THE JOURNAL

Of THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF

BUDDHIST STUDIES
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A. K. Narain
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
L. M. Joshi
Punjabi University
Patiala, India
Alexander W. Macdonald
Universiti de Paris X
Nanterre, France
Bardwell Smith
Carleton College
Northfield, Minnesota, USA
EDITORS
Ernst Steinkellner
University of Vienna
Wien, Austria
Jikido Takasaki
University of Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
Robert Thurman
Amherst College
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Roger Jackson
Volume 5 1982 Number 2
THE JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF BUDDHIST STUDIES, INC.
This Journal is the organ of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
Inc., and is governed by the objectives of the Association and a c c e p t ~
scholarly contributions pertaining to Buddhist Studies in all the various
disciplines such as philosophy, history, religion, sociology, anthropology, art,
archaeology, psychology, textual studies, etc. The JIABS is published twice
yearly in the Spring and Fall.
Manuscripts for publication and correspondence concerning articles should
be submitted to A. K. Narain, Editor-in-Chief,JIABS, Department of South
Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, U.S.A.
The Association and the Editors assume no responsibility for the views
expressed by the authors in the Association's Journal and other related
publications.
Books for review should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editors cannot
guarantee to publish reviews of unsolicited books nor to return those books to
the senders.
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Andre Bareau (France) JosephM. Kitagawa (USA)
John Brough (U.K.) Jacques May (Switzerland)
M.N. Deshpande (India) Hajime Nakamura (Japan)
R. Card (USA) John Rosenfield (USA)
B.C. Cokhale (USA) David Snellgrove (U.K.)
P.S. Jaini (USA) E. Zurcher (Netherlands)
J. w. de Jong (Australia)
The Editor-in-Chief wishes to thank Rena Haggarty for assistance in the
preparation of this volume.
Copyright The International Association of Buddhist Studies 1982
ISSN: 0193-600X
Sponsored by Department of South Asian Studies, University of Wiscon-
sin, Madison.
CONTENTS
I. ARTICLES
1. "Early Buddhism and the Urban Revolution," by Bal-
krishna Govind Gokhale 7
2. "Pilgrimage and the Structure of Sinhalese Buddhism," by
John C. Holt 23
3. "A New Approach to the Intra-Madhyamika Confrontation
over the Svatantrika and Prasangika Methods of Refu-
tation," by Shohei Ichimura 41
4. "'Later Madhyamika' in China: Some Current Perspectives
on the History of Chinese Prajftaparamita Thought," by
Aaron K. Koseki 53
5. "The Doctrine of the Buddha-Nature in the Mahayana Ma-
haparinirva'[ta Sutra," by Ming-Wood Liu 63
6. "The Developmerit of Language in Bhutan," by Lopon
N ~ %
7. "Prolegomena to an English Translation of the Sutrasamuc-
caya," by Bhikku Pasadika 101
8. "The Issue of the Buddha as Vedagu, with Reference to the
Formation of the Dhamma and the Dialectic with the
Brahmins," by Katherine K. Young 110
II. BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES
1. Focus on Buddhism. A Guide to Audio-Visual Resources for Teach-
ing Religion, edited by Robert A. McDermott; and Spiri-
tual Discipline in Hinduism, Buddhism, and the West, by
Harry M. Buck 121
2. Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine, ed. and tr. by T.]. Tsarong,
et al.
3. PratZtyasamutpadastutisubhasitahrdayam of Acarya Tsong kha pa,
tr. by Gyaltsen N am dol and N gawang Sam ten
4. Repertoire du Canon Bouddhique Sino-japonais, Edition de Tai-
shoo Fascicule Annexdu H6b6girin, compiled by Paul De-
mieville, Hubert Durt, and Anna Seidel
5. Three Worlds According to King Ruang: Thai Buddhist Cosmol-
ogy, tr. by Frank E. Reynolds and Mani B. Reynolds
6. The Way to Shambhala, by Edwin Bernbaum
III. NOTES AND NEWS
1. Computing and Buddhist Studies
2. Terms of Sanskrit and Pali Origin Acceptable as English
Words
3. A Report ~ n an Educational Television/Film Series on Ti-
betan Buddhism
4. Proposal for an Index of Publications in Buddhist Studies
5. 6th Conference of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies
IV. OBITUARY
Isaline Blew Horner (1896-1981)
Contributors
Contributors
124
127
128
132
133
136
137
138
141
143
145
150
150
Early Buddhism and the Urban Revolution
by Balkrishna Govind Gokhale
I.
It is now generally accepted that early Buddhism rode to popu-
lar acceptance on the crest of a significant urban revolution that
swept across large parts of the Gangetic region in the sixth
century B.C. A variety of conditions brought this revolution
into being. The progressive clearing of forests brought larger
areas into agricultural production. The use of iron tools, begin-
ning from about the seventh century B.C., increased agricul-
tural productivity, leading to larger com.modity surpluses avail-
able for exchange in trade and commerce. The easy availability
of metals, copper and silver, led to an increasing use of coinage,
facilitating both short-haul and long-distance trade. These ear-
ly punch-marked coins were issued by guilds of bankers and
merchants and later by tribal oligarchies. The emergence of
well-defined trade routes bound together far-flung areas of the
subcontinent. All these helped create a new and powerful class
of merchants and bankers, the greatest of whom was Anatha-
pil)().ika of Savatthi, a contemporary of the Buddha and one of
his greatest patrons. His purchase of the Bamboo Forest from
Prince J eta and his construction of a great monastery for the
Buddha in Savatthi is a celebrated event in the early history of
Buddhism. Along with this new mercantile class, a new kind of
state was also beginning to emerge about the time when the
Buddha was completing his long ministry of forty-five years.
The most prominent representatives of this political transfor-
mation were the kings Bimbisara of Magadha (circa 545-493
B.C.) and Pasendi of Kosala, both of whom were claimed by the
Buddha as his personal friends and patrons. The power of
these monarchies, especially Magadha, was based on new kinds
of armies and instruments of war as well as the expressed needs
of the new mercantile class.!
7
Two distinct sets of generalizations may be made about the
changes going on in the structure of society in the Gangetic
plains during this period. First, there were two kinds of transi-
tions: a) a transition in overall social structure from tribe to
class; and b) a transition from a subsistence economy to an
economy of relative surplus. Secondly, four different types of
urban formations had begun to emerge: a) commercial towns
based on an extensive exchange of commodities (Savatthi); b)
bureaucratic towns, with their major activity being related to
administrative functions (Rajagaha); c) tribal towns, being
mainly confederate centers of tribal oligarchies and their clan
subdivisions (Kapilavatthu); and d) transportation centers,
based on routes of portage (Ujjeni). Inevitably, there is some
overlapping of activities in these urban centers, but the typol-
ogy seems to be both conceptually viable and practically reason-
able.
The literature of the Buddhists in PaIi reflects this revolu-
tion. Whereas the major compiled before the rise of
Buddhism have for their background a rural milieu, the litera-
ture of the early Buddhists breathes a new urban spirit. Early
Buddhism contains a paradox which, however, is more appar-
ent than real. If the mahabhinikkhamana of the Buddha-liter-
ally the Great Going Forth-represented a turning away from
the world of everyday life, his first sermon at the Deer Park of
Isipatana near Banaras, in a sense, was a reaffirmation of that
very everyday life which alone could make the Turning of the
Wheel of Law, Dhammacakkapavattana, empirically relevant.
The argument made here is that the two major events in the
early life of the Buddha are meaningful only in relation to one
another. Similarly, the institutions of renunciation and confir-
mation, pabbaJJa and upasampada, are meaningful only in rela-
tion to one another, and the institution of rain-retreat-vassa-
vasa-which created the institution of the monastery (avasa) led
to the "socialization" of what had begun primarily as an a-social
movement.
The purpose of the present paper is to examine and ana-
lyse the specific association between early Buddhism and the
new urbanism. It is based on statistical data of associations be-
tween early Buddhism and its new urban setting. The argu-
ment will be presented in two parts. In the first part, the statisti-
8
cal data on urban centers, cities, towns and market-towns-
nagara and nigama-found in suttas and/or gathas will be of-
fered. The second part will deal with the implications of these
urban associations and any reasonable conclusions that may be
drawn from the statistical data.
II.
Before the statistical evidence is presented, some explana-
tion of the methodology used in collecting the data will be
appropriate. The texts selected for examination are the texts of
the Vinaya Pitaka (excluding the MaMvagga and the Culla-
vagga), the Dfgha and the MaJjhima Nikayas, the Udana, the
Dhammapada and the Thera and the Therf GatMs. In the case of
the Vinaya Pitaka, the parajika, pacittiya, patidesanfya and sekhiya
regulations were considered to be crucial for the formation of
the Buddhist monastic community. The Dfgha and Majjhima
collections contain the major doctrines of early Buddhism. The
Udana is a major single collection of the Buddha's "inspired" or
mystical statements. Likewise, the Dhammapada, apart from be-
ing the single most important work for the general Buddhist
community, monastic and lay, is a significant text for the articu-
lation and exposition of early Buddhist ethical norms and atti-
tudes. These texts probably range in time from the First or
Rajagaha Council, whose historicity is assumed here, to circa
200 B.C., that is, after the death of Asoka (circa 274-232 B.C.).
The Thera and Therf GatMs must be assumed to date from after
200 B.C., as they contain verses of persons who lived during the
time of Asoka, but the collections themselves must have been
completed before 100 B.C. These collections are also signifi-
cant because they preserve the statements made by a group that
may be characterised as the early Buddhist "elite."2
A question may be raised here about the exclusion of texts
such as the Sar(lyutta and the Anguttara Nikayas and other texts
from the Khuddaka Nikaya, notably the Sutta Nipata. The bulk of
the material in the first two Nikayas is drawn from earlier texts
such as the Dfgha and the MaJjhima and hence most of the place
names associated with the suttas contained in them may be as-
sumed to have already occurred in the earlier texts. Their in-
9
clusion, therefore, would not have added anything of signifi-
cance to our data. Parts of the Sutta Nipata undoubtedly belong
to the earliest stratum of the Pali literary tradition, but in many
cases the association of suttas is neither clear nor reliable. Other
texts, such as Cariya Pitq,ka, the Jataka or the Vimana and Peta
Vatthus, need not detain us here. They are obviously much later
than texts selected here and the evidence on associations with
places would be of doubtful validity for our purpose here.
Next we may turn to the method adopted in collecting the
statistical data. Every place name associated with the delivery of
the rule or sutta was carefully noted, and in the case of the
Dhammapada the information on place of delivery was taken
from the commentary. The authenticity of place-association
has been assumed, as it is based on a long tradition of faithful
text-transmission with little possibility of interpolation or ex-
trapolation. The references were then grouped in terms of
places associated with each reference, and the places were cate-
gorised as cities and towns (nagara), market-towns (nigama), vil-
lages (gama) and rural areas or countryside (janapada).
The total number of place names thus collected is 1009. Of
these, 842 (83.43%) refer to five cities, while the rest, 167
(16.57%), cover 76 separate places, cities, market-towns, vil-
lages and countryside. Of the 1009 references, 593 (58.77%)
are to Savatthi, 140 (13.87%) to Rajagaha,56 (5.55%) to Kapila-
vatthu, 38 (3.76%) to Vesali and 15 (1.48%) to Kosambi. Plot-
ting the places on a map reveals an irregularly shaped triangle
with its apex in Campa, the southern side extending to Ujjeni
and the northern to Mathura-the northern side being irregu-
lar, as its northernmost point is Kapilavatthu. Outside of this
triangle, places as distant as Supparaka and Bharukaccha on
the western coast and Patinhana in the far south also occur in
our sample; but these are associated with disciples such as some
theras and theris, and the group led by Bavari that figures in the
Farayana Vagga of the Sutta Nipata. The large number of refer-
ences to Savatthi can be easily understood, as the Buddha is
said to have spent as many as twenty-five rain-retreats (vassas)
in that one city. In terms of size and character of the places, 35
may be called cities and towns, 8 market-places, 45 villages and
3 countryside. Though villages are more numerous than cities
10
and towns in this computation, in frequency of reference towns far
outnumber villages.
What initial conclusions may we draw from these figures?
We must assume that during his ministry of forty-five years, the
Buddha must generally have established himself in one place
during the rainy season and been peripatetic during the rest of
the year. Are we to assume that the majority of the texts in our
sample were delivered during the rain-retreats? Or, is it possi-
ble that we have preserved in our sample only the major part of
the Buddha's preaching that was associated with these cities? It
is reasonable to assume that not everything that was said by the
Buddha has been preserved for us in our texts. The task of
preservation of the Buddha's .statements was left to his follow-
ers who, soon after his demise we are told, gathered at Raja-
gaha in the First Council. If the traditional Cullavagga account
is to be believed, Upali was responsible for the compilation of
the Vinaya, and Ananda for the Dhamma.
3
Upali and Ananda
undoubtedly drew upon the recollection of many of the assem-
bled members of the Council either for corroboration or aug-
mentation of their own contributions. This has a bearing on the
nature of early Buddhism as preserved in the Pali tradition,
and will be dealt with later.
III.
Among the cities discussed here, Savatthi has the pride of
place, being mentioned 593 times (58.77% of our sample). By
another computation, which includes materials from all four
Nikayas, 871 suttas were delivered in Savatthi; of these, 844 are
associated with the Jetavana monastery, 23 with the Pubbarama
and 4 with the suburbs. The total is compiled from 6 suttas in
the Dzgha, 75 in the Majjhima, 736 in the SarJIyutta and 54 in the
Anguttara Nikaya. This need cause little surprise, since the com-
mentaries explain that the Buddha spent 25 vassavasas in Sa-
vatthi, 19 in the J etavana and 6 in the Pubbarama.
4
In fact,
King Pasendi of Kosala proudly claimed that the Buddha was
as much a Kosalan as was the king himself.
Savatthi has been identified with Sahet-Mahet on the banks
11
of the river Rapti near the border between the Gonda and
Baharaich districts of Uttar Pradesh. The city had three gates,
south, east and north, the biggest market place being located
between the southern gate and the Anathapir;c;likamonastery
built on Prince J eta's land. Access to the city across the Aciravan
river was provided by a bridge of boats. The river carried a
considerable volume of commercial traffic-conducted by pro-
fessional carriers, and it was also a source of livelihood for
numerous fisher folk. Buddhaghosa mentions that Savatthi
had a population of 57,000 families. If we assume that each
family had at least four members, Savatthi would then have had
a population of 228,000, which is clearly grossly exaggerated.
Realistically, we may reduce the figure by three-fourths and
assume that the population may have been in the neighbor-
hood of 57,000, which would still make the city a major urban
center of the times. .
Savatthi was a commercial center of great importance dur-
ing the Buddha's time. The fact that it was the home of Anatha-
piI)c;lika, the greatest merchant-banker of the age, is an indica-
tion of the accumulation of mercantile capital in the city. Well-
recognized routes connected it with all other major urban
centers, even as far to the south as Patitthana. While a consider-
able volume of commodity production within the environs of
the city may be asumed, the more important activity may have
been in commodity-exchange, as the city was very conveniently
located for distribution of goods along the sub-Himalayan
highlands on the one hand and the riverine territories to the
south. It was probably the most important center of early Bud-
dhism before the rise of imperial Magadha. A number of cele-
brated personalities, monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen were
either natives of the city or were first converted to ,the faith
there.
The fact that the Buddha spent as many as 25 vassiivGsas in
Savatthi raises some intriguing questions. Why did the Buddha
return to the city for the rain-retreat over such an extended
period of his career? One obvious reason may have been the
presence of powerful patrons such as AnathapiI)c;lika and Vi-
sakha, as well as King Pasendi. His hometown, Kapilavatthu,
lay far to the north, and Rajagaha had equally obvious disad-
vantages. Rajagaha was the capital of the parricide Ajatasattu
12
before he began the construction of Pataliputta. Besides, Raja-
gaha at this time was, in terms of commercialization and urban-
ization, less distinguished than Savatthi. The Buddha could
have frequented Kosambi more than he actually did, but,
again, Kosambi was no match for Savatthi. The choice of Sa-
vatthi, therefore, was deliberate for a variety of reasons, not the
least important being the high degree of mercantilism and ur-
banism represented by the city. It was in Savatthi, as our evi-
dence indicates, that the first contours of the new urbanism,
with its new powerful classes of merchant-bankers and kings,
began to take shape. It was this combination that became the
basic support of the early Buddhist movement and it was this
class coalition that lent its distinguishing character to the philo-
sophical content of the movement. This new urbanism created
complex problems of individual, familial and social relation-
ships which early Buddhism sought to address with its empha-
sis on moral values and individual ethical and spiritual culture.
This, in part, may explain the relatively a-metaphysical predi-
lection of the early Buddhist movement.
5
Next in importance to Savatthi was Rajagaha. It is men-
tioned 140 (13.87%) times in our sample. It is identified with
Rajgir in Patna district of Bihar. The southern part was girt by
five hills and was fortified, while the northern part was inhabit-
ed by commoners. The most celebrated spots in the city men-
tioned in our texts were the Veluvana (bamboo forest), the
Tapodanarama on lake Tapoda, and the Jlvakaambavana and
Nalanda on the outskirts of the city. Nalanda later became fa-
mous as the seat of the great university. The Buddha spent the
first, third, fourth, seventeenth and twentieth rain-retreats at
Rajagaha.
Rajagaha was important primarily for being the capital of
the rising Magadhan monarchy. It must have attracted mer-
chants and bankers, though its commercial importance does
not compare with that of Savatthi or Ujjeni. Both Bimbisara
and his son and successor Ajatasattu were supporters of the
Buddha, the former more so than the latter. Another famous
supporter was Jlvaka, the royal phsyician and surgeon. Raja-
gaha reflects the importance of royal and bureaucratic support
for the success of the early Buddhist movement.
6
The third city was Kapilavatthu, the "home"-town of the
13
Buddha. It was the capital of the Sakyan realm and it was here
that the Buddha spent his childhood and early adult life. It is
generally identified with Piprawa, near Lumbini in Nepal, close
to Rummindei, in the Nepalese Tarai, where is located the
Asokan pillar commemorating the Emperor's visit to the birth-
place of the Buddha in the twentieth year of his reign (circa 250
B.C.). The Buddha returned to Kapilavatthu in the very first
year after his enlightenment, "converting" his father Suddoh-
dana to the new faith. Later Buddhist texts lavishly describe the
greatness and wealth of the city, filled with market-places and
gardens and impressive gate-ways. Obviously, a great deal of
poetical exaggeration is involved in such accounts, developed
centuries after the Buddha's passing. While some trade at Kapi-
lavatthu cannot be ruled out, it is doubtful if the city compared
with Savatthi and Ujjeni or even Rajagaha in commercial im-
portance.
