works received any formal approbation, such as
recognition by a council. Indeed it is rather in Ceylon, Burma, Tibet
and China than in India itself that authoritative lists of scriptures
have been compiled. The natural instinct of the Hindus was not to
close the Canon but to leave it open for any additions which might be
vouchsafed.
Two sketches of an elastic Mahayanist Canon of this kind are
preserved, one in the Sikshasamuccaya[155] attributed to Santideva,
who probably flourished in the seventh century, and the other in a
little work called the Duration of the Law, reporting a discourse by
an otherwise unknown Nandimitra, said to have lived in Ceylon 800
years after the Buddha's death.[156] The former is a compendium of
doctrine illustrated by quotations from what the author regarded as
scripture. He cites about a hundred Mahayanist sutras, refers to the
Vinaya and Divyavadana but not apparently to the Abhidharma. He
mentions no Tantras[157] and not many Dharanis.
The second work was translated by Hsuean Chuang and was therefore
probably written before 600 A.D.[158] Otherwise there is no external
evidence for fixing its date. It represents Nandimitra as explaining
on his deathbed the steps taken by the Buddha to protect the True Law
and in what works that Law is to be found. Like the Chinese Tripitaka
it recognizes both Mahayanist and Hinayanist works, but evidently
prefers the former and styles them collectively Bodhisattva-Pitaka.
It enumerates about fifty sutras by name, beginning with the
Prajna-paramita, the Lotus and other well-known texts. Then comes a
list of works with titles ending in Samadhi, followed by others called
Paripriccha[159] or questions. A new category seems to be formed by
the Buddhavatamsaka-sutra with which the sutras about Amitabha's
Paradise are associated. Then comes the Mahasannipata-sutra associated
with works which may correspond to the Ratnakuta division of the
Chinese Canon.[160] The writer adds that there are "hundreds of
myriads of similar sutras classified in groups and categories." He
mentions the Vinaya and Abhidharma without further particulars,
whereas in describing the Hinayanist versions of these two Pitakas he
gives many details.
The importance of this list lies in the fact that it is Indian rather
than in its date, for the earliest catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka
compiled about[161] 510 is perhaps older and certainly ampler. But if
the catalogue stood alone, it might be hard to say how far the
selection of works in it was due to Chinese taste. But taking the
Indian and Chinese evidence together, it is clear that in the sixth
century Indian Mahayanists (_a_) tolerated Hinayanist scriptures while
preferring their own, (_b_) made little use of the Vinaya or
Abhidharma for argument or edification, though the former was very
important as a code, (_c_) recognized extremely numerous sutras,
grouped in various classes such as Mahasannipata and Buddhavatamsaka,
(_d_) and did not use works called Tantras. Probably much the same is
true of the fourth century and even earlier, for Asanga in one
work[162] quotes both Maha-and Hinayanist scriptures and among the
former cites by name seventeen sutras, including one called
Paripriccha or questions.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 119: In the Mahayana-sutralankara he quotes frequently from
the Samyukta and Ekottara Agamas, corresponding to the Samyutta and
Anguttara Nikayas of the Pali.]
[Footnote 120: A reading Vaitulya has also been found in some
manuscripts of the Lotus discovered at Kashgar and it is suggested
that the word may refer to the sect of Vetullas or Vetulyakas
mentioned in the Commentary on the Kathavatthu as holding that the
Buddha really remained in the Tushita heaven and sent a phantom to
represent him in the world and that it was Ananda, not the Buddha, who
preached the law. See Kern, _Vers. en Med. der K. Ak. v.
Wetenschappen, Letterk._, R. 4 D. VIII. pp. 312-9, Amsterdam, 1907,
and De la Vallee Poussin's notice of this article in _J.R.A.S._ 1907,
pp. 434-6. But this interpretation does not seem very probable.]
[Footnote 121: IV. 160. 5.]
[Footnote 122: See Cullavagga, V. 33. The meaning evidently is that
the Buddha's words are not to be enshrined in an artificial literary
form which will prevent them from being popular.]