7
There are 38 (3.76%) references to Vesali in our sample.
Vesali was the capital of the Vajjian confederacy. The Buddha
first visited it during the fifth year after his enlightenment.
Vesali is identified with the village of Basarh in the Muzaffar-
pur district of Bihar. Though the city was a great center of
Jainism, the Buddha, too, had numerous followers there.
There are references to a great famine at Vesali. The city,
according to literary accounts, was surrounded by three walls
and had three gates with watch-towers. It was at Vesi'ili that the
V<Ujiputtaka monks raised the "ten points" that led to the Sec-
ond Council and the great schism. As the capital of the confe-
deracy, Vesali must have been home to numerous "Rajas" as
well as to the celebrated courtesan Ambapali. The Buddha
himself referred to Vesali as charming (ramanija), with a num-
ber of shrines, such as Udena, Gotamaka, Sattamba, Bahu-
putta, Sarandada and Capala.
s
The city of Kosambi has 15 (1.48 %) references in our sam-
ple. It was the capital of the kingdom of the Vatsas or Vamsas,
ruled by Parantapa, a contemporary of the Buddha. Udena,
Parantapa's successor, is the hero of the cycle of stories center-
ing on Udena's romantic involvement with Vasavadatta, the
daughter of Canda Pajjota, the king of Ujjeni celebrated in Pali
and Sanskrit literature. Kosambi is identified with Kosam, near
Allahabad, on the Yamuna river. It was the capital of a Maur-
14
yan province, as indicated by its being the original site of Aso-
kan inscriptions, including the well-known schism edict. Com-
mercially, Kosambi was as important as Savatthi, as it was an
important staging point connecting Kosala and Magadha from
the south and west. In the well-known Sutta Nipata list of points
followed by Bavari's disciples from Mahissati to Vesali, the
route goes from Ujjeni and Vedisa, to Kosambi, to Savatthi,
and finally to Vesali. Kosambi had at least four great monaster-
ies, the Kukkutarama, the Ghositarama, the Pavarika mango
grove and the Badarikarama, the first three named after three
prominent citizens of Kosambi. Kosambi was the scene of the
first schism among monks. When recalcitrant monks refused to
heed the Buddha's advice on reconciliation, the Buddha left
the place in disgust and retired to the Parileyyaka forest. The
Pali texts mention several families of bankers of Kosambi, and
also numerous nagas. Kosambi was obviously a storm-center of
monastic disputes, as indicated by the Kosambi episode men-
tioned above and the edict bearing on an actual or impending
schism during the time of Asoka. Kosambi also figures in the
accounts of the Vajjian heresy of Vesali, when Yasa Kakanda-
putta, on his expulsion by the Vajjian monks, went to Kosambi
and sent messages to orthodox monks of various centers in the
west.
9
Ujjeni, one of the leading cities of the times, is mentioned
only four times in our sample, and these references come from
the Thera and Ther'i Gathiis, which must be dated considerably
later than the life-time of the Buddha. It was the capital of the
kingdom of A vanti, ruled by Canda Pajjota. It was a major
point on the trade route connecting the south with the north,
east and west. It has been identified with modern Ujjain in
Madhya Pradesh. The Buddha never visited it, though Ujjeni
was the home of several of his prominent disciples, such as
Mahakaccana, Isidasi and Padumavati. Mahakaccana was
ranked among the ten leading male disciples of the Buddha,
especially honored for his skill in expounding the Dhamma.
From the Vinaya account, it is clear that Buddhism had few
followers in Avanti during the lifetime of the Buddha. A large
community eventually grew in Avanti, after Sona Kutikal)l)a, a
disciple of Mahakaccana, went to see the Buddha at Savatthi
and, at the behest of his teacher, Mahakaccana, narrated the
15
conditions of life and the Order in Avanti-which were so very
different from those in the maJjhimadesa. The main points made
in this presentation were that Avanti had few monks, so that it
was difficult to muster a chapter of ten fully-ordained monks
for the ordination ceremony of new entrants; the soil was
rough and hard, requiring shoes with thick linings; the people
frequently bathed; sheep, goat and deer-skins were used as
coverlets; and robes were gifted to designated monks. These
conditions necessitated the modification of several rules re-
garding ordination, use of coverlets and shoes, and other mat-
ters pertaining to monastic life. The Buddha made the request-
ed modifications to suit conditions in A vanti and the south. The
mention of plentiful cattle and black soil is interesting, as it
gives us an indication of the economic importance of these two
factors.!O
The other important city mentioned in our sample is
Campa (6 times). It lay on a river of the same name, a tributary
of the Ganga, and is identified with a site some 24 miles to the
east of Bhagalpur, in Bihar. It was well known as a commercial
center and capital of the kingdom Anga before its annexation
by Magadha. Merchants from Campa traveled to Suval).l).ab-
humi, the Malayan Peninsula, for trade. The Buddha visited
the city several times, as did the monks Sariputta and Vamgisa.
Campa had a considerable number of monks resident in its
avasas, as indicated by the fact that an entire Khandaka (IX) of
the Mahavagga is associated with the city. The section deals with
the validity or otherwise of certain official acts of the sangha.
Campa seems to have lost a great deal of its earlier importance
even during the lifetime of the Buddha, as a result of its being
incorporated by the rising kingdom of Magadha, under Bimbi-
sara. I I
Besides these cities and towns, a number of nigamas also
figure in our accounts as being associated with the preaching
activities of the Buddha. There are at least seven such nigamas
mentioned by name: Kammasadamma, Thullakotthita, Apal).a,
Nadika, Assapura, Vegalimga and Medalumpa. To these may
be added AlavI, which was both a town in its own right and also
a nigama. Of these, Kammasadamma and Thullakotthita were
located in the Kuru region; their prosperity lay in their rich
agricultural produce, the basis of a considerable regional trade.
16
The term nigama is specifically used to indicate a predominant-
ly mercantile town, its major economic activity being the ex-
change of commodities by merchants and bankers. Some texts
make a distinction between nigainas that were primarily centers
of moneta,ry transactions controlled by bankers (setthis) and
those that had some banking but specialised in exchange of
goods. The fact that a number of such functionally specialised
centers had sprung up may be taken as an indication of the
development of mercantilism and urbanism during the Bud-
dha's time and after. Only a considerable surplus in commodity
production could lead to extensive trade, accumulation of mer-
cantile capital and the emergence of a powerful class of mer-
chants and bankers. This new class was in search of new ethical
values and a "religious weltanschauung" of a significantly differ-
ent character than the one contained in the old Vedic reli-
gion.
12
Finally, there was the gama, the primordial village. In this
category, a distinction is made between the ordinary gam a and a
Brahmar],agama (a Brahman village). A gama ranged from a sin-
gle household sheltering an extended family to several hun-
dred homes inhabited by a large number of families. Its territo-
rial limits were defined by hills and rivers, forests and/or walls
and ditches. The principal occupations were agriculture; arts
and crafts for manufacturing tools, implements and other arti-
cles largely for local use; and cattle-keeping.
The Brahmar;,gama is a familiar phenonenon in the Nikaya
literature. The literal translation would be "Brahmal).a-village"
which may mean either a village owned and/or dominated by
Brahmal).as, or a village in which the Brahmal)..as predominated
by virtue of their numbers. There is evidence for both render-
ings. The process of the development of such Brahmal).a gamas
can only be speculated on. They may have begun as settlements
created by Brahmal,la enterprise, or they may have been desig-
nated by the state as areas given over to Brahmal).a occupation
and economic exploitation. Some Brahmal,las also enjoyed
Brahmadeyya lands, described as full of people; replete with pas-
tures, tree-groves and food-grains; and given over to Brah-
mal,las by kings as their exclusive domain as a matter of royal
patronage of Brahmal,lical learning and ritual. The Buddha
delivered a number of his discourses in the course of his en-
17
counters with these wealthy Brahmal).as in their Brahma'(laga-
mas. 13
That the economy was advanced to a stage of considerable
commodity production and exchange is reflected in the diversi-
ty of products and occupations mentioned in early Buddhist
literature. A list of cereals, grasses, dyes, oil seeds, trees and
flowering shrubs, birds and reptiles and small and large biped
and quadruped animals collected from the Vinaya literature
alone gives us an impressive 124 different items. Most of them
figured in local as well as long-distance trade.
14
The frequent
references to copper, tin, bronze, iron, gold and silver are evi-
dence of development of metal technology. The caravan leader
(satthavaha), with his large assemblage of bullock-carts (usually
stated as 500 in round numbers) and draft animals, winding his
way through forests and across deserts of the seas to Southeast
Asia, is a familiar figure in the Jatakas. We may assume that
caravan leaders, merchants and bankers were as ubiquitous
during the time of the Buddha, though not as numerous, as in
the succeeding periods.
This picture of the social and economic background of
early Buddhism is significantly different from that of the Ve-
dic, and early Epic times. Early Buddhism and Jain-
ism belonged to the urban milieu far more than did the earlier
Vedicism or later Brahmanism (Hinduism) of post-Maurya
times. IS
IV
What conclusions may we draw from the evidenc-e set forth
above? Our sample survey makes it clear that the culture por-
trayed in our existing texts is decisively urban, much more so
than the preceding and succeeding phases of the civilization of
ancient India. The Buddhism of our texts is a Buddhism pre-
dominantly of the cities, towns and market-places. Its social
heroes are the great merchant-bankers and the new kings, per-
haps in that order of importance. This Buddhism drew its ma-
jor social support from these classes and, in turn, reflected their
social and spiritual concerns. These classes needed a new spiri-
tual-sodal orientation and value-system, which early Buddhism
18
provided with its opppsition to the old Vedic theology, sacrifi- .
cial ritual, the dominance of the priest, and the emerging men-
acingly rigid social hierarchy. They needed new socially-orient-
ed ethical values, in which the individual (and his family) rather
than the varr;,a-Jati were the center-piece, and the Buddha ar-
ticulated such values. It is fashionable to portray the Buddha as
the first great reformer in Indian social history, striving to at-
tack and destroy the "caste" system. This is an instance of read-
ing modern (or contemporary) social values into ancient texts,
and it is a gross over-simplification. The Buddha did ignore
caste distinctions in the matter of admission to and treatment of
individuals within the sangha. Outside of it his attitude was
pragmatic, if not ambivalent. He seems to use the varf1,a-Jati
terminology of his times in his references to existing society and
only tends to rank the Khattiya as higher than the Brahmapa.
He ridicules Brahma:r:ta pretensions to ritual purity and social
eminence and insists that a person be judged by his individual
virtue rather than his familial, class or social origins. 16 This was
precisely the demand of the new urban social classes who felt
closer to the Buddha than to the traditional Brahmana and
sacrifice-dominated Vedic cults. These classes were not much
interested in speculative metaphysics, for their emphasis was on
practical and everyday concerns of making good in this world
and assuring one's welfare in the next. That is one of the rea-
sons why so much of early Buddhism is addressed to ethical
concerns rather than speculative metaphysics. The Buddha
seems to have offered moral justification for social well-being
and success. The later metaphysical Buddhism of the Abhidhar-
mikas and Mahayanists was a product of an age of "villagism"
and the emergent quasi-"feudal" society. The metaphysical
gain became a social loss, for what Buddhism gained in specula-
tive metaphysics, it lost in its social roots. This is reflected both
in the increasing trend of using Sanskrit asa vehicle for reli-
gious articulation and the widening gulf between the monas-
tery and the laity. The urban revolution did not create Bud-
dhism, but it was certainly vital for its early popularity and
material support. A decay of that urbanism sapped some of the
socially vital foundations of the Buddhist movement.
Finally, the arguments stated above cannot be disassociated
from the nature of the collation and transmission of the early
19
Buddhist Pali texts. Savatthi, as noted above, was associated
with many of the suttas of the four Nikayas, which led Mrs. Rhys
Davids to suggest that either the Buddha "mainly resided there
or else Savatthi was the earliest emporium '(library?) for the
collection and preservation (however this was done) of the
talks." G. P. Malalasekera agrues that "The first alternative is
more likely, as the Commentaries state that the Buddha spent
twenty-five rainy seasons in Savatthi-this leaving only twenty
to be spent elsewhere." 17 If itis assumed that the Buddha spent
only the rainy season in one fixed place such as Savatthi, what
has happened to the statements he must certainly have made
during the eight months of the dry season when he is supposed
to have traveled from one place to another? Undoubtedly many
such statements are still preserved in other parts of the Canon,
but their number does not seem to be sufficiently large to ac-
count for preaching activity over eight months every year. Sta-
tistically, the number of suttas delivered in urban centers, even
in our limited sample, is overwhelmingly large (83.43%) while
the rest (16.57%) are distributed over 76 different places,
among which are included some towns, nigamas, villages and
the "countryside" (janapada). The share of rural areas in the
total sample is thus very small. It will not be unreasonable to
conclude that even during the lifetime of the Buddha the rule
of living in a fixed location only for the rainy season, with the
rest of the year to be spent moving from one place to another,
had become the ideal rather than the reality. The localisation of
the avasas had become a fact of the early Buddhist monastic life
even during the lifetime of the Buddha, as evidenced by such
usages as "Kosambaka bhikkhu." It will not be hazardous, on the
basis of our evidence, to assume that most of the Buddha's
preaching was done in urban centers where he may have spent
extensive periods of time even outside of the vassavasa period.
The Buddha and his followers maintained an extensive and
continuous contact with lay devotees during his lifetime and the
period of a few decades after his demise. But, by the beginning
of the fourth century B. C., Buddhism had become localised in
fixed and well-endowed monasteries, first drawing upon lay
mercantile support but later, and increasingly, dependent
upon royal endowments. When the state began to be "feuda-
20
lised" after the end of the Maurya empire, the sangha was also
consequently "feudalised," as it depended on endowments of
land. By the time Mahayana came onto the scene, this process
. of "feudalisation" was far advanced and it left its own philo-
sophical (especially metaphysical) imprint on the character of
the evolving Buddhism itself.
Inscriptional evidence from the Asokan and the Sunga-
Kanva periods sheds some interesting light on the urban-lay
nexus of early Buddhism and its development up to the begin-
ning of the Christian era. In his Bairat (Bhabru) inscription,
Asoka recommends seven texts as deserving special attention.
The emphasis seems to be on texts that are of direct relevance
to the laity. In the inscriptions from Sanchi and Bharut the two
terms that are frequently mentioned are the dhammakathika and
the pancanekiiyika. The first refers to a preacher of the Dhamma
and may be taken to mean a preacher to the laity. The second
means one who has mastered (or memorised?) the five Nikiiyas
and may be taken to refer to a specialised monastic function
related to the transmission of the Buddhist scriptures. The
sangha, on this evidence, had two distinct functions, that of
preaching to the laity and of regulating monastic life and pre-
serving and transmitting sacred texts from generation to gen-
eration. Already, however, the monastic function was begin-
ning to receive greater attention than relations with the laity.
This may partially reflect the large number of donors coming
from villages and the countryside rather than the great urban
centers which, presumably, were already in a state of decay in
the post-Asokan period. This consolidation of the monastic tra-
dition led to the development of the Abhidhamma tradition of
early Buddhism, a school more geared to monastic thinking
and life than to the everyday needs of the laity. The sangha
seems to have begun its phase of "ru:r:-alization," when it was
subject to increasing dependence on royal and "feudal" sup-
port. This becomes the major characteristic in the history of
Mahayana Buddhism, especially of the Gupta and the post-
Gupta periods. Thus, the decline of urbanism and the conse-
quent loss of economic and social power by the mercantile
classes had a direct impact on the nature and developement of
Buddhism ip India.
ls
21
NOTES
1. For details of these developments, see D. D. Kosambi, The Culture and
Civilization of Ancient India (London, 1965), pp. 103 ff.; a more recent devel-
opment of this theme is offered by Jaimal Rai in his The Rural-Urban Economy
and Social Changes in Ancientindia (Delhi, 1974), pp. 165 ff.
2. On the chronology of these texts, see M. Winternitz, A History of
Indian Literature (New York 1971), II, pp. 17 ff.; for the dates of the Buddha
and Asoka, see B. G. Gokhale, Asoka Maurya (New York, 1971), pp. 35, 63;
also see B. G. Gokhale, Buddhism in Maharashtra, (Bombay, 1976), pp. 23 ff.;
on these "elite" groups, see B. G. Gokhale, "The Early Buddhist Elite," Jour-
nal of Indian History, XLIII/II (August 1965), pp. 391-402.
3. J. Kashyap (ed.), The Cullavagga (Nalanda, 1956), pp. 406-409.
4. See G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (London,
1960), II, pp. 1126-1127; hereafter referred to as DPPN.
5. DPPN, II, pp. 1126-1127; B. N. Chaudhury, Buddhist Centres in
Ancient India (Calcutta, 1969), pp. 71-74 (hereafter abbreviated as BCA!);
Balram Srivastava, Trade and Commerce in Ancient India (Varanasi, 1968), pp.
75-76.
6. BCA!,pp. 99-105; DPPN, II, pp. 721-724.
7. BCA!, pp. 43-45; DPPN, 1, pp. 516-520; B. G. Gokhale, Asoka
Maurya (New York, 1966), pp. 75, 164.
8. BCAI, pp. 56-60; DPPN, II, p. 940-943; J. Kashyap (ed.), The Digha
Nikiiya (Nalanda, 1958), II, pp. 92-93.
9. BCA!, pp. 85-87; DPPN, I, pp. 692-695; Gokhale, op. cit., p. 163.
10. BCAI, pp. 182-184; DPPN, I, pp. 344-345; also see B. C. Law,
Ujjayini in Ancient India (Gwalior, 1944), pp. 2-4, 13-15,32-33; J. Kashyap
(ed.), The Mahiivagga (Nalanda, 1956), pp. 214-217; T. W. Rhys Davids and
H. Oldenberg (trans.), Vinaya Texts (Delhi, 1965), pp. 32-40.
11. BCAI, pp. 122-123: DPPN, I, pp. 855-856; J. Kashyap (ed.), The
Mahiivagga, pp. 327 ff.
12. For the term nigama, see Jaimal Rai, op. cit., pp. 160-161.
13. For the Briihmar;agamas, see B. G. Gokhale, "Brahmanas in Early
Buddhist Literature," in Journal of Indian History, XLVIII/I, pp. 51-61.
14. See G.S.P. Misra, The Age of Vinaya (New Delhi, 1972), pp.
249-260; also see Balram Srivastava, op. cit., pp. 268-283.
15. For the reemergence of "villagism" see D. D. Kosambi, op. cit., pp.
103 ff.
16. For the Buddha and the "caste" system of his times see B. G. Gok-
hale, Buddhism in Maharashtra, pp. 26 ff.
17. DPPN, II, p.1127.
18. See B. G. Gokhale, op., cit., p. 162; for inscriptional evidence of the
Sunga-Kanva period, see H. Luders, Appendix to Epigraphia Indica (Calcutta,
1912), X, Nos. 347, 1248,299,867.
22
Pilgrimage and the Structure
of Sinhalese Buddhism
by John C. Holt
Throughout the history of Buddhism in South and Southeast
Asia, Buddhists have undertaken religious pilgrimages to sa-
cred places where, according to tradition, bodily relics of the
Buddha are enshrined. This "cult of traces"l has been so wide-
spread and powerful that at least one scholar has suggested that
in the formative period of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka,
it provided the primary focal point of spiritual orientation for
much of the lay tradition.
2
As the monastic community focused
its cultic activities upon the study, recitation and interpretation
of the Buddha's teachings (dhammakaya) , the laity propitiated
the Buddha through venerating the remains of his physical
body (rupakaya). These two orientations represent the means by
which the monastic and lay segments of the early Buddhist
community sustained the legacy of the Buddha's life and teach-
ings. The origins of this division of spiritual labor may be found
in texts that are as ancient as the Mahiiparinibbiina Sutta of the
Dzgha Nikaya, articulated perhaps within one hundred years of
the death of the Buddha,
However, pilgrimage to sacred places where relics of the
Buddha are enshrined is more than a matter of commemorat-
ing the great master. The Buddha's relics were popularly be-
lieved to be latent manifestations of miraculous power. Pious
political rulers assumed that possession of the Buddha's relics
legitimated and strengthened their abilities to rule.
3
From the
time of the Indian emperor Asoka in the third century B.C.,
relics were closely associated with temporal power.
In modern Sri Lanka, kingship is now a matter of past his-
tory. Yet pilgrimage to sacred places associated with the Bud-
23
dha's relics continues to be a widespread religious practice. One
of the holiest shrines in Sri Lanka is the Dalada Maligawa
(Temple of the Tooth) in Kandy. At all times during the year,
especially during the annual Asala Perahara festival in July-
August, thousands of traditional-minded Buddhists make a pil-
grimage in order to honor the Buddha's relic. This is a brief
study of pilgrimage to Kandy and its wider significance within
the structure of Sinhalese Buddhism.
I. The Symbolism of the Relic and its Ritual Importance
Of the several reasons for the da(ada's (tooth-relic's) con tin-
ous charismatic appeal for traditional Buddhists, one of the
most important is its past association with the power of Sinha-
lese Buddhist kings.
The Dathavarrtsa-written by Dhammakitti in the twelfth
century A.D. and purportedly based upon an ancient Sinhalese
poem, the Da(adavarrtsa-contains a mythic account
4
of how the
relic remained in Dantapura
5
under the patronage of a long
line of righteous kings. According to this account, in the fourth
century A.D. an Indian king, Guhaslva, converted to Bud-
dhism, thereby angering the brahmaI).ical priests of his court.
War followed when the priests complained to the PaI).Qu king at
Pataliputra. To insure the continued safety of the relic, Gu-
haslva gave it to his daughter and son-in-law and told them to
take it to Ceylon. When they arrived with the relic, the Sinha-
lese king paid it great homage and placed it in a shrine known
as the Dhammacakka. From that time, Buddhist kings protected
the tooth-relic as if its well-being constituted one of their pri-
mary responsibilities.
The Dathavarrtsa's account contains a number of significant
motifs familiar to the traditional chronicles of Sri Lanka. In the
first instance, off-spring of a converted Indian Buddhist mon-
arch are sent on a royal mission to take relics to Sri Lanka. This
parallels the Mahavarrtsa's account of how the alms-bowl Relic
and scion of the Bodhi Tree were brought to Sri Lanka by
Mahinda and Sanghamitta during Asoka's kingship.6 Second,
its placement by the Sinhalese king in the Dhamma-cakka shrine
explicitly identifies the relic with the king's duty to "rule by
24
righteousness."7 Third, the legend helps to sustain a national
belief that the future well-being of the Buddha's religion is in
the hands of the Sinhalese people.
8
An earlier account of the rdic's importance is given by the
Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien, who traveled in Ceylon during the
5th century. By the time of Fa-Hien's account, venerating the
tooth-relic had become an auspicious means for the king and
the laity to "amass merit for themselves."9 Ten days before the
king sponsored a grand procession of the relic from his palace
to the Abhyagiri monastery in Anuradhapura, a royal an-
nouncement containing a description of the Buddha's career as
a bodhisattva was issued. The description, reminiscent of the
Vessantara jataka, emphasizes how the Buddha sacrificed his
entire kingdom out of compassion f(}r the well-being of the
world and implies that the bodhisattva career of the Buddha
had already become an ideal model for Buddhist kings to emu-
late. Thus, by the fifth century, the tooth relic seems already to
have become the king's own personal talisman and "palladium
of the Sinhalese people."lO
Bardwell Smith writes that the tooth relic continued to be
of immense symbolic importance to Buddhist kings during the
early medieval Polonnaruva period: "The regalia needed by
monarchs to authenticate their sovereignty included the Tooth
Relic and the Alms-Bowl Relic. The suspicion or dubious lin-
eage that their absence implied spelled the promise of dire
consequences. When taken, they were to be retrieved at any
COSt."11 The symbolic importance of the tooth relic for the le-
gitimacy of Buddhist kingship was not lost upon the people of
the kingdom. The king's close association with the relic under-
scored the popular belief that the king was actually a "Buddha-
in-the-making," the most pious religious layman of the realm. 12
His possession of the relic gave him access to sacral power
which, ideally, he would use for the general well-being and
security of his people. In this way, "royal power was regarded
as an instrument of cosmic power."13
The king's relationship to this cosmic power was graphical-
ly illustrated in the ritual life of the city, a ritual life in which the
tooth relic played an important role. The capital seems to have
functioned as a sacred center, an axis mundi, from which righ-
teous power through ritual performance was thought to be
25
magically radiated to the outlying provinces to insure stability
and order. The king, thus, occupied a mediating position be-
tween cosmic power and his people. Rituals and relics were
magical conduits of power enabling the king to meet his pre-
scribed royal duties.
During the Kandyan period, the king's relationships to cos-
mic power and to his people were brought into unparalleled
high relief with the inauguration of the annual Asala Perahara
procession. In the middle of the eighteenth century, King Klrti
Sri Rajasirnha initiated sweeping religious and political reforms
that he hoped would legitimate his South Indian Nayakkar
dynasty in the eyes of the Sinhalese people.
14
Early in his reign,
he reestablished orthodox lines of monastic ordination for the
Asgiri}"a and Malwatta nikayas (monastic chapters) in Kandy.
Since the sangha was also a traditional source of legitimation
for Buddhist kings, the importation of Siamese monks to con-
fer upasarrtpada (ordination) upon aspiring Sinhalese aristo-
cratic monks Onstituted a calculated move to strengthen his
rule. But the move almost backfired. The Siamese became
grievously offended when they witnessed the king promoting a
perahara (procession) in which Hindu gods wre publically ven-
erated and dignified to the exclusion of the Buddha.
15
Klrti Sri
reacted to the monks' condemnation with discretion: "A new
da?ada (tooth relic) perahiira was introduced into the general
ritual complex and was given primacy over all other perahiiras.
The perahiira in this form reestablished the primacy of Bud-
dhism within the Sinhalese religious system."16
In so doing, the king wittingly or unwittingly fused to-
gether two powerful and ancient ritual traditions. Before the
inclusion of the tooth relic into the ritual proceedings of the
Asala Perahara, the ceremony consisted chiefly in the propitia-
tion of deities who were petitioned by Hindu priests to insure
the fertility and prosperity of the realm. Although the inclusion
of the da?ada in the ritual proceedings may have reestablished
the primacy of Buddhism, the gods were by no means banished
from the annual rites. Today, one of the major events of the
Asala festival is a ritual circumambulation of four wooden kapa
(poles), which symbolizes the king's former petitions to the gods
for the kingdom's fertility and prosperity.I7 This ritual tradi-
tion complements the second rite of circumambulation, which
26
was j.ntroduced to accommodate the importance of the dalada.
In that second circumambulation, the king, with the dalada ca-
parisoned on a royal elephant, led a procession around the
boundaries of Kandy in a symbolic "capture" or "righteous con-
quest." Together, the two circumambulation rites represent a
dramatic theatrical enactment of what numerous scholars refer
to as "the doctrine of the exemplary center."18 More specifical-
ly, these rites represent an ontogeny of the king'spower, which
was rooted in ritually currying favor with the gods and invok-
ing the power of the Buddha. The former insured prosperity,
the latter righteous political order.
When the British seized the relic during their takeover of
Kandy in 1815, some Buddhists openly worried about the fu-
ture of Buddhism, while others (including the British)19 be-
lieved that possession of the dalada would guarantee colonial
hegemony. But since 1847 (when the British, under severe
pressure from Christian groups in Britain as well as in Ceylon,
turned over custody of the relic to the Asgiriya and Malwatta
monasteries), the dalada has officially been regarded as a reli-
gious object only. Thus, Wilhelm Geiger has written:
At the present the Dalada is no longer a symbol of political
power, but is the revered centre of worship for all pious
Buddhists living in Ceylon and for many thousands of
pilgrims who come from abroad each year to profess their
veneration and devotion for that holy relic of the Great
Master of the World.
20
Although Geiger's statement is formally correct, it cannot be
denied that the relic's continued popularity is due in part to a
resurgence in "civil religion" among Sinhalese Buddhists in the
19th and 20th centuries.
21
That is, the relic continues to sym-
bolize the traditional cultural and social values of Sinhalese
culture. Government tourism officials actively promote the
Asala Perahara at home and abroad as a national holiday cele-
brating indigenous customs and cultural identity. The relic's
continued political symbolism is recognized by modern-day
Sinhalese politicians, who find it expedient to participate in the
d a ~ a d a ' s ritual procession or conspicuously to visit the Dalada
Maligava.
22
It is also evident that the Asala Perahara procession
continues to depict symbolically the social structure of Kandyan
27
society.23 What these social and political facts reflect is that the
da(ada is a public symbol which expresses the continuing close
association between religion and politics in this contemporary
Asian society. 24 ..
Therefore, pilgrimage to Kandy constitutes both a religious
and political act, especially in these times when Tamil separat-
ism appears to be regaining some momentum in Sri Lanka.
While it is clear that many traditional Buddhists undertake the
pilgrimage to Kandy for purely religious reasons, and that their
religious behavior exhibits a personal devotion to the Buddha
resembling that of Hindu bhakti, the entire pilgrimage com-
plex retains something of its medieval ethos. From its partici-
pants, it commands a reverential "civitas." Even the three daily
prayers offered by officiating bhikkhus at the Dalada Maligava
repesent petitions to the Buddha for the continued moral or-
der and prosperity of the realm.
25
H. L. Seneviratne, whose
studies of ritual life in Kandy are especially definitive, has re-
ferred to the public Asala Perahara performances and ritual
life in the temple as part of a "creative and selective process" by
which a traditional culture is asserting its indigenous systems of
value and power in response to changes brought about by
modernity.26 That is, while significant numbers of traditional
Sinhalese have remained separated from new forms of culture
and social, economic and political power, pilgrimage to Kandy
remains a means to assert and maintain beliefs in indigenous
concepts of power and cultural legitimation. Or, pilgrimage to
Kandy is a religious act affirming traditional modes of power
used to maintain order and prosperity.
II. Pilgrimage to Kandy and the Structure of Sinhalese Buddhism
The comparative study of pilgrimage has much in common
with the comparative study of religion in general. Pilgrimage
patterns are cross-cultural, historically archaic, and persistently
popular. Within these patterns both cognitive and affective for-
mulations of spiritual piety may be significant for both the per-
sonal and social orientations of existence. Also, while pilgrim-
age, like religion, can be defined in relatively simplistic terms,
there is no single body of critical theory that can serve as a
28
wholly adequate framework for its definitive interpretation.
Like religion in general, pilgrimage seems to resist facile reduc-
tions. It is no doubt true that the pilgrimage process in general,
especially from an existential perspective, manifests a uniform
structure: Turner is largely correct in identifying that process
in terms of separation, liminality and re-aggregation.
27
More-
over, it is equally clear that pilgrimage, as a devotional act, can
result in a transformation or regenertion of social and religious
identities. However, differing types of religious behavior ob-
servable at various sacred places of pilgrimage also indicate that
pilgrimage may not necessarily climax in "exterior mysticism,"
or in an anti-structural, convivial, egalitarian "communitas."28
Rather, a comparative study of religious behavior at various
pilgrimage sites indicates that certain sacred places are settings
for specific types of religious behaviors, not all of which con-
form to Turner's notion. In the case of Kandy, I have charac-
terized this behavior as reverential "civitas." I will now deter-
mine the significance of pilgrimage to Kandy first within the
context of Sinhalese Buddhist religion and then within a cross-
cultural comparative context.
While pilgrimage to Kandy sustains the ethos of the public
civil religion formerly administered and symbolized by the
presence of the king, other sacred places in Sri Lanka and India
express other dominant spiritual orientations of great impor-
tance to the Sinhalese. Bodh Gaya in India, the seat of Gotama's
enlightenment, and Sarnath, the place of the Buddha's first
sermon, have been for centuries the destinations of pious Bud-
dhist pilgrims, especially Theravada bhikkhus. Gunawardana
has pointed out that pilgrimage to sacred places in India associ-
ated with the most important events in the life of Gotama con-
tinuously resulted in the cross-fertilization of Theravada Bud-
dhist traditions during the medieval periods of Sinhalese
history.29 Then, as now, Sarnath and, especially, Bodh Gaya,
are centers of Buddhist cultural integration.
More importantly, however, observable religious behavior
at Bodh Gaya and Sarnath has very little in common with the
ritual life carried out in Kandy. At Bodh Gaya, except for the
remnants of an Asokan gateway, signs of kingship and civil
religion are totally absent. There are no public pageants or
processions celebrating ethnicity or nationalism. Here, the fo-
29
cus is upon the mythic events surrounding the enlightenment
of the Buddha. Buddhist pilgrims, escorted either by Tibetan,
Japanese, Burmese, Thai or Sinhalese monks, visit seven holy
sites within the boundaries of the Mahabodhi shrine that com-
memorate the Buddha's activities before, during and after his
enlightenment. The emphasis, in all forms of ritual behavior at
Bodh Gaya, is upon the paradigmatic spirituality of the Bud-
dha, a spirituality which can be and has been emulated for
centuries by Buddhist religious virtuosos. In each of the na-
tional temples representing the various strands of Buddhist
tradition, the life of the Buddha is depicted either in mural
paintings or in a series of framed pictures. Thus, at Bodh Gaya,
what is venerated is not the "this-worldly" power of the Buddha
and the means by which that power can be utilized to sustain
the moral order and prosperity of a nation, realm of kingdom.
Rather, what is quietly celebrated, in meditation and com-
memoration, is the path to nibbana through enlightenment, of
which the life"of the Buddha is a model. Therefore, in refer-
ence to a frequently employed metaphor for describing the
structure of Theravada Buddhism (the "two wheels of
Dhamma"30) , pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya constitutes a cultic affir-
mation of the religious quest for an "other-worldly" nibbana.
That is, in contrast to Kandy, where "this-worldly" Buddhaic
power is symbolized by the tooth-relic and its association with
Sinhalese Buddhist ethnicity or nationhood, Bodh Gaya is a
place of pilgrimage celebrating spiritual transcendence of the
social and temporal world, the path which leads beyond condi-
tioned, sarpsaric existence. To put it another way, Kandy is an
axis mundi for the establishment of orderly power in this world
while Bodh Gaya symbolizes the Buddhist quest for liberation
beyond all forms of order. Unlike pilgrims to Kandy, most
pilgrims to Bodh Gaya, at least until modern times, have been
bhikkhus. In the life of the Buddha and in the Bodhi Tree that
symbolizes the Buddha's enlightenment, bhikkhus envisaged
the possibility of their own spiritual emancipations. In the Bud-
dha's life they find a personal model which inspires emulation.
Here, the pilgrimage experience is one of commemorating the
spiritual paradigm of the master.
But the social "this-worldly" and personal "other-worldly"
orientations represented by pilgrimage to Kandy on the one
30
hand and pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya on the other do not exhaust
all dimensions of Sinhalese Buddhist spirituality. Neither the
Buddha nor the power symbolized by his relics can come to the
. direct aid of those faithful experiencing an immediate personal
crisis. In times of physical affliction or mental anxiety, many
Buddhist laity undertake pilgrimages to the shrines of deities
who, although occupying subordinate positions in relation to
the Buddha within the Sinhalese hierarchical pantheon, are
believed to have the power and disposition to respond to the
fervent pleas of their faithful. In modern-day Sri Lanka, in-
creasing numbers of Sinhalese Buddhists make pilgrimages to
the shrine of Skanda, the son of Siva, also known as M urugan,
or more popularly, as Kataragama. Although Kataragama is
the god par excellence of the Ceylon Tamils of the J affna pen-
insula, many Sinhalese Buddhists participate in Kataragama's
annual perahiira festival, which recalls the god's mythic love
affair with a Vedda maiden and his establishment of a shrine
where he responds to the needs of his devotees. Here, religious
experience and religious behavior cannot be characterized in
terms of reverential "civitas" or commemoration of the Bud-
dha's paradigmatic spirituality. Rather, the cult of Kataragama
involves an astonishing array of ascetic and exotic forms of
ritual behavior, all engaged in out of either intense emotional
gratitude to Kataragama for healing various afflictions, or as a
means of persuading him to intervene on the devotee's behalf.
The cultic ambience at Kataragama is utterly bhakti. That is, it
is decidedly emotional and devotional in tone and frequently
culminates in states of intense ecstasy.31 Furthermore, worship
here is highly personal, emphasizing the intimacy between the
devotee and his god.