[Footnote 123: Sutralankara, I. 2.]
[Footnote 124: See Waddell, "The Dharani cult" in _Ostasiat. Ztsft_.
1912, pp. 155 ff.]
[Footnote 125: Chap. XXI, which is however a later addition.]
[Footnote 126: Dig. Nik. 32.]
[Footnote 127: Watters, _Yuean Chwang_, II. p. 160.]
[Footnote 128: The Mahavyutpatti (65) gives a list of 105 sutras.]
[Footnote 129: The word param-ita means as an adjective _gone to the
further shore_ or _transcendent_. As a feminine substantive it means a
transcendent virtue or perfection.]
[Footnote 130: See Walleser, _Prajna-paramita_ in _Quellen der
Religionsgeschichte_, pp. 15 ff. _S.B.E._ XLIX. Nanjio, Catalogue Nos.
1-20 and Rajendralala Mitra's _Nepalese Buddhist Literature_, pp. 177
ff. Versions are mentioned consisting of 125,000 verses, 100,000
verses, 25,000 verses, 10,000 verses and 8,000 verses respectively.
(Similarly at the beginning of the Mahabharata we are told that the
Epic consists of 8,800 verses, of 24,000 and of 100,000.) Of these the
last or Ashtasahasrika has been published in the _Bibliotheca Indica_
and the second or Satasahasrika is in process of publication. It is in
prose, so that the expression "verses" appears not to mean that the
works are Gathas. A Khotanese version of the Vajracchedika is edited
in Hoernle's _Manuscript Remains_ by Sten Konow. The Sanskrit text was
edited by Max Mueller in _Anecdota Oxoniensia._]
[Footnote 131: The Sanskrit text has been edited by Kern and Nanjio in
_Bibliotheca Buddhica_; translated by Burnouf (_Le Lotus de la bonne
Loi_), 1852 and by Kern (Saddharma-Pundarika) in _S.B.E._ vol. XXI.]
[Footnote 132: There appears to have been an earlier Chinese version
of 255 A.D. but it has been lost. See Nanjio, p. 390. One of the later
Chinese versions alludes to the existence of two recensions (Nanjio,
No. 139). See _B.E.F.E.O._ 1911, p. 453. Fragments of a shorter and
apparently earlier recension of the Lotus have been discovered in E.
Turkestan. See _J.R.A.S._ 1916, pp. 269-277.]
[Footnote 133: Edited by Rajendralala Mitra in the _Bibliotheca
Indica_ and partially translated in the same series. A later critical
edition by Lefmann, 1902-8.]
[Footnote 134: The early Chinese translations seem doubtful. One said
to have been made under the later Han has been lost. See Nanjio, No.
159.]
[Footnote 135: See Burnouf, _Introduction_, pp. 458 ff. and _J.R.A.S._
1905, pp. 831 ff. Rajendralala Mitra, _Nepalese Buddhist Literature_,
p. 113. A brief analysis is given in _J.A.S.B._ June, 1905 according
to which the sutra professes to be the work of a human author, Jina of
the clan of Katyayana born at Campa. An edition of the Sanskrit text
published by the Buddhist Text Society is cited but I have not seen
it. Chinese translations were made in 443 and 515 but the first is
incomplete and does not correspond with our Sanskrit text.]
[Footnote 136: Abstract by Rajendralala Mitra, _Nepalese Buddhist
Lit_. p. 241.]
[Footnote 137: See Nanjio, No. 127 and F.W.K. Muller in _Abhandl. der
K. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften_, 1908. The Uigur text is
published in _Bibliotheca Buddhica_, 1914. Fragments of the Sanskrit
text have also been found in Turkestan.]
[Footnote 138: Abstract by Raj. Mitra, _Nepalese Buddhist Lit._ pp. 90
ff. The Sikshasamuccaya cites the Ganda-vyuha several times and does
not mention the Avatamsaka.]