While Bodh Gaya represents the nibbanic orientation or
model of spiritual quest ideally emulated by the Theravada
bhikkhu, and while Kandy represents the public civil religion
legitimated by the presence of the tooth-relic and its past associ-
ation with traditional power, Kataragama is a sacred place
where individuals can appeal to perceived active divine power
to intercede on their behalf. Kataragama is not a Buddha who
has transcended sarp.sara, nor is he a protector of the nation-
state. He represents a form of sacral power that is immediately
accessible to the common person in times of great personal
31
need. Ecstatic and petitionary devotionalism at Kataragama is
thus quite different from the spirituality of the bhikkhus,
whose religious quests are based upon rigorous self-effort or
spiritual discipline. Kataragama represents "other-power"
manifest in "this-world." Although the power of the tooth-relic
in Kandy might also be described in this way, its power was (and
is) traditionally appropriated for the general well-being of the
king and thus the nation, while the power of the god Katara-
gam a is enlisted for the benefit of any individual devotee who is
willing to undertake austerities of self-mortification to express
deep faith.
By comparing pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya and Kataragama
with pilgrimage to Kandy, we see beginning to emerge a struc-
ture reflective of Sinhalese Buddhist religion in general, a reli-
gion replete with varying modalities of religious experience
and religious expression. That is, none of the pilgrimages can
be singled out as embodying a root metaphor characteristic of
the general spiritual quest of all Sinhalese Buddhists. Rather,
what this comparison suggests is that there are at least three
major orientations within Sinhalese religion: 1) Bodh Gaya, a
pilgrimage site commemorating the enlightenment experience
of the paradigmatic Gotama, represents the spiritual orienta-
tion of the Theravada bhikkhu quest for nibbana through en-
lightenment; 2) Kataragama, a pilgrimage site where access to
transformative "this-worldly" sacral power is sought, represents
the orientation of the faithful lay devotee for whom the enlight-
enment quest of the bhikkhu is but a distant future possibility;
and 3) Kandy, a pilgrimage site where religion legitimates a
people's religious, cultural and political past and present
through civil ceremony, represents an orientation shared by
bhikkhu and layman alike: a national quest to preserve and
promote the religion of the Buddha and consequently to main-
tain prosperity and moral order in society as a whole.
These three religious orientations, which are evident from
this consideration of types of pilgrimage within Sinhalese reli-
gion, are not, however, entirely unrelated. What all three pil-
grimages have in common is functional in nature: the need to
cope with various manifestations of dukkha (suffering, unsatis-
factoriness), the basic problem of human existence as perceived
from within the Buddhist world view.
32
Thus, Sinhalese reli-
32
gious beliefs and practices, as they can be ascertained through a
study of pilgrimages, represent complementary modes of re-
sponse to specific aspects of the human condition. While dukkha
is specified in particular fashion by individuals on the basis of
their own personal experiences, types of response are in part
determined by religious role (lay or monastic). From this per-
spective, pilgrimage to Kandy is ritual participation in public
ceremonies traditionally designed to avert civil, ethnic, or na-
tional disintegration. That is, within the total field of Sinhalese
religion, mass pilgrimage to Kandy represents continued affir-
mation of the sacralizing power of the Buddha to meet the
collective material and social needs of the people. The "emo-
tional response"33 of thousands of peasants to the tooth-relic's
annual procession attests to its continuing perceived efficacy as
sacral power. Or finally, to phrase this another way, pilgrimage
to Kandy is an act of collective allegiance to the traditional
religious way of life upon which the indigenous order of social
and economic existence has been based.
III. Cross-cultural Comparisons to the Kandyan Pilgrimage
In his recent book on pilgrimage and Christian culture, Victor
Turner has identified Kandy as a "prototypical" pilgrimage. By
"prototypical," he means "those pilgrimages which, on the au-
thority of documentary or widespread traditional evidence,
were established by the founder of a historical religion, by his
first disciples, or by important national evangelists .... " He
continues: "Such pilgrimages, though sometimes founded on
ancient sites, dramatically manifest-in their symbolism,
charter narratives, ecclesiastical structure, and general interna-
tional repute-the orthodoxy of the faith from which they have
sprung, and remain consistent with root paradigms." He goes
on to cite as examples Jerusalem and Rome for Christianity,
Mecca for Islam, Benares and Mt. Kailas for Hinduism and
Kandy for Buddhism. Syncretic or archaic pilgrimages, which
constitute his second type, are distinguished from "prototypi-
cal" pilgrimages in that they manifest "quite evident traces of
syncretism with older religious beliefs and symbols." Finally,
limiting the third and fourth types of pilgrimages to examples
33
taken only from the Christian tradition, he distinguishes be-
tween "medieval" pilgrimages "which take their tone from the
theological and philosophical emphasis of that epoch," and
"modern" pilgrimages which "are characterized by a highly
devotional tone and the fervent personal piety of their adher-
ents." With further regard to modern pilgrimages, he states
that they "form an important part of the system of apologetics
deployed against the advancing secularization of the post-Dar-
winian world."34
The great strength of Turner's interpretive model and his
typological schema is that it attempts to ascertain the intimate
nature of relations which might exist between metaphor and
ritual, belief and practice, or spiritual and social experiences.
By appealing to cognitive structures (myth, beliefs and their
metaphorical expressions) on the one hand, and their idiomatic
ritual expression within historical and social contexts on the
other, Turner has advanced a theoretical tour de force that is
especially relevant to diachronic frames of reference.
Yet, it does not necessarily follow that his classification
schema, developed to interpret the significance of pilgrimage
in Christian culture, is easily portable.
In attempting to confirm Turner's classification of Kandy
as a "prototypical" pilgrimage, I have encountered a variety of
problems. For instance, Kandy seems to meet all of the criteria
Turner cites as indicative of his last three types of pilgrimage: it
is highly syncretic (veneration of Hindu gods forms an impor-
tant part of the ritual proceedings), it is late medieval (having
been established by Klrti Sri in the middle of the eighteenth
century), and, as Seneviratne argues, it is an indigenous cul-
tural response to modernity. With reference to its being "proto-
typical," while it is true that Kandy is regarded, especially with-
in Sri Lanka, as a center of orthodoxy (given the presence of
two prestigious monastic chapters), one wonders about the
orthodoxy of the "root paradigm" to which it is "faithful." What
ritual life at Kandy does depict is the intimate relationship estab-
lished in Sri Lanka between spiritual and temporal power, or
between religion and politics and the structure of society. Per-
haps this may be regarded as a "root paradigm" for a tradi-
tional public structure, but it does not really reflect a spiritual
paradigm to be emulated personally by individual Buddhists.
34
Bodh Gaya on the other hand, does, and Kataragama and oth-
er shrines provide a complementary personal orientation for
the laity. I do not mean to ignore the private orientation of
pilgrimage to Kandy; but even when one takes into account
that individual pilgrims petition the power of the relic for their
own personal reasons, one is still left with the problem of recon-
ciling this kind of religious behavior to the "root paradigm" of
the Buddha's quest of enlightenment through self-effort.
These considerations lead me to call into question the compari-
son of Kandy to other such "prototypical" pilgrimages.
Kandy is not a "Mecca" of the Buddhist world. While An-
garika Dharmapala once referred to Bodh Gaya as "the Bud-
dhist J ersusalem"35 during his fight to return Buddhist sacred
places in India to Buddhist hands, nowhere does one find re-
ferences within the tradition that make such grandiose claims
about Kandy. More accurately, Kandy represents simulta-
neously a sacred palce of pilgrimage and the traditional center
of Sinhalese highland ethnicity. Kandy is not a "center out
there," in the peripheral sense in which Turner coined the
phrase. Rather, it has more in common with regional cultural
centers in India that are also accorded sacrality due the promi-
nent presence of a ritual symbol that evokes recurrent senti-
ments of religio-ethnic heritage and autonomy legitimated by
sacral power. In considering comparable sacred places, Kandy
has more in common with the Sikh center of Amritsar in the
Punjab with its Golden Temple, within which is housed the
Guru Granth Sahib, a symbol of God's continuing providence.
Or again, Kandy is somewhat similar to Santa Fe, New Mexico,
and the associated symbol of Our Lady of Conquest. 36 In both
of these examples, ritual proceedings, either in the form of
annual processions or in individual.acts of devotion which take
place at specific shrines within the precincts of a sacred center,
celebrate the special past relationship enjoyed between a people
and the divine, however the divine is perceived. That is, sacred
places like Kandy are sustained in popularity because they af-
firm the unique religio-cultural identity of a given people.
Thus, the attractive power of Kandy as a sacred place of pil-
grimage is due less to pan-Buddhist associations than to a par-
ticular people's understanding of its special, historical relation-
ship to sacral power, which in the past insured their continued
35
collective legitimated existence in the face of the ambiguities of
life, understood traditionally by them as dukkha.
I have attempted to construct a new typology for pilgrim-
ages, which I believe is more relevant to the inherent structures
of Sinhalese religion. Rather than basing this typology upon
historical origins, as Turner has done in his own work, I have
concluded that a typology based upon types of religious exper-
iences and religious behavior is more fitting. Pilgrimages in Sri
Lanka reflect the three-fold orientation of Sinhalese religion:
the paradigmatic spirituality of the Buddha, the civil religion of
the Sinhalese people, and, as Obeyesekere has recently charac-
terized it, "the rising tide of bhakti religiosity in Buddhist Sri
Lanka."37 By understanding the significance of pilgrimage
within these three orientations, we can gain a more accurate
awareness of how a people of central importance to the history
and maintenance of the Buddhist tradition have articulated the
various dimensions of their own spirituality through a recog-
nizable modality of religious expression that is culturally ubi-
quitious.
NOTES
1. Nancy Falk uses this phrase to designate the tradition "in which the
Buddha is said to have authorized both the familiar pilgrims' visits to the
great sites associated with his life and the practices associated with his relics
and stilpas." See Nancy Falk, "To Gaze on the Sacred Traces," History oj
Religions 16 (May, 1977), p. 285, n. 15; for the canonical version of the origins
of relic veneration, see Mahaparinibbana Suttanta in Dfgha Nikaya (Dialogues oj
the Buddha), trans. and ed. by T. W. Rhys Davids in Sacred Books oj the Bud-
dhists, Vol, 3 (London: Pali Text Society, 1977; first published in 1910): pp.
154-57 and pp. 185-91.
2. See further discussion and relevant bibliography in Frank Reynolds,
"The Several Bodies of Buddha: Reflections on a Neglected Aspect of Thera-
vada Tradition," History oj Religions 16 (May, 1977): pp. 374-89.
3. Even before the arrival of the tooth relic in the 4th century C. E., relics
assumed major importance in the ritual life and symbolism of Sinhalese roy-
alty. For a summary, see Tilak Hettiarachy, History oj Kingship in Ceylon up to
the Fourth Century A. D. (Colombo: Lakehouse Investments, 1972), pp. 25-29
passim; for another excellent study of the prominence of relics in relation to
royal imagery, see Alice Greenwald, "The Relic on the Spear: Historiography
and the Saga of DunhagamanI," in Bardwell Smith, ed., Religion and the Legiti-
36
mation of Power in Sri Lanka (Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1978), pp.
13-35.
4. A detailed summary of the legend may be found in G. P. Malalase-
kera, The Pali Literature of Ceylon (Colombo: M. D. Gunasena and Co., 1928),
pp. 65-68; and A. M. Hocart, The Temple of the Tooth in Kand)l, Memoirs of the
Archeological Survey of Ceylon, Vol, IV (London: Luzac and Co., 1931), pp.
1-5.
5. Walpola Rahula notes that according to the Da\havaT(lsq, Dantapura
was located in Kalinga. Cf. A HistolJI of Buddhism in CeJllon (Colombo: M. D.
Gunasena, 1956), p. 97. He further cites Percey Brown's Indian Architecture,
wherein Brown identifies Dantapura with Pilri or Bhubaneswar. Brown be-
lieves that the Jagganath Temple "occupies the site of some still more ancient
monument, not improbably the shrine of the Buddha's tooth at Dantapura."
6. MahtivaT{lsa, Wilhelm Geiger, ed. and trans. (London: Luzac and Co,
1964; originally published in 1912), pp. 89-96. The DatZlavaT{lsa account was
no doubt intended to establish the s a ~ e degree of authenticity for the da(ada
as the MahavaT{lsa account had done for the Alms-Bowl Relic.
7. The language of "righteousness" consistently applied to ritual and
ethical acts of the king is rooted in conceptions of Buddhist kingship mod-
elled after the ideal cakravartin ("turner of the wheel" of righteousness). For
scriptural accounts of the cakravartin ideal in the Theravada canon, see the
Cakkavatti-Sfhanada and Aggaiiiia suttas in the Dfgha Nikaya 4, 59-76 and 77-
94. For detailed interpretations see S. J. Tambiah, World Conqueror, World
Renouncer (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 32-72;
B. Smith, "The Ideal Social Order as Portrayed in the Chronicles of Ceylon,"
in Smith, ed., The Two Wheels of Dhamma (Chambersburg, PA: American
Academy of Religion, 1972), pp. 31-57; B. G. Gokhale, "Early Buddhist
Kingship," ] oumal of Asian Studies 26 (1966), pp. 15-22; and especially E.
Sarkisyanz, Buddhist Back-grounds of the Burmese Revolution (The Hague: Mar-
tinus Nijhoff, 1965), pp. 10-97; Joseph Kitagawa's brief article "Buddhism
and Asian Politics," Asian Survey 2 (1962), contains a brief overview of the
theme.
8. This belief, set forth in the opening pages of the MahtivaT(lSa, is exam-
ined in detail by Regina Clifford, "The Dhammadlpa Tradition of Sri Lanka:
Three Models within the Sinhalese Chronicles," in Smith, ed., Religion and
Legitimation, pp. 36-47.
9. Fa-Hien, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, trans. by James Legge (Lon-
don: Oxford University Press, 1886; reprint ed., New York: Dover Publica-
tions, 1965), pp. 104-07.
10. Malalasekera, p. 66; cf. G. C. Mendis, The Early Histo1J1 of Ceylon
(Calcutta: YMCA Publishing House, 1954), pp. 58-59; Howard Wriggins,
Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press,
1960), p. 180 n. 18, compares it to the crown of St. Stephen in Hungary.
Other scholars have compared it to Constantine's Labarum and Thailand's
Holy Emerald Buddha.
11. Bardwell Smith, "Polonnaruva as a Ceremonial Complex: Sinhalese
Cultural Identity and the Dilemmas of Pluralism," in A. K. Narain, ed., Studies
37
in History oj Buddhism (New Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation, 19S0), p.
310.
12. Tambiah, World Conqueror, p. 96, cites a tenth century inscription
which r e , ~ d s : "The king is a Bodhisattva on whom the Sangha bestows king-
ship ...
13. Bardwell Smith, "The Ideal Social Order," p. 50.
14. On the manner in which Klrti Sri strengthened his reign in the eyes
of the Kandyan aristocracy by means of the numerous reforms he intro-
duced, see L. S. Dewaraja, The Kandyan Kingdom oj Ceylon 1707-1760 (Co-
lombo: Lake House Investments, 1972, esp. pp. 94-11S.
15. Sir Richard Alumhare, The Kandy Esala Perahara (Colombo: Ceylon
Daily News, 1952), p. 2.
16. Kitsiri Malalgoda, Buddhism in Sinhalese Society 1750-1900, (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976), p. 64.
17. H. L. Seneviratne, Rituals oJ the Kandyan State (Cambridge, UK: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1975), pp. 71-72 writes that the kapa symbolize the
sacred center or axis mundi of the kingdom.
IS. The phrase belongs to Clifford Geertz, who defines it as "the theory
that the court-and-capital is at once a microcosm of the supernatural order-
an image of the universe on a smaller scale-and the material embodiment of
the political order. It is not just the nucleus or the engine, or the pivot of the
state, it is the state. The equation of the seat of rule with the dominion of rule
is more than an accidental metaphor; it is a settlement of a controlling politi-
cal idea-namely, that by the mere act of providing a model, a paragon, a
faultless image of civilized existence, the court shapes the world around it into
at least a rough approximation of its own excellence. The ritual life of the
court, and in fact, the life of the court generally, is thus paradigmatic, not
merely reflective, of social order. What it is reflective of, the priests declare, is
a supernatural order, 'the timeless Indian world' of the gods upon which men
should, in strict proportion for their status, seek to pattern their lives." In
Negara: The Theatre-State in Nineteenth Century Bali (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1981), p. 13. Tambiah applies the "doctrine of the exempla-
ry center" to medieval Thai polity in World Conqueror, p. 123; Smith-citing
Paul Wheatley's Pivot oj the Four Quarters (Chicago: Aldine Press, 1971), Rob-
ert Redfield's and Milton Singer's "The Cultural Role of Cities," Economic
Development and Cultural Change 3 (1954): 53-72) and Robert Heine-Geldern's
classic "Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia," Data Paper:
Number IS, Southeast Asia Program (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1956),
pp. 1-3-applies the model to ritual life in Polonnaruva, in "Sinhalese Cul-
tural Identity," pp. 295 and 30S-10. Its application to Kandy is self-evident.
19. Malalgoda, pp. lIS, quotes a British official upon the relic's seizure:
"We have this day obtained the surest proof of the confidence of the Kandyan
nation and their acquiescence in the Dominion of British Government."
20. Culture oj Ceylon in Medieval Times, Heinz Bechert, ed., (Wiesbaden:
Otto Harrassowitz, 1960), p. 215.
21. Seneviratne, pp. 137-46.
38
22. Ibid., p. 137.
23: Ibid., pp. 112-14; cf., Nur Yalman, Under the Bo Tree: Studies in Caste,
Kinship and Marriage in the hiterioT of Ceylon (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1971), p. 58.
24. For an excellent assessment of Buddhism's political participation in
recent Sinhalese politics, see Wriggins, Dilemmas, pp. 169-210; for a study of
modern Buddhist political thought in Sri Lanka, see Bruce Matthews, "The
Sinhalese Buddhist Attitude Toward Parliamentary Democracy,'? Ceylon Jour-
nal of Historical and Social Studies 6 Guly-Dec., 1976), pp. 34-47; and Urmila
Phadnis, Religion and Politics in Sri Lanka (New Delhi: Manohar Book Service,
1976).
25. Kayena vaca cittena
Pamadena maya kata11J
Accaya'T{! khama me bhante
Bhiiripaiiiia Tathagata.
Devo vassatu kalena
Sassasam patthihetu ca;
Pfto bhavatu loko ca;
Raja bhavatu dhammiko.
A k a s a ~ ~ h a ca bhummaUha
Deva naga Mahiddhika
Punnan ta'T{! anumoditva
Cira'T{! rakkhantu lokasaSana'T{!.
Cited in Hocart, p. 27.
26. Seneviratne, p. 120.
27. Victor Turner, "The Center out there: Pilgrim's Goal," History of
Religions 12 (February, 1973),213-15.
28. Ibid., p. 193. Passim.
29. R. A. L. H. Gunawardana, Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic
Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1979;
Association for Asian Studies Monograph Series, No. XXXV), pp. 260-62.
30. Reynolds, "The Two Wheels of Dhamma: A Study of Early Bud-
dhism," in Smith, Two Wheels, pp. 6-30.
31. For descriptions of cultic life at Kataragama, see Pa"ul Wirz, Katara-
gama: The Holiest Place in Ceylon, translated from the German by Doris B.
Pralle (Colombo: Lake House, 1966); Gananath Obeyesekere, "The Fire
Walkers of Kataragama: The Rise of Bhakti Religiosity in Buddhist Sri
Lanka,"Journal of Asian Studies 37 (May, 1978), pp. 457-78; and Bryan Pfaf-
fenberger, "The Kataragama Pilgrimage: Hindu-Buddhist Interaction and
Its Significance in Sri Lanka's Polyethnic Social System," Journal of Asian
Studies 38 (February, 1979), pp. 253-70.
32. Cf. John Halverson, "Religion and Psycho-social Development in
Sinhalese Buddhism," Journal of Asian Studies 37 (February, 1978), pp. 221-
32.
39
33. Seneviratne, p. 147.
34. Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (New York: Colum-
bia University Press, 1978), pp. 17-19.
35. Malalgoda, p. 255.
36. See the treatment of public symbols and c i ~ i l religion in Ronald
Grimes, Symbol and Conquest: Public and Ritual Drama in Sania Fe, New Mexico
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1976).
37. Obeyesekere, "Fire-Walkers," p. 457.
40
A New Approach to the Intra-
Madhyamika Confrontation over the
Svatantrika and Prasangika
Methods of Refutation
by S hohei I chimura
I
There is good reason to believe that the Vigrahavyavartanz (Vi-
graha. hereafter), one of the definitive works of Nagarjuna, was
not only the starting point of controversy between N aiyayika
logicians and Madhyamika dialecticians, but also the fountain-
head of the intra-Buddhist controversy which divided the
Madhyamika into two camps: the Svatantrika and the Prasan-
gika schools. While the intensity of Hindu-Buddhist confronta-
tion exhibited in classical and medieval India is understandable
in view of their doctrinal differences, the intensity of the intra-
Madhyamika confrontation is somewhat surprising, as the two
camps held the same doctrine, i.e., universal emptiness (Sunya-
ta), differing only in their methods of demonstrating it. The
Svatantrika and the Prasangika, respectively, relied on the syl-
logistic and dialectic
l
forms of argument, both of which, in fact,
were given by Nagarjuna in the Vigraha. The intra-Madhya-
mika dispute, though no doubt contributing to the cause of
methodological refinement, seems at times to have lost sight of
the middle course. In this respec:t, I am inclined to think that
the two methods should be given equal analysis, for the sake of
a clearer understanding of their common doctrinal insight and
method of demonstration. The purpose of this paper is to open
the way to a more balanced analysis of the contesting methods
in terms of the logical principle of anvaya-vyatireka.
2
41
II
Madhyamika studies made a remarkable comeback in
postwar academic circles, with rekindled interest in philosophi-
cal and religious studies of both Madhyamika doctrine and
methodology. In particular, Prof. Murti's interpretation
3
had a
powerful impact on Western minds, as he treated Prasangika
Madhyamika philosophy and dialectic as parallel to the Kantian
critique of Reason. As a result, the Madhyamika dialectic and
the concept of sunyata have been surrounded by an aura of
myth, which has, in turn, made demythologization necessary.
In this respect, I believe the Svatantrika-Prasangika controver-
sy can be instructive; since both methods are supposed to have
been equally designed to reveal the concept of sunyata, there
must be present in their forms some common structural crite-
rion or basis upon which the methods can be equally analyzed,
examined, or justified. I think that this criterion ahd basis can
be determined to be the anvaya and vyatireka operations, or
positive and negative instantiations.
It is generally accepted that Bhavaviveka, the forefather of
the Svatantrika school, divided the higher truth (paramartha-
satya) into two: (a) that which totally transcends discursive
thought (anabhisarrtskara-pravrtti), which is frequently identified
with the lokottara, anasvara, or and (b) that which is
called semi-transcendent (sabhisarrtskara-pravrtti), the suddha-lau-
kika-jnana. In this scheme, the syllogistic method is localized in
the second, intermediary dimension, which connects the lower,
conventional truth (sarrtvrti-satya or vyavahara) to the higher
truth. Candraklrti, the foremost Prasangika, on the other hand,
divided the lower truth into two: (a) that which is conventionally
true (lokata eva satya) and (b) that which is conventionally falla-
cious (lokata eva mithya). He did not set forth any intermediary
dimension such as in Bhavaviveka's scheme, leaving the higher
truth exclusively to the silent inner experience of the enlight-
ened. These divisions can, however, be forsaken for the time
being as inessential to examining and correlating the two meth-
ods in terms of anvaya and vyatireka, since (1) Nagarjuna applied
both methods in Vigraha. and at times translated the dialectic of
the main verses into syllogistic formulas in the commentary;
42
and (2) theoretically, the object of repudiation is exactly the
same for the dialectic and the syllogistic method.
The dictum, that logico-linguistic convention (vyavahara) is
. reliable for repudiating its own practicality, but is not reliable
for directly expressing the higher truth (paramartha-satya), can
equally apply to the Svatantrika and the Prasangika positions,
because Nagarjuna uses both methods to demonstrate the ulti-
mate impracticality of convention in the Vigraha. Taking cues
from this text, Prof. Murti amplified the Prasangika method-
ology,4 claiming that the Madhyamika dialectic is intended to
resolve the conflict inherent in every view (or thesis, and
its opposite, by dealing with the ultimate source of their con-
flict, embedded in Reason. Murti held that this task is to be
accompl'ished by repudiating both views, respectively or in
combination, which are mutually in conflict, and that their re-
pudiation, however, must be accomplished exclusively on the
basis of the self-contradiction disclosed in each view. In his
interpretation, thus, the Madhyamika dialectic deals with the
ultimate seat of inner conflict, functionally indicated in parallel
to the Kantian principle of Reason, which manifests itself in the
conflicting views. In his analysis, however, Murti failed to take
fully into account the Svatantrika methodology, such as the
syllogistic form of argument, which Nagarjuna also used in his
own commentary to the Vigraha. I am inclined to think that
Bhavaviveka must have developed his Svatantrika method on
the basis of this precedent.
III
The Indian syllogistic form of argument is in part induc-
tive, because any universal statement which is crucial to logical
reasoning is required by its rules to be substantiated by some
appropriate instance When Nagarjuna argues against
the reality of sabda (vocal word) in terms of the Abhidharmist
causal concept of hetu-pratyaya-ta, he never fails to abide by such
rules. Take for instance karika 1 of the Vigraha.,5 in which, as
uttered by the Nagarjuna presents a deductive
statement:
43
If all existent entities have no svabhava to be found anywhere
(then) your statement (which is one of them) has no svabbhava.
(But, in this case,) such (an empty) word may not establish
any repudiation.
Commenting on this kariM, Nagarjuna introduces as a dr)tanta
a sprout, and demonstrates that no svabhava is found either in
its causes (hetu) , e.g., a seed; or in its conditions (pratyaya), e.g.
soil; or in both or neither.
6
Next, he provides a similar analysis
of the origin of a vocal word, to the effect that no svabhava is
found either in material elements (mahabhuta), such as air, or in
anatomical factors, such as the vocal chords (throat), tongue,
teeth, etc.
7
Thus, he successfully demonstrates that sabda-pra-
ma1Ja (i.e., speech as a means of knowledge) has no svabhava
either.
8
The entire argument can neatly be formulated in the
traditional five-membered syllogism:
(1) pratijiia: "Vocal word has no svabhava, hence is empty."
(2) netu:'''Because it arises from (multiple) causes and con-
ditions."
(3) udaharaT?a: "Like a sprout,whose own-being (svabhava)
is not found anywhere m those factors."
(4) upanaya: "Similarly, a vocal word has no svabhava any-
where."
(5) nigamana: "Hence, it is ni}:Lsvabhava (without own-be-
ing), hence, empty."
In a standard syllogism, the udahara1Ja is supposed to give uni-
versal concomitance (vyapti) when accompanied by a d!5.tanta.
Nagarjuna omitted it, but obviously implied it in the dntanta
statement. From the inductive point of view, this is sufficient
for the remaining instances, which, although not examined, are
reasonably assumed to be similar in nature.
In formulating his syllogistic arguments, Bhavaviveka con-
forms to Nagarjuna's method very closely in regard to (a) the
subject matter of repudiation and (b) the nature of logical con-
comitance. Although he adopted Dignaga's three-membered
syllogism, he was not bound to it, and, in fact, at times formu-
lated his arguments by the five-membered model. His com-
mentary9 on Madhyamakakarikas IV, 1 (Skandhaparzk5a), for i n ~
stance, includes one such instance. Actually, he gives several
44
syllogisms in that context, of which, however, I shall quote only
three, which include the five-membered formula and thereby
show how Bhavaviveka expresses syllogistically the sameargu-
ments that Nagarjuna expresses dialectically in the Vigraha.
The first half of the karikCi in question reads: "No rupa-skandha
is perceived when its constituent elements (bhutas) are not per-
ceived."lo Bhavaviveka formulates a syllogism as fGllows:!!
(1) pratijna: Transcendentally, the rupaskandha is not real.
(2) hetu: Because its cognition has no reality, because con-
stituent elements are not perceived.
(3) udaharar;,a: Whenever a cognition is unreal because the
constituent elements of its object are not perceived, that
object (of cognition) is unreal, just as "an army" (which
consists of its constituent individual soldiers).
(4) upanaya: Similarly, the cognition of rupaskandha is un-
real because its constituent elements are not perceived.
(5) nigamana: Therefore, the rupaskandha is unreal.
The reality of rupaskandha is repudiated here on the ground
that its cognition is unreal. The following two syllogisms respec-
tively repudiate the reality of the object of cognition
and the object (padartha) of the word-symbol (Sabda): 12
(1) praty'na: Transcendentally, the object of a cognition of
rupaskandha is not real.
(2) hetu: Because it is a (mere) cognition.
(3) Just as a cognition of a forest.
(1) praty'na: Transcendentally, the object-meaning of a
word is unreal.
(2) hetu: Because it is a (merely heard) word (Sabda).
(3) dntanta: Just as the word "army."
Two points are important: (1) Bhavaviveka clearly differ-
entiates four factors of consciousness in his repudiation of ru-
paskandha: (a) cognition, (b) referential object, (c) linguistic sym-
bol and (d) referential meaning. (2) The repudiation of
TLlpaskandha is based on the unreality of its cognition and corre-
sponding object (of the cognition), and on the unreality of its
linguistic symbol and the corresponding meaning (of the sym-
bol). In the Vigraha., Nagarjuna bases his dialectical negation
45
first upon the unreality of sabda-pramar:w, implying repudiation
of its efficiency in fetching its object (prameya), and second, on
the ground that the prama1Ja and the prameya are only recipro-
cally existent, hence unreal.
13
IV
Of the two methods Nagarjuna applies in the Vigraha., his
syllogistic argument is invariably equipped with a singular con-
comitance based on Buddhist causality, i.e., hetu-pratyaya-ta.
This method is analytical, designed to reduce every entity to its
constituent elements, thereby exposing the merely nominal na-
ture of word and universal. Simultaneously, however, as speci-
fied above, it is also designed inductively to validate logical
concomitance. Bhavaviveka conforms to this general Nagarjun-
ian precedent by giving a series of arguments, as shown above.
The problem, however, is that the syllogistic argument which
Bhavaviveka has intimated above will not easily be accepted by
non-Buddhists, precisely because of the particular concomi-
tance inherited from Nagarjuna. To elucidate this point, I shall
quote two model formulas from Bhavaiveka's short essay
Karatalaratna,14 which read as follows:
(1) pratijna: The sar(lskrta-dharmas are empty transcenden-
tally.
(2) hetu: Because they are originated from causes and con-
ditions.
(3) d r ~ t a n t a : Just as things created by magic.
(1) pratijiia: The asar(lskrta-dharmas are empty transcen-
dentally.
(2) hetu: Because they have no origination.
(3) d r ~ t a n t a : Just as a sky-flower.
We notice, at once, three formal peculiarities: (1) the pra-
tijiia is invariably negation, (2) it is controlled by an adverbial
term, paramarthatas, and (3) it has a sapakJa, 'but no vipakJa, i.e.,
there is nothing whatsoever that is not empty. First, although
paramarthatas is attached to the pratijiia, we can easily see that it
is supposed to be ascribed to the concomitance (vyapti). "What-
46
eveLarises from causes and conditions," of which every empiri-
cal entity, such as rilpaskandha, buddhi, sabda, viJaya, etc., can
become a variable as its subject term, must be, from the tran-
scendental point of view, predicated with a negation such as
"asvabhilva/' "silnya," or "asat." Second, the problem of the
tanta comes to the forefront. According to the logical rules of
anvaya and vyatireka, any valid concomitance must separate two
mutually contrapositive classes of things, whereby one class
member can enter the subject term of the concomi-
tance and simultaneously can be predicated by the predicables
specified as concomitant(e.g., a hill predicated as "having
smoke" also be predicated as "having fire"). This constitutes the
rule of anvaya, or positive instantiation. Simultaneously, howev-
er, the other class member (e.g., an iceberg) can never
enter the subject term of the concomitance, nor can they be
predicated by the same predicables. This, then, constitutes the
rule of vyatireka, or negative instantiation. The Svatantrika con-
comitance is, however, designed to establish universal empti-
ness, so as to establish as empty not only every empirical entity
(that arises from causes and conditions) for the class of
but also every member of the class of (that does not
empirically arise). Bhavaviveka places in the latter class
the transcendental dharmas of the Abhidharmist and imagi-
nary entities, such as svabhilva. It is to this latter class of things
that he applies the second syllogism quoted above in
order to introduce transcendental negation on the basis of "em-
pirical non-arising," and thereby applies one and the same
predication: "empty" or "unreal," as applied to the class mem-
bers of This is a flagrant violation of the logical rules.
It is well known that Nagarjuna resorts to metaphors, such
as magical entities (mayavat) , dreams, etc., and that in the Vi-
graha., 15 he applies such instances to demonstrate the fact that
logico-linguistic affirmation and negation as well as the phe-
nomenal interaction of the prama1J,a and prameya are equally
comparable to such entities. As we have already seen, Bhavavi-
veka follows him in this (i.e., "like a sky-flower," which is non-
existent). The problem, however, is that such instances can
hardly convince the opponent engaged in doctrinal contro-
versy. Following Dignaga, Bhavaviveka must have known that
the most effective reason (hetu) is the one (a) that the opponent
47
cannot reject and (b) that embodies one's own establishment of
the basis upon which the opponent's thesis is to be refuted.!6 It
is on this point that Candraklrti focuses his criticism of the
Svatantrika, pointing out that their syllogistic argument is inef-
fectual. Be that as it may, I have somewhat a different evalua-
tion of the Svatantrika syllogistic form of argument, taking into
consideration the singular condition which Nagarjuna presup-
poses for his successful dialectic. I have elsewhere!7 called that
condition the "Dialectical Context" in which the dual oper-
ations of anvaya and vyatireka are necessarily juxtaposed, so as
to bring about a total contradiction. It is in this context that I
believe the Svatantrika method can be redeemed.
v
Both Madhyamika syllogistic and dialectical methods are
intended to review our ordinary experience in terms of the
insight of scinyata, and ultimately, I believe, to dissolve the
sentential construction of the subject (predicated) and the
predicate (predicable), which constitutes the basis of conven-
tion (vyavahara). Take Nagarjuna's dialectic in the Vigraha., for
instance, where the Naiyayika thesis that a cognitive agent (pra-
ma.r:ta), such as sabda, imparts its object (prameya) as a cognition,
is repudiated on the basis that a cognitive faculty cannot meet
or interact with its object insofar as svabhava is ascribed to them.
Nagarjuna demonstrates this by citing the example of a lamp
and darkness, which conventionally are co-present in a given
spatio-temporal domain, yet cannot be co-present: light and
darkness cannot be at one and the same place and time. Bhavavi-
veka's syllogism expresses this same state of affairs when he
says (my rephrasing):
48
(1) pratijiia: Cognition does not fetch its real object.
(2) hetu: Because cognition itself is illusory, as it does not
fetch any constituent elements.
(3) d!0tanta: Just as a cognition of an army (an imaginary
entity) unable to cognize its multiple constituent elements,
such as individual soldiers, cannot fetch its real object.
In substantiating this syllogism further, Bhavaviveka succes-
sively repudiates the object of cognition (prameya) and the ob-
ject of a word (Sabda-padartha) as unreal, on account of the
unreality respectively, of cognition and of vocal word. The
question IS: Why is Bhavaviveka obliged invariably to attach the
adverbial term paramarthatas to each syllogism? I believe an
answer can be drawn from the pre-classical Abhidharmist us-
age, as recorded in the Kathiivatthu.
It is my belief that the origin of the Nagarjunian dialectic
can be traced to the Abhidharmist controversy between the
Theravadin and the Pudgalavadin on the metaphysical status
of the pudgala. The problem with their controversy was logical
indeterminancy, in that the anvaya-vyatireka operations cannot
determine the validity or invalidity of the parties' theses,
namely the Theravadin "pudgala is unreal" and the Pudgala-
vadin "pudgala is,real.'' The heart of the problem is to be found
in adverbial qualification similar to that of the Svatantrika,
namely, "saccikatthaparamatthena," which is applied to both theses
in the controversy.!S The Theravadin uses this qualification in
order to classify dharmas as "transcendentally real," while ex-
cluding those empirical pudgalas as "transcendentally unreal."
The problem is that the reality of one thing and the unreality of
another thing are asserted in one and the same transcendental
context. It was due to the doctrinal ambiguity created by the
adverbial term, such as "in a transcendental context," that the
two mutually contra positive classes of entities cannot be clearly
separated. Candraklrti's criticism of the Svatantrika use of para-
marthatas!9 seems to have been directed at this same context. He
says that the adverbial term, which is designed to indicate con-
comitance based on transcendental insight, cannot be accepted
by non-Buddhists, since they do not understand the "transcen-
dental context" specified by the term. Nor is it correct from the
logical point of view, because it involves a categorial mistake, or
violation of the boundary between empirical and non -em pirical
dimensions. In the concomitance in question, an object of cog-
nition, being taken for granted as existent in the sphere of
empirical perception, is also predicated by a transcendental ne-
gation as "non-existent," "empty," etc. This can be condemned
even conventionally.