[Footnote 139: The statement was first made on the authority of
Takakusu quoted by Winternitz in _Ges. Ind. Lit_. II. i. p. 242.
Watanabe in _J.R.A.S._ 1911, 663 makes an equally definite statement
as to the identity of the two works. The identity is confirmed by
Pelliot in _J.A._ 1914, II. pp. 118-121.]
[Footnote 140: Abstract by Raj. Mitra, _Nepalese Buddhist Lit._ pp. 81
ff. Quoted in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara, VIII. 106.]
[Footnote 141: See _J.R.A.S._ 1911, 663.]
[Footnote 142: Abstract by Raj. Mitra, _Nepalese Buddhist Lit._ pp. 81
ff.]
[Footnote 143: Translated in part by Beal, _Catena of Buddhist
Scriptures_, pp. 286-369. See also Teitaro Suzuki, _Outlines of
Mahayana_, p. 157. For notices of the text see Nanjio, Nos. 399, 446,
1588. Fa-Hsien, Chap. XXIX. For the equivalence of Shou-leng-yen and
Surangama see Nanjio's note to No. 399 and Julien, _Methode_, 1007 and
Vasilief, p. 175.]
[Footnote 144: See Sikshas, ed. Bendall, pp. 8,91 and _Hoernle,
Manuscript remains_, I. pp. 125 ff.]
[Footnote 145: Mahayana-sutralankara, XIX. 29.]
[Footnote 146: _E.g._ the Rashtra-pala-paripriccha edited in Sanskrit
by Finot, _Biblioth. Buddhica_, 1901. The Sanskrit text seems to agree
with the Chinese version. The real number of sutras in the Ratnakuta
seems to be 48, two being practically the same but represented as
uttered on different occasions.]
[Footnote 147: There is another somewhat similar collection of sutras
in the Chinese Canon called Ta Tsi or Mahasannipata but unlike the
Ratnakuta it seems to contain few well-known or popular works.]
[Footnote 148: I know of these works only by Raj. Mitra's abstracts,
_Nepal. Bud. Lit._ pp. 95 and 101. The prose text is said to have been
published in Sanskrit at Calcutta, 1873.]
[Footnote 149: Raj. Mitra, _Nepalese Buddhist Lit_. pp. 285 ff. The
Sanskrit text was published for the Buddhist Text Society, Calcutta,
1898.]
[Footnote 150: Avadana is primarily a great and glorious act: hence an
account of such an act.]
[Footnote 151: The Avadana-sataka (Feer, _Annales du Musee Guimet_,
XVIII) seems to be entirely Hinayanist.]
[Footnote 152: Edited by Senart, 3 vols. 1882-1897. Windisch, _Die
Komposition des Mahavastu_, 1909. Article "Mahavastu" in _E.R.E._]
[Footnote 153: So too do the words Horapathaka (astrologer),
Ujjhebhaka (? Uzbek), Peliyaksha (? Felix). The word Yogacara (I. 120)
may refer simply to the practice of Yoga and not to the school which
bore this name.]
[Footnote 154: Edited by Cowell and Neil, 1886. See Nanjio, 1344.]
[Footnote 155: Edited by Bendall in _Bibl. Buddhica._]
[Footnote 156: Nanjio, No. 1466. For a learned discussion of this work
see Levi and Chavannes in _J.A._ 1916, Nos. I and II.]
[Footnote 157: It is not likely that the Tathagata-guhya-sutra which
it quotes is the same as the Tantra with a similar name analysed by
Rajendralal Mitra.]
[Footnote 158: Watters, _J.R.A.S._ 1898, p. 331 says there seems to
have been an earlier translation.]
[Footnote 159: Many works with this title will be found in Nanjio.]
[Footnote 160: But the Chinese title seems rather to represent
Ratnarasi.]
[Footnote 161: See Nanjio, pp. xiii-xvii.]
[Footnote 162: Mahayana-sutralankara. See Levi's introduction, p. 14.
The "Questions" sutra is Brahma-paripriccha.]