49
Nagarjuna, I believe, overcame the Abhidharmist pitfalls
by way of repudiating the reality of both classes, dharmas and
pudgalas. The way in which Theravadins and Pudgalavadins
claimed, respectively, that "pudgala is unreal'; and that "pudgala
is real" parallels the way in which opposing assertions are con-
trived in the Vigraha., where one party claims that a light illumi-
nates darkness, while the other, that darkness shades off light.
Nagarjuna repudiates both positions on the basis of the dialecti-
cal context that is the necessary condition of the repudiation.
The dialectic succeeds by pressing the convention that requires
the illumining agent, light, and the recipient object of illumina-
tion, darkness, to be co-present, or in actual interaction, at the
moment of illumination. Similarly, Nagarjuna juxtaposes the
pramiirta and the prameya (i.e., cognitive faculty and its object,
which respectively constitute sapak5a and vipak$a) in the same
spatia-temporal sphere, as required by convention for cognition. I
think Bhiivaviveka deliberately reversed the direction here in order to
translate this dialectical context into his syllogistic concomitance, not
toward the Abhidharmist indeterminancy, but to the universal repudi-
ation of the reality of logico-linguistic conventions. The term "para-
miirthatas" here means to safeguard anything not to be placed
beyond the domain of conventional truth or, more in his own
terms, not to be placed beyond the intermediary dimension
designated as the suddha-laukika-jiiiina.
VI
Although Nagarjuna's method of refutation has been tra-
ditionally identified as prasmigaviikya, strictly speaking, his dia-
lectic consisted of two types-syllogistic and reductio-ad-absur-
dum arguments. The former applies the Buddhist's own
concomitance to the opponent's view on the basis of a transcen-
dental context, whereas the latter is designed to juxtapose one
view with its correlative in a dialectical context. My discussion
has been directed at showing that the Svatantrika transcenden-
tal context and the Prasarigika dialectical context are identical,
and further to indicate that these two essentially identical con-
50
texts are also identical with that of the pre-classical Abhidhar-
mists. It is interesting to note that, of two different passages
treating the concept of svabhava, one, the Abhidharmist, leads
to an insoluble antithesis (impracticality of convention), while
the other, the Madhyamika, undertakes a simultaneous repudi-
ation (transcendence from convention). The foregoing analysis
has necessarily been limited in scope and source material, and
has the disadvantage of being incapable of dealing with the
transcendental consciousness itself, lofty and rich in content, in
which the Madhamika, as well as Buddhist doctrine as a whole,
is deeply rooted. If my analysis is accepted, however, it may at
least be accepted that there is a definite continuity between the
Hlnayana Abhidharma and the Mahayana, and that Mahayana
doctrine was not a deviation from the orthodoxy.
NOTES
1. "Syllogism" and "Dialectic" are, respectively, equivalent to the San-
skrit anumana and prasanga, of which the fonner is more properly expressed
as inferential method, while the latter may also be expressed as the reductio-ad-
absurdum method.
2. Cf. S. Ichimura, "A Study of the Madhyamika Method of Refutation,
Especially of its Affinity to that of Kathtivatthu," ]lABS, III, 1 (1980), p. 10ff.
3. The Central Conception of Buddhism, London: 1960.
4. Ibid., p. 128f.
5. Ed. by E. H. Johnston and A. Kunst, MCB (1948-51), p. 108: sarve,)'a1l!
bhavana1l! sarvatra na vidyate svabhavaS cet I tvad vacanam asvabhava1l! na nivar-
tayitu1l! svabhtivam alam II
6. Ibid. na hi bije hetubhute 'nkuro 'sti, na prthivyaptejovayvadinam ekaikasmin
pratyayasa'l'{tjiiite, na pratyaye,)'u samagre,)'u, na hetupratyayasamagryam, na hetupra-
tyayavinirmuktal; prthag eva ca I
7. Ibid. yady evam, tavapi vacanam ... tad api hetau nasti mahtibhute,)'u sam-
prayukte,)'u viparyukte,)'u va, pratyaYNu nasty ural;kanthaU-l'thajihvadantamulatalu-
nasikamurdhaprabhrt4u yatne,)'u, ubhayasamagrya'l'{t nasti, hfitupratyayavinirmukta1l!
prthag eva ca nasti I
8. Ibid. yasmad sarvatra nasti tasman nil;svabhtivam I yasman nil;svabhtiva'l'{t
tasmac chunyam I
9. Prajiiapradipa: ~ : ; g : m ~ ~ ,TaisM XXX, No. 1566, pp. 50-136.
10. La Vallee Poussin's edition, with Prasannapada (p. 123): rupakara1J-a-
nirmukta1l! ,na rilpam upalabhyatel
51
i l. TaishO., p. 68c (25-8):
(1)
(2) El [t;J t.;l]t 1Et. jt ;l]t

(4)13 [t;J PJl[i El
(5) iJF tl
12. Ibid., p. 68c (28-9) - p. 69a (1-2):
(1)
(2)(iiJ ;l]t jt ;l]t
(3) If-
(1) 13 .
(2) {iiI ilk Iifl ;l]t
,
13. Cf. Ichimura, "A Study on the Madhyamika Method of Refutation
and its Influence on Buddhist Logic," ]lABS, IV, 1(1981), p. 91f.
14. Sanskritized by N. Aiyaswami Shastri from the Chinese Chang-chen-
lun (:!it ft Visva-Bharati Annals, II (1949), p. 34. tattvata!.t saTflSkrta!.t silnya
mayavat pratyayabhavat / asaTflSkrtas tv asadbhilta anutpada!.t khapWipavat II
15. karika 23 (loc. cit. p. 123): nirmitako nirmitaka1Jl maytipuTWial1 svamtiyay(i
mtam / prq,t4edhayeta yadvat prat4edho 'yar[! tathaiva sytit II
16. Cf. Stcherbatskoi, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvti'IJ-a, Indo-Iranian
reprint, VI, 1965, p. 119; Prasannapada p. 35(5-6): ya eva ubhayaviniScitavadi
sa pramtiTJam . .. /
17. Cf. Ichimura, "An Analysis of Madhyamika Dialectic in Terms of the
Logical Principle of Anvaya-vyatireka, " (esp. sect. IV), in the fourthcoming The
Professor P. V. Bapat Felicitation Volume.
18. Of the two related statements: (1) puggalo upalabbhati saccikatthapara-
maUhenati and (2) yo saccikattho paramaUho tato so puggalo upalabbhati saccikat-
thaparamaUhenati, the Theravadin accepts (2) but not (1), whereas the
Pudgalavadin accepts (1) but not (2). The source of the problem lies in the
qualification phrase "saccikatthaparamatthena.". Cf. Ichimura, ]lABS III,
1(1980), p. lOff.
19. Cf. Prasannapada, p. 26ff. and Stcherbatskoi, op. cit. p. 10Sff.
52
"Later Madhyamika" in China:
Some Current Perspectives on the History
of Chinese Prajiiaparamita Thought
by Aaron K. Koseki
To aid in understanding the contributions of recent Japanese
scholarship on San-Iun Buddhism, this short paper will review
Hirai Shun'ei's study on Chi-tsang (549-623), Chugoku hannya
shiso-shi kenkyu (A Study on the History and Thought of Chi-
nese Prajiiaparamita, Tokyo: Shunju-sha, 1976). As a work
meant for the specialist, Hirai's study deals with conceptual
problems, philological and historical issues, and is highly in-
volved in academic debates concerned with one development of
Chinese Buddhism between the North-South period (ca. 400-
581) and the Sui and early Tang dynasties (ca. 589-700 A.D.).
Various aspects of this development are studied by Hirai, and
the present introduction does not seek to recapitulate all the
finer details of his large study. Instead, the focus will be on the
religious dynamics and problematic that surrounded and de-
fined the direction of the Sinitic understanding of prajna and
the emptiness doctrine.
Hirai's research is significant because it presents an oppor-
tunity to address again the relationship between the Indian
Madhyamika and the Sino-Japanese San-Iun (Sanron) tradi-
tions. It is especially timely to rethink this question because
Hirai's study is based on the premise that San-Iun Buddhism
should no longer be identified simply as a "version of Indian
Madhaymika" or even as "Sinitic Madhyamika."l As suggested
by the title of his work, Hirai's basic argument is that it is both
misleading and improper to associate the two traditions, for
San-Iun and Madhyamika are entirely different in the prob-
lems associated with conceptualization, the foci of investigation
53
(what determined what was studied), and above all, theoretical
development. The underlying problem thus posed by Hirai's
study concerns one's stance toward the historical nature of
Prajiiiipiiramitii thought itself, for by hannya: Hirai does not
mean the translation of the Prajiiiipiiramitii canon into Chinese.
2
Rather, a central issue in his study is the Indian versus the
Chinese input in the development of a genuinely Sinitic re-
sponse to the Prajiiiipiiramitii Dharma, which came to be known
in East Asia as San-Iun.
This issue may be illustrated by the positions taken by W.
T. Chan and Richard Robinson. Both are concerned with the
question of Chi-tsang's orthodoxy-how much of his under-
standing was Indian and how much of it was Chinese? Such
questions have often been posed and just as often summarily
answered. For example, the thesis that Indian and Chinese
elements retain their intrinsic individuality is presented by
Chan:
Ironically, Chi-tsang's success was at the same time the
failure of his school, for it became less and less Chinese. As
mentioned before, Seng-chao was still a bridge between
Taoism and Buddhism. He combined the typical Chinese
concept of the identity of substance and function, for ex-
ample, with the Buddhist concepts of temporary names
and emptiness. In Chi-tsang, suostance and function are
sharply contrasted instead. In that, he was completely In-
dian in viewpoint, although he quoted Taoists. As a sys-
tematizer and transmitter of Indian philosophy, he
brought about no cross-fertilization between Buddhist and
Chinese thought.
3
The above notion of acculturation (Sinicization) tends to place
too much emphasis on heterogeneous factors, is tincritical
about the process of change, and implies that "Sinicized" Bud-
dhism is a deviation from some "Indian norm." It is also often
impressionistic, and is challenged by several facts presented in
Hirai's study. For example, in Hirai's analysis of the unfolding
of S a n ~ l u n doctrine (Part II, Chapters 2,3,4), it is fascinating to
observe the process by which Chi-tsang developed his system.
He did not consider that he was 'establishing a new form of
Buddhism for the sake of making Indian Buddhism indig-
54
enous, more palatable, or popular in China. Indeed, there is no
mention in Chi-tsang's writings of the problems involved in
bringing a religious tradition from one cultural setting to an-
other, no suggestion of the obstacles of language, custom, and
conceptual patterns which had to be resolved if Indian Bud-
dhism was to be realized in the Chinese experience. The asser-
tionthat Chi-tsang's system, following Seng-chao, was a regres-
sion to the Indian viewpoint ignores the question of how his
system, with its peculiar concerns and problematics, emerged.
It also creates the impression that the significance of Chinese
monks like Chi-tsang is to be found in their development of a
"cross-cultural" perspective. It is unlikely that Chi-tsang, who
simply claimed to transmit the Buddhadharma, and who de-
scribed his thought as a continuation of the earliest Chinese
tradition of prajfia study,4 would himself have claimed to be a
bridge between Buddhist and Chinese thought.
Those favoring the "Indian input," quite naturally, point
out that Chi-tsang's theories had their textual base in the In-
dian sastras, and that these texts themselves had roots deep in
the Indian tradition. Robinson, for example, writes: "The
Three Treatises tradition is quite simply a restatement of Na-
garjuna's teaching in a new vocabulary, with a few additional
theses on matters such as the Two Truths where Nagarjuna was
too brief and vague."5 This emphasis on scriptural fidelity also
tends to treat Chi-tsang's thought in isolation, that is, apart
from the greater Chinese Buddhist tradition. In a sense, to con-
clude that San-Iun is a "restatement" is perfectly all right, given
Robinson's belief that, "It cannot be assumed that the structure
of language corresponds to the structure of thought, or that all
thoughts can be represented by symbols, or that language is the
only kind of symbolic system."6 At the same time, however,
such approaches have a major methodological drawback-
they tend to give the impression of the mere continuity of ideas,
that the significance of Chi-tsang's thought lies in his transmis-
sion of some acculturated form of Madhaymika. This purist
view of San-Iun also makes the very questionable assumption
that religious ideas and ideals are cut off from historical and
social realities, that San-Iun, as "later Chinese Madhaymika,"
somehow transcends history. If a priori paradigms may not
seem rich enough to encompass the reality of later Sui and
55
T'ang Buddhist traditions, it is not because they lack some
structuring principle. Robinson's model of assimilation
7
is axi-
omatic, and, as he states, the crucial point is to differentiate
between piecemeal accommodation, creative synthesis, and a
stage when a system of thought has been critically assessed and
transcended. "Restatement," however, is an overstatement, and
is again challenged by several problems dealt with in Hirai's
study. At least two major areas may be isolated as illuminating:
1. the historical background and religious dynamics involved in
the San-Iun development of the two truths theory; and 2. the
influence of the Nirvary,a-siltra and its doctrine of universal en-
lightenment, Buddha-nature (buddhadhatu).
To determine the sources for and motives behind the San-
lun tradition, Hirai examines in detail the relationship between
Chi-tsang's thought and the writings of the earliest Chinese
tradition of Prajnaparamita scholarship, centered in Ch'ang-an
during the Eastern Ch'in period (ca. 400-420). Heretofore,
most studies have assumed that, as a "systematizer" of San-Iun
doctrine, Chi-tsang represents: 1. the so-called "Neo-San-Iun"
school which emerged during the latter part of the North-
South period; or 2. an unbroken line of thought which began
with Kumarajlva and Seng-chao. Hirai's study advocates the
second point of view with the following qualifications:
First, neither Chi-tsang nor his forerunners even used the
term "San-Iun" to refer to their scholastic tradition. Instead,
Chi-tsang spoke of his tradition as the "She-ling transmission."
The term refers to Seng-Iang, the first patriarch of this tradi-
tion, who settled on Mt. She near the southern capital of Chin-
ling (Nanking) and bean teaching the Prajnaparamita doctrine
sometime during the Sung period (ca. 476 A.D.). In contrast,
the earlier tradition, of Kumarajlva and his disciples, was re-
ferred to as the "Kuan-chung" (or "Kuan-ho") tradition. The
term "San-Iun" is therefore anachronistic, a result of later J apa-
nese sectarian needs (pp. 25-57). While most earlier studies
have tended to view this genealogy in less-than-historical terms,
a legacy of ideas rather than actual historical personalities, Hir-
ai's position is that the "Kuan-chung"-"She-ling" connection is
historical as well as a history of ideas. In this respect, Hirai's
study attempts to clarify a number of untested historical as-
sumptions by correctly identifying the individuals listed, for
56
example, in Robinson's "Epilogue" (Early Madhyamika, Chapter
VIII, "The Lineage of the Old Three Treatise Sect," pp. 162-
73), and by assessing the role each played in the historical de-
. velopment of the "She-ling" tradition.
8
Second, Hirai also notes that, while Chi-tsang had at his
disposal the insights and intuitions of the men who were first
exposed to a new system of Buddhist thought, there was an
intervening period of more than a century between Seng-chao
and Chi-tsang. During this time, and in particular, during the
Liang dynasty (502-577), Prajnaparamita studies in China were
overshadowed by the study of the Ch'eng-shih lun (Sat yasiddhi?) ,
a text attributed to Harivarman and translated into Chinese by
Kumarajlva during his later years. The scholastic tradition
based on this text reached its peak during the Liang period,
and while advocates of this tradition had long passed from the
Buddhist horizon by Chi-tsang's time, many of their ideas and
concepts continued into the Sui period. From Chi-tsang's essays
and commentaries (some thirty-four works are currently ex-
tant), it is clear that he was quite anxious to refute what he
regarded as the erroneous views of this tradition. After the
translation of the Ch'eng-shih lun in the Eastern Ch'in, the text
was regarded as Mahayana in content and often thought of as a
variation of the Middle Treatise because its ideas on the empti-
ness of dharmas so closely approximated the Mahayana notion
of emptiness. In Chi-tsang's writings, however, the Ch'eng-shih
theories are criticized as Hlnayana in theory and practice, and
while a number of issues were debated, a crucial issue which
divided the two traditions was the interpretation of the two
truths and the middle path doctrine. Although almost all of the
Ch'eng-shih writings are not extant, it appears that a sizeable
amount of pen and ink was spent on conceptualizing the two
truths, a result of confusing ontological distinctions with episte-
mological ones. This misalignment of the two modes of dis-
course led to an understanding of the two truths as two reali-
ties, two objective principles, and was an assessment of the
middle path doctrine uncalled for in the original Indian sastras.
According to Hirai, Chi-tsang's significance lies not only in his
renewal of interest in the Three Treatises and the Prajnaparamita
canon, but also in his instigation of the historical debate be-
tween the two traditions, which stimulated innovative specula-
57
tions, new vocabulary, and models to express the two truths
that had no precedent in Indian Madhyamika thought. 9 The
debate is also significant because it provides one with an histori-
cal and theoretical context in which to understand the dyna-
mics behind the distinctive San-lun interpretation of the two
truths. Although the inspiration was Indian in origin, the selec-
tive emphasis was Chinese and should be seen as a purely inter-
nal, that is, Sinitic issue.
lO
In assessing this issue, Hirai's study corrects, for example,
the notion that t'i and yung (essence and function) are sharply
contrasted in Chi-tsang's thought. It is doubtful that this spe-
cific concept as it applies to Chi-tsang was popular at Seng-
chao's time. While it is clear that a basic Chinese paradigm of
"origin and end" (pen-mo) and its variants (e.g., "root and
trace," pen-chi) became the Buddhist framework for the analysis
of doctrine from the North-South period on, Hirai's study and
the research by Shimada Kenji,ll for example, suggest that t'i
and yung do not appear together in any of Seng-chao's essays.
In examining the Buddhist development of this concept, Shi-
mada established two conditions: first, the two terms are always
used together, and second, they are used in the sense of inter-
dependency (pratftyasamutpada). On this basis, Shimada has con-
cluded that the terms may have come into vogue during the
latter part of the North-South period, and.Hirai and Shimada
agree that this concept is found primarily in the Buddhist writ-
ings"'of the Liang Ch'eng-shih tradition. This is not to suggest
that terms and concepts corresponding to the paradigm of t'i-
yung were not used during the earlier period, for throughout
Seng-chao's essays there is a vocabulary which consistently fits
the pattern. However, although the proximity of t'i-yung to the
basic paradigm of pen-mo is true enough, the linkage of the
terms as they apply to the two truths and the middle path
doctrine was not made in the Chinese Prajiiaparamita tradition
until Chi-tsang. In this respect, Hirai sees Chi-tsang as the suc-
cessor of Seng-chao's thought, and as strongly influenced by
modes of expression developed during the Liang period. Since
there is no known precedent in Indian thought for the t'i-yung
concept, the input in this instance is clearly Chinese and not
simply a borrowed Indian viewpoint. Even if Chi-tsang con-
58
sciously held to this viewpoint; how could he claim to transmit
Buddhism if he altered fundamental Buddhist doctrine, espe-
cially if the t'i-yung model was understood in the Taoist sense of
. a "primordial source"? For Chi-tsang, t'i is not the source of the
phenomenal many (yung) , and there is no "root" antecedent
external to the "traces" as they presently exist. His attempt to
discuss the doctrine of prat'itya-samutpiida by using Chinese ter-
minology is clearly a synthesis of Buddhist and Chinese
thought. It is more than just a matter of using Chinese terms,
though, for as Hirai's analysis shows (pp. 130-144; 405-448),
Chi-tsang's whole approach to Buddhist concepts can be re-
duced to essence and function terms.
Third, although Chi-tsang's explanation of the two truths
does not, in substance, differ radically from that of the Indian
sastras, . what came to dominate Chinese intellectual thought
during the fifth and sixth centuries was not Nagarjuna and the
Middle Treatise, but the Mahayanist Nirviir;,a-sutra. The impact of
this sutra on Chinese thought and the subsequent rise of the so-
called "Nieh-p'an" (Nirviir;,a) schools have been well document-
ed,12 but what has been overlooked in previous Western and
Japanese sumaries is the specific influence of the sutra's Bud-
dha-nature doctrine on Chi-tsang's thought. Although Chi-
tsang is simply remembered as one of the most eminent San-
lun scholars in Chinese Buddhism, Hirai's survey of his
writings shows that he wrote extensively on various Mahayana
issues like ekayiina, tathagatagarbha, and Buddha-nature.
Among Chi-tsang's writings, some fifteen works are devoted
exclusively to the exegesis of texts like the Lotus Sutra, the Sr'i-
miiladev'i-sutra, and the Vimalak'irti-sutra, to name but a few. The
San-Iun attraction to the Nirviir;,a-sutra in particular was not due
to the influence of the then emerging p'an-chiao (doctrinal clas-
sification) system, which saw this text and the Lotus Sutra as the
final ("complete") teaching of the Buddha. Instead, interest in
the text goes back to the time when the Nirviir;,a-sutra was closely
aligned with the Liang Ch'eng-shih tradition, which presented
problematic interpretations of the two truths, the middle path
and Buddha-nature. Beyond these polemical considerations,
Hirai suggests that Chi-tsang's study of the sutra began almost
simultaneously with his study of the Indian treatises and argues
59
that the Buddha-nature doctrine significantly influenced the
manner in which the two truths, prajfia, and emptiness were
interpreted.
The most noteworthy influence was the adoption of the dis-
tinction between the empty (Silnya) and not-empty (asilnya) as-
pects of the Buddha-nature (or tathagatagarbha) found in such
texts as the Nirva'(ta-siltra and Srfmaladevf-siltra. What is signifi-
cant in this analysis is the peculiar use of the term emptiness.
Although in the Prajnaparamita canon and the Madhyamika
treatises all dharmas whatsoever are said to be empty of own-
being, texts like the Nirva'(ta-siltra make a point of emphasizing
that the Buddha-dharmas are not-empty. In traditional San-
lun sources, not-empty is used solely as a synonym for svabhava,
the antithesis of pratftyasamutpada. In Chi-tsang's writings, how-
ever, asilnya means, in its particular and concrete sense, prajfia
as it is applied to the empirical order, and the differences be-
tween the Buddha-nature and the traditional San-Iun perspec-
tives on prajna is in many ways characteristic of the different
emphasis between Madhyamika and texts like the Nirva'(ta-siltra
which affirm the phenomenal reality of Buddha-nature. This
understanding of prajfia, asilnya, as Buddha-nature represents
an innovation in doctrine having no corresponding Madhya-
mika antecedent, and this change reflects a Sinitic response to
the Prajnaparamita Dharma which contributed to the view of
the reality of the phenomenal order. Chi-tsang, as both Hirai
and Kamata Shigeo have noted, would also take this discussion
of prajfia to a new degree of explicitness by arguing that even
the non-sentient world of "wood and stone" also had the poten-
tiality for enlightenment.
13
If it is correct to argue that San-lun Buddhism is not simply
a Chinese version of Madhyamika, then it is necessary to re-
think the nature and limits of Prajnaparamita thought in its East
Asian context. By describing the historical background of San-
lun thought and by pointing out that a substantial portion of its
doctrine is heavily indebted to the Nirva'(ta-siltra and other
ekayana texts, Hirai's study provides a more contextually sym-
pathetic evaluation of certain larger trends in the unfolding. of
San-Iun. Its many-sided investigation facilitates some tenative
judgments about the nature of Buddhism during a heretofore
neglected period of Chinese intellectual thought and leads one
60
to conclude that one must continue to focus on the Sinitic re-
sponse to all the changes noted above.
NOTES
1. Cf., for example, Edward Conze, A Short Histm) of Buddhism (London:
George Allen & Unwin, 1980), p. 84; Francis H. Cook, "Chinese Academic
Schools and Doctrinal Innovations," in Buddhism: A Modern Perspective, ed.
Charles S. Prebish (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
1975), p. 202; and W. T. Chan, A Sow-ce Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton:
Princeton University, 1963), p. 357.
2. Cf. Edward Conze, Prajnaparamita Literature CSgravenhage: Mouton,
1960; reprint ed., Tokyo: Reiyilkai, 1977), pp. 19-23, regarding one perspec-
tive.
3. Chan, Source Book, p. 358. Chan's perspective on Chinese thought is,
needless to say, much more complex than herein cited. The paragraph
should only serve to facilitate our understanding of San-Iun methodology.
4. Referred to as the "old theories of Kuan-ho" in Chi-tsang's writings
and meaning Kumarajlva, Seng-chao, Seng-jui, etc. See Hirai, Clnlgoku han-
nya, pp. 55-72, for a discussion of this earlier tradition and suggestions that
the term "San-lun" is itself somewhat anachronistic and too purist.
5. The Buddhist Religion (Belmont, Calif.: Dickenson, 1970), p. 84. See,
also, note 3.
6. Early Madhyamika in India and China (Madison: University of Wiscon-
sin, 1967), p. 15.
7. Ibid., pp. 13-14.
8. One aspect of this development has been closely studied by Whalen
Lai in his articles, "Further Developments of the Two Truths Theory in
China: The Ch'eng-shih lun Tradition and Chou Yung's San-tsung-lun," Philos-
ophy East and West 30, no. 2 (April 1980), pp. 139-161, and "Chou Yung vs.
Chang Jung (on Sunyata): The Pen-mo Yu-wu Controversy in Fifth Century
China," Journal of the International Association for Buddhist Studies 1, no. 2
(1979), pp. 23-44. Although in many instances Lai's research parallels that of
Hirai's study, Lai sees less of a connection between Seng-chao and Chi-tsang
in the spread of the Three Treatises to the south. Based on the fact that the
Japanese Samon tradition excludes Seng-chao from the orthodox "She-ling"
line, Lai has argued persuasively that the heretofore unexplored writings of a
lay Buddhist scholar, Chou Yung, will help us to contextualize Chi-tsang's
writings. Cf. also Leon Hurvitz's account of early Chinese speculations on the
meaning of the two truths and emptiness, "The First Systematization of Bud-
dhist Thought in China," Journal of Chinese Philosaf)hy 2, no. 4 (1975), pp.
361-388. Though rich in detail, it should be noted that the study somewhat
anachronistically explains Chinese developments by deferring to Indian sys-
tems and excludes from consideration the Ch'eng-shih tradition, the histori-
cal/doctrinal context for both Chou Yung and Chi-tsang.
61
9. Some examples include the use of serial negation ("three or four
levels of two truths"), the use of Chinese modes of expression like "1' and
yung," "horizontal and vertical," and the use of rhetorical' categories (e.g.,
"four methods of interpretation").
10. Western scholars have also begun to investigate the development of
the two truths theory from the Ch'eng-shih point of view, and in particular,
the writings of Whalen Lai have been illuminating. Lai's major contribution is
his attempt to give the Ch'eng-shih theories a fair hearing, since what we now
know of this tradition has, for the most part, been preserved almost entirely
in Chi-tsang's writings. Lai's basic argument is that Chi-tsang, in various ways,
may have consciously manipulated the Ch'eng-shih theories as a foil to pre-
sent his own doctrine. This aspect of Chi-tsang's thought is not clearly articu-
lated in Hirai's study, and one reason is that Hirai sees Chi-tsang's writings on
the two truths concerned with the experimental quality of prajiia and not
simply with the manipulation of ideas embedded in what has heretofore been
seen as a philologically obscure polemical tract.
11. "Taiyu no shiso no rekishi ni yosete," Bukkyi5 shigaku ronshU [Tsuka-
moto Commemorative Volume] (Kyoto, 1961), pp. 416-430.
12. The most detailed and comprehensive study to date is by Fuse Ko-
gaku, Nehanshil no kenkyil, 2 vols. (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankokai, 1976). Given
Fuse's methodology and his reporting on San-lun, a more "radical" character-
ization of "San-Iun" might place it under the rubric of a Sui "Nieh-p'an"
tradition, excluding Prajiiaparamita altogether.
13. Chilgoku Kegon shisi5-shi no kenkyil (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press,
1965), pp. 434-443.
62
The Doctrine of the Buddha-Nature in the
Mahayana Mahaparinirva1J;a-Sutra
by Ming-Wood Liu
l. Introduction
In the Buddhist Canon, there are two main corpuses of texts
which go by the name MahriparinirviiIJa-sutra (henceforth abbre-
viated to MNS) and have as their main concern the recounting
of the events and dialogues of the last days of the Buddha. The
first, presumably of earlier origin, is a comprehensive compen-
dium of Hlnayana ideas and precepts. It exists today in its Pali,
Sanskrit and Chinese versions, and for its attention to factual
details has been resorted to as the principal source of reference
in most standard studies of the Buddha's life. As for the sec-
ond, only its Chinese and Tibetan translations are still extant.
l
While it also relates some of the well-known episodes of the
final months of the Buddha Sakyamuni, notably his illness and
the last meal offered by Cunda, such narrations are treated in
the work merely as convenient spring-boards for the expres-
sion of such standard Mahayana ideas as the eternal nature of
Buddhahood and expedience as method of instruction. Both in
style and content, this corpus exhibits the disregard of histori-
cal particulars and the fascination with the supernatural and
the ideal which characterize Mahayana writings in general. As a
Mahayana sutra, it is of rather late date, for it mentions such
influential "middle Mahayana" works as the Saddharmapu'f.l4arzka-
sidra and the Surarrtgamasamiidhi-nirdefa in its text, and so could
not have been compiled before the second century A.D.2 It is
this Mahayana version of the MNS which we are going to exam-
ine in our present study.
At present, there are three extant Chinese translations of
63
this Mahayama version of the MNS, the earliest being the one
completed by the famous pilgrim Fa-hsien and Buddhab-
hadra (359-429) in the southern capital of Chien-k'ang Jjj:t in
418. The second translation, undertaken almost simultaneously
by (385-431) in the northern kingdom of Pei
Liang iJ}\ , was finished in 421. Comparison of the two transla-
tions shows that Fa-hsien's version corresponds in the main
with the first five chapters version, and since
the MNS is known to have existed in separate parts, posterity
often calls Fa-hsien's translation and the first five chapters in
translation the "first portion"(ch'ien-fen W- fr ).
The third Chinese version appeared in the South around 436,
and as a consequence is often referred to as the "Southern
edition," in contradistinction to which version is
usually designated as the "Northern edition." Compiled by the
monks Hui-yen (363-443) and Hui-kuan III (?-453)
and the poet Hsieh Ling-yun W 1l:iI (385-433), this Southern
edition is not.a new translation, but is a stylistic revision of the
Northern edition. Since the Sanskrit original was not consulted
in making the changes, the Southern edition, despite its great
popularity, is a less reliable source in the study of the MNS than
the Northern edition. Thus, we shall base our discussion of the
MNS on version of the text.
3
The MNS attracted immediate attention on its introduc-
tion into China, and it was so widely discussed and commented
on in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (fifth
and sixth century) that historians speak of the existence at that
time of a NirvaI)a School, which had as its main concern the
exposition and the propagation of the teachings contained in
the MNS.4 Even though study of the iVINS rapidly declined with
the advent of the Tang Dynasty (7th century), a number of
ideas and sayings of the MNS had by that time become so deep-
ly ingrained in the minds of Chinese Buddhists that they re-
mained permanent furniture of the Chinese Buddhist world,
and continued to exert enormous influence. A good example is
the doctrine of the Buddha-nature. Indeed, it is no exaggera-
tion to say that the MNS has provided the historical starting-
point .as well as the chief scriptural basis for enquiry into the
problem of the Buddha-nature in China, and it would be diffi-
cult if not impossible to grasp the significance of the concept
64
and its subsequent evolution in Chinese Buddhism without a
proper understanding of the teaching of the MNS on the sub-
ject.
5
There are three questions which Chinese Buddhists most
. frequently. ask when they approach the problem of the Bud-
dha-nature, and these questions provide a convenient frame-
work for investigating the teaching on Buddha-nature in the
MNS:
1. What is the Buddha-nature?
2. What does the sutra mean when it speaks of sentient
beings "having" Buddha-nature?
3. Do all sentient beings possess Buddha-nature?
Since answering the last question would require exhaustive in-
quiry into the position of the MNS on the problem of the icchan-
tika, i.e., the problem of whether there exist sentient beings who
are deprived of the roots of goodness and so will never attain
enlightenment, I prefer to postpone discussion of it to another
article.
6
Meanwhile, I take for granted the orthodox view that
the MNS teaches that all sentient beings possess the Buddha-
nature, and will examine the answers of the MNS to the first
two questions on that understanding.
II. What is the Buddha-Nature?
1. Buddha-Nature Is One of the Central Themes of the MNS:
Speaking of the advantages of having virtuous friends,
the author of the MNS explains what it means by "really listen-
ing to the Dharma":
Really listening to the Dharma means listening to and ac-
cepting [the teaching of] the MNS. Since one reams from
the MNS that [all sentient beings] possess the Buddha-
nature and the tathagata does not enter the final nirva[.la,
one is said to be listening to the Dharma with one mind
[when one listens to the MNS].7
In this passage, the author claims the MNS to be the paragon of
Buddhist Dharma, and the reason given for the claim is that the
sutra teaches the eternal nature of the tathagata and the pres-
ence of the Buddha-nature in all sentient beings. Indeed, the
65
two theses of "the eternal and immutable nature of the tatha-
gata" and "the universal presence of the Buddha-nature" are
repeatedly mentioned as the most fundamental tenets of the
MNS. Thus, the MNS exhorts its readers to ':apprehend per-
fectly the meaning and flavour" of the MNS, which consists in
comprehending that-"the tathagata is eternal, immutable and
perfectly blissful," and that "sentient beings all possess the Bud-
dha-nature."8 One of the benefits of following the instructions
of the MNS, according to its author, is the "hearing of what one
formerly has not heard," among which are the doctrines that
"All sentient beings possess the Buddha-nature" and "All Bud-
dhas do not enter the final nirvaI)a and are eternal and immu-
table."9 Finally, its preaching of the idea of the Buddha-nature
is given as the chief mark of excellence of the MNS:
Again, good sons! Just as all rivers flow to the sea, allsiltras
and all forms of meditation lead ultimately to the MNS.
Why? Because it eXfounds in the most excellent manner
[the doctrine that al sentient beings] possess the Buddha-
nature.
lO
Thus, it is abundantly clear that "Buddha-nature" is one of the
central themes of the MNS.
2. Buddha-Nature Means "The Nature of the Buddha":ll
We find the following definition of "Buddha-nature" in_
the MNS after an exposition on the importance of understand-
ing the truth of dependent origination:
Good sons! That is why I teach in various siltras that if a
person perceives the twelve links of the chain of depen-
dent origination, he sees the Dharma. To see the Dharma
is to see the Buddha, and [the term] "Buddha" [alludes to]
the same [thing] as [the term] "Buddha-nature." Why? Be-
cause all Buddhas have [the Buddha-nature] as their na-
ture.l
2
When it is said that the term "Buddha" alludes to the same
thing as the term "Buddha-nature" because all Buddhas be-
come Buddhas in virtue of "Buddha-nature," "Buddha-nature"
is evidently taken to mean what constitutes a Buddha, or the
66
nature of a Buddha. That the MNS often uses the term "Bud-
dha-nature" this way is attested by a number of concepts which
are often cited in the sutra as synonymous with "Buddha-na-
ture," among which are "the realm of the tathagatas" and "the
most perfe<:;t enlightenment":
Good sons! In case there are people who can comprehend
and fathom the meanings of the MNS, it should be under-
stood that they perceive the Buddha-nature. The Budd,ha-
nature is inconceivable. It is the realm of the Buddhas and
tathagatas, and cannot be known by sravakas and pratye-
kabuddhas.
13
Those who really comprehend the meaning [of
Dharma] know that all sentIent beings possess the Bud-
dha-nature. By Buddha-nature, we mean the most perfect
enlightenment. 14
Since one cannot become a Buddha without attaining "the
realm of the tathagatas" and "the most perfect enlightenment,"
both represent the essential conditions of being a Buddha, to
which the term "Buddha-nature" refers. Furthermore, since
liberation from the realm of sarp.sara and readiness for en-
trance into nirvaI).a are also characteristic features of Buddha-
hood, the MNSalso regards them as part of the significance of
the term "Buddha-nature":
"Buddha-nature" is equivalent to "tathagata." "Tathagata"
is equivalent to "all the distinctive characteristics [of the
Buddha]." "Distinctive characteristics [of the Buddha]" is
equivalent to "liberation." "Liberation" is equivalent to
"nirval)a."15
Besides such general definitions, the MNS also associates the
"Buddha-nature" with a number of more specific attributes
generally considered to be the marks of a Buddha. For exam-
ple, it speaks of the six and seven aspects of "Buddha-nature":
67
How do bodhisattvas know the Buddha-nature? The Bud-
dha-nature has six aspects. What are these six? [They are:]
first, to be eternal, secondly, to be pure, thirdly, to be real,
fourthly, to be virtuous, fifthly, to be discerned in the fu-
ture [by everyone], and sixthly, to be true. It also has seven
aspects: the first is "being attainable [by everyone]," while
the remaining six are the same as [the six aspects listed]
above. [When bodhisattvas recognize these aspects of the
Buddha-nature,] we say that they know. the Buddha-na-
ture.
16
Furthermore, the Buddha-nature is equated in the MNS with
the ekayana (one vehicle), "the state of supreme excellence," and
the Sura'Y[lgama-samadhi, "the mother of all Buddhas."17 In one
passage, "Buddha-nature" is regarded as the proper designa-
tion of a series of attributes, including "the great compassion
and the great pity," "the great joy and the great abandonment,"
"the great faith," "the stage of [perfect love, in which one treats
all beings like one's] only son," "the fourth of the ten powers,"
etc., all of which are features peculiar to the tathagata. In a
similar manner, the siitra associates the Buddha-nature with
the ten powers,18 the four forms of fearlessness, 19 and "mind-
fulness under all three conditions,"2o all being perfections of
the Buddha.
al
Besides relating to us what the Buddha-nature is, the MNS
also informs us what the Buddha-nature is not, and what it
teaches in this respect also serves to indicate that in the MNS,
the Buddha-nature is often taken to mean the essence of being
a Buddha. Thus, we are told that when the tathagata talks
about the Buddha-nature, he takes heed of what it has as well as
what it does not have:
As for what [the Buddha-nature] has, [they include] the
so-called thirty-two marks and eighty noble characteristics
[of the Buddha],22 the ten powers, the four forms of fear-
lessness, mindfulness under all three conditisms, the great
compassion, the great pity, the infinite SurafTlgama-sa-
madJii, the infinite Vajra-samadhi, the infinite U paya-sa-
madhi, and the infinite Paiicajiianani-samadhi. These are
known as what [the Buddha-nature] has. As for what [the
Buddha-nature] does not have, [they include] the so-called
good, bad, and neither good nor bad karmas and their
fruits, defilements, the five skandhas and the twelve links
in the chain of dependent origination. These are known as
what [the Buddha-nature] does not have.
23
In short, what the Buddha-nature has are the distinctive marks
68
of a Buddha, and what it does not have are the features of the
realm of sarp.sara. In connection with the non-sarp.saric charac-
ter of Buddha-nature, the MNS repeatedly notes that the Bud-
. dha-nature is not "a kind of conditioned being" (sarrtskrta
dharma),24 and that "Those who see the Buddha-nature are no
longer sentient beings."25 Negative terms are frequently used
in order to emphasize the transcendental nature of the Bud-
dha-nature:
Good sons! The Buddha-nature is matter, non-matter,
and neither matter nor non-matter. It is with marks, with-
out marks, and neither with marks nor without marks. It is
one, not one, and neither one nor not one. It is neither
permanent, nor impermanent, nor neither permanent nor
Impermanent. It is being, non-being, and neither being
nor non-being. It is finite, infinite, and neither finite nor
infinite. It is cause, effect, and neither cause nor ef-
fect ... 26
In another instance, Buddha-nature is compared to space,
which "neither is born nor originates, is neither made nor cre-
ated, and is not a conditioned being."27
III. Buddha-Nature and Sentient Beings
In the previous section, we have seen that the MNS takes
"Buddha-nature" chiefly to mean the nature of the Buddha.
However, the MNS also frequently applies the term "Buddha-
nature" to sentient beings, and speaks of all sentient beings
having Buddha-nature. Since sentient beings are by definition
beings of the realm of sarp.sara, it is unlikely that the sutra
would maintain that all sentient beings are in actual possession
of the essence of Buddhahood. Thus, in the MNS, the term
"Buddha-nature" must carry a peculiar connotation in relation
to sentient beings, and it is the purpose of this section to uncov-
er this special connotation as well as to explore its general sig-
nificance.
1. With Respect to Sentient Beings, to Have the Buddha-Nature
69
Means to be Able to Attain the Nature of the Buddha in the Future:
In explaining what it means by sentient beings having the
Buddha-nature, the MNS distinguishes three different ways of
understanding the term "to have," namely, to have in the past,
to have at present, and to have in the future:
Good sons! There are three ways of having: first, to have
in the future, secondly, to have at present, and thirdly, to
have in the past. All sentient beings will have in future ages
the most perfect enlightenment, i.e., the Buddha-nature. All sen-
tient bemgs have at present bonds of defilements, and so do
not now possess the thirty-two marks and eighty noble
characteristics [of the Buddha]. All sentient bemgs had in
past ages [deeds leading to] the elimination of defilements,
and so can now percelve the Buddha-nature [as their fu-
ture goal]. For such reasons, I always proclaim that all
sentient beings have the Buddha-nature ... Good sons! It
is just like a man who has coagulated milk at home. If
someone asks him, "Do you have butter?" he will reply, "I
have." Butter strictly speaking is not milk. [Nevertheless,]
since using the proper method, one will definitely obtain
[butter from milk], the man answers that he has butter,
[even though all he has is milk]. The same is true of sen-
tient beings, all of whom are endowed with a mind. Since
whoever is endowed with a mind will definitely attain the
most perfect enlightenment, I always proclaim that all sen-
tient beings have the Buddha-nature.
28
Since the above passage identifies sentient beings' ways of hav-
ing Buddha-nature with the third way of having, i.e., having in
the future, it is apparent that in preaching the doctrine that all
sentient beings possess the Buddha-nature, the MNS is not en-
tertaining the idea that sentient beings are at present endowed
with all the features and excellences of the Buddha. Indeed, as
given in the above quotation, the doctrine is no more than the
Mahayana way of presenting an insight which was already pre-
sent in early Buddhism in the form of the last two of the four
noble truths, i.e., there is cessation of suffering and there is a
way leading to this cessation, so that all beings with life ("capa-
ble of thinking"), provided that they are willing to follow the
way, will sooner or later achieve final deliverance. That "to
have the Buddha-nature" in the case of sentient beings means
70
"to have the nature of the Buddha in the future" is a point the
MNS returns to again and again throughout its exposition. To
cite another example:
Good ~ o n s ! Since the tathagata is eternal, we describe it as
the self. Since the dharmakaya of the tathagata is bound-
less and all pervasive, never comes into being nor passes
away, and is endowed with the eight powers [arising from
the knowledge of the paramita of being personal],29 we
describe it as the self. Sentient beings are actually not in
possession of such a self and its [attending] properties.
Nevertheless, since [all of them] will definitely attain the
most supreme form of emptiness [in the future], we desig-
nate them [with the term] "Buddha-nature."3o
The Buddha uses the term "Buddha-nature" to describe sen-
tient beings not because he thinks that all of them have already
achieved the characters and powers of the tathagata, but be-
cause with their ability to learn and with his' own incessant
effort to teach, everyone of them eventually "will definitely
attain the most supreme form of emptiness," i.e., the true wis-
dom of the Buddha.
Another proof that the MNS has the hereafter rather than
the present in mind when it speaks of all sentient beings having
the Buddha-nature is the vehement criticism it levies against
those who interpret the doctrine of the presence of the Bud-
dha-nature in all sentient beings as the teaching that all sentient
beings have already achieved enlightenment, and think that, as
a consequence, religious practice is no longer necessary:
71
Suppose someone declares that he has already attained the
most perfect enlightenment. When asked for the reason,
[he replies,] "It is because [the tathagata teaches that all
sentient beings] have the Buddha-nature. Since whoever is
in possession of the Buddha-nature should have already
attained the most perfect enlightenment, [1 declare] that 1
have attained enlIghtenment now." It should be under-
stood that such a person is guilty of the parajikas. 31 Why? It
is because even though [the Buddha teaches that all sen-
tient beings] have the Buddha-nature, they have not yet
cultivated various beneficial means, and so still have no
vision of [the Buddha-nature which they are going to
have]. Since they still have no vision [of the Buddha-na-
ture] , they have not attained the most perfect enlighten-
ment.
32
The practising of various beneficial means is necessary in order
to bring the Buddha-nature into view, because even though the
Buddha, with his compassionate heart, profound wisdom and
infinite power, is certain that he will sooner or later bring all
sentient beings into his realm, and attributes the Buddha-na-
ture to everyone of them on that basis, the actual possession of
the Buddha-nature in the case of sentient beings is still a matter
of the far-away future; and to assure that this glorious future is
not postponed forever, initiative on the part of sentient beings
themselves is absolutely essentiaL That is why the sutra affirms
that "Even though all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature,
they can perceive it only if they keep the rules of discipline.":l3
The MNS abounds in illustrations which tell of the need of
exertion on the part of sentient beings despite the universal
presence of the Buddha-nature. Typical are the following com-
pansons:
If you say that sentient beings need not practise the holy
paths [because all of them have the Buddha-nature], that
IS not true. Good sons! It is like a man travelling in the
wilderness who approaches a well when thirsty and tired.
Even though the well is dark and deep and he cannot catch
sight of any water, he knows that there must be water [at
the bottom]. And if with various opportune means, he gets
hold of a can and a rope and draws the water up, he will
see it. The same is true of the Buddha-nature. Even
though all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature, they
have to practise the non-defiled and holy paths before
they can perceive it. .
Good sons! When when we have hemp seeds, [we know
that] we shall see oil; and yet without [applying] various
opportune means [to the hemp seeds], we shall never per-
ceive oil. The same is true of sugar cane [and sugar]. ...
Just as sentient beings cannot see the roots of grass and
underground water because they are hidden in the
ground, the same is true of the Buddha-nature, which
sentient beings cannot perceive because they do not p r ~ c
tise the holy paths.
34
One may wonder if the MNS is misleading its readers when it
asserts that all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature, al-
72
though they are not yet in actual possession of it. The reply of
the MNS is that in everyday conversation, we do frequently
employ the term "to have" to indicate "to have in the future," so
that in speaking of sentient beings having the Buddha-nature
in the sense of having it in the future, it has not actually depart-
ed from the common usage of the term. We have already seen
the cases of the coagulated milk and butter, the thirsty traveller
and the water in the well, and the hemp seeds and oil, when
people speak of "A having B" without B being actually at hand
or even in existence. Another example which the sutra cites is
the way we use the terms "beings of hell" or "beings of heaven"
to call other people. When asked whether there is further need
for sentient beings to follow the rules of conduct, when it is
understood that the Buddha-nature refers to the realm of the
Buddha and it is further understood that all sentient beings
have Buddha-nature, the MNS explains that just as we some-
times do call a bad person "a being of hell" and a good person
"a being of heaven" considering that they will fall into hell and
ascend into heaven respectively in the future, we may also call
sentient beings who have not yet got the thirty-two marks and
eighty noble characteristics of the tathagata "beings with the
Buddha-nature," considering that all of them will attain Bud-
dahood one day.35 On the other hand, the MNS agrees that we
may also maintain that sentient beings do not have the Buddha-
nature, if we restrict the sense of "to have" to mean "to have at
present." Thus, in connection with sentient beings, we can as-
sert in one breath that the Buddha-nature is both existent and
non-existent, i.e., existent with respect to the future, and non-
existent with respect to now. This, according to the author of
the MNS, is an instance of the truth of the middle way:
73
Thus, [we maintain that with respect to sentient beings,]
the Buddha-nature is neither eXIstent nor non-existent,
[or] is both existent and non-existent. Why do we say that
the Buddha-nature is existent? Because all [sentient be-
ings] will have it [in the future]. Since sentient beings will
continue [to pass from one life to another] without inter-
ruption like the flame of a lamp until they achieve the
most perfect enlightenment, we say that [with respect to
sentient beings, the is exi.stent. Why do
we say that the Buddha-nature IS non:existent? We say
that [the Buddha-nature with respect to sentient beings] is
non-existent, because all sentient beings do not yet have [the
excellences of] being eternal, blissful, personal and pure,
characteristic of all Buddha dharmas. The union of [the
two aspects of] existence and nonexistence is the middle-
way.3ti
2. The Buddha-Nature qua Cause and Effect:
As the Buddha-nature indicates the realm of the Buddha,
it is not an entity of our everyday world of conditioned exis-
tence. So, strictly speaking, the category of cause and effect is
not applicable to it. Nevertheless, as the Buddha-nature is not
yet realized by sentient beings, and sentient beings are beings of
the realm of cause and effect, the MNS often resorts to the
terms "cause" and "effect" in discussing the fulfillment of the
Buddha-nature in sentient beings. Thus, it talks of two types of
causes of Buddha-nature when the Buddha-nature is consid-
ered with respect to sentient beings:
Good sons! With respect to sentient beings, the Buddha-
nature also consists of two types of causes: first, direct
cause (cheng-yin iE 12Sl), and secondly, auxiliary cause (yilan-
The direct cause [of Buddha-nature] is sentient
beings, and the auxiliary cause is the six paramitas.
37
The MNS explains what it means by "direct cause" and "auxil-
iary cause" with an analogy:
Good sons! There are two types of causes: first, direct
cause, a.nd secondly, auxiliary cause. Direct cause is like
milk whichlroduces cream, and auxiliary cause is like
warmth an yeast [which are added to milk to form
cream.] Since [cream] is formed from milk, we say that
there is the nature of cream in milk.
38
Since we can never obtain cream without milk, it is said that
milk is the direct cause of cream. However, since milk will never
turn to cream without being processed with warmth and yeast,
we call warmth and yeast the auxiliary causes of cream. A simi-
lar relation exists between sentient beings, the six paramitas
and the Buddha-nature. Since nothing other than sentient be-
ings who are "endowed with a mind"39 can embody the Bud-
74
dha-nature, we describe sentient beings as the direct cause of
the Buddha-nature. Yet, this possibility of all sentient beings'
becoming the Buddha will never be realized unless everyone of
them follows the holy paths, such as the six paramitas. Thus, we
. call the six paramitas the auxiliary causes of the Buddha-na-
ture.
Also significant to the later development of the Buddha-
nature doctrine in China is the analysis in the MNS of the
Buddha-nature into "cause," "cause vis-a.-vis cause," "effect"
and "effect vis-a.-vis effect" in connection with its attainment by
sentient beings:
Good sons! the Buddha-nature has [the aspects of] cause,
cause vis-a.-vis cause, effect, and effect vis-a.-vis effect. The
cause is the twelvefold chain of dependent origination, the
cause vis-a.-vis cause is wisdom, the effect is the most per-
fect enlightenment, and the effect vis-a.-vis effect is the
su pre me nirvaI).a.
40
The reason for naming the twelvefold chain of dependent
origination "the cause" and wisdom "the cause vis-a.-vis cause"
of the Buddha-nature is hinted at in an earlier passage, where it
is pointed out that just as we sometimes refer to cucumber as
fever on the ground that consuming cucumber is conducive to
fever, we may also refer to the twelvefold chain of dependent
origination as the Buddha-nature, since the wisdom arising
from meditation on the twelvefold chain of dependent origina-
tion is "the seed of the most perfect enlightenment."41 Now,
both the "twelvefold chain of dependent origination" and the
"wisdom" arising from the meditation on it are factors contrib-
uting to the realization of the Buddha-nature in sentient be-
ings, and so more exact analysis speaks of them as the causes of
Buddha-nature rather than generally as "Buddha-nature."
Furthermore, since "wisdom" only arises with "the twelvefold
chain of dependent origination" as its object, wisdom is a cause
(i.e., cause of the Buddha-nature) which itself stands in need of
another cause (i.e., the twelvefold chain of dependent origina-
tion). That is why the sutra designates "wisdom" as "the cause
vis-a.-vis cause" of the Buddha-nature, while alluding to the
twelvefold chain of dependent origination simply as "the
cause." The same principle can be applied to explain why the
75
MNS draws a distinction between "the most perfect enlighten-
ment" and "the supreme nirv3.1).a" in referring to the former as
"the effect" and the latter as "effect vis-a-vis effect." As has
been shown earlier, the MNS often identifies "the most perfect
enlightenment" and "nirv3.1).a" with the Buddha-nature, and
when so understood, neither of them can be called "effect," as
the Buddha-nature in itself is not an effect. Nevertheless, when
viewed with respect to their fulfilment in sentient beings, both
are the fruits resulting from meditating on the twelvefold chain
of dependent origination, and so both may be regarded as "ef-
fect." Furthermore, since it is common practice to c9nsider
"nirv3.1).a" as the final consummation of "the most perfect en-
lightenment," the former is given the appellation of "effect vis-
a-vis effect," as it is an effect deriving from another effect (i.e.,
the most perfect enlightenment), whereas the former is simply
presented as "the effect."
Despite its frequent association of the Buddha-nature with
the concepts .of "cause" and "effect," the MNS is careful to
observe that such analysis is only applicable to "Buddha-nature
with respect to sentient beings" (chung-sheng fo-hsing {iJIl tt),
whereas the Buddha-nature in itself, understood as the essence
of the Buddha, is not a mundane object susceptible of such
categorization. The following remarks are found right after the
afore-quoted exposition of the Buddha-nature as cause, cause
vis-a.-vis cause, effect and effect vis-a.-vis effect:
Good sons! "To be cause and not effect" is like the Bud-
[considered to sentient b.eings].
To be effect and not cause IS lIke the supreme mrv3.p.a.
"To be both cause and effect" is like dharmas arising from
the twelvefold chain of dependent origination. As for "to
be neither cause nor effect," it is what is known as the
Buddha-nature.
42
The Buddha-nature considered with respect to sentient beings
is "cause and not effect," for the Buddha-nature remains an
abstract possibility yet to be realized in the case of sentient
beings. The supreme nirv3.1).a is "effect and not cause," for
nirv3.l)a indicates the complete annihilation of all defilements,
when the bases of future rebirths finally come to an end. Dhar-
76
mas arising from the twelvefold chain of dependent origination
are "both cause and effect," for as entities in the realm of sarp-
sara, they are conditioned by past events as well as serving as
the support for the formation of future events. Finally, the
Buddha-nature, considered in itself, is "neither cause nor ef-
fect," for as the ultimate ideal, it is ontologically distinct from
the sarpsaric world of interdependent existence, and its perfec-
tion is not contingent upon its being fulfilled by sentient beings.
3. Why All Sentient Beings Will Eventually Possess the Buddha
Nature: An Examination of a Number of Similes:
If the MNS teaches that all sentient beings have the Bud-
dha-nature because all of them are capable of achieving Budd-
hahood in the future, and moreover describes them as "the
direct cause" of the Buddha-nature on that ground, it appears
rei event to inquire on what basis such thoughts are entertained.
Thus, we may ask if this belief in the future enlightenment of
all sentient beings in the MNS is a conclusion drawn from a
particular theory of their ontological structure, or if the doc-
trine is primarily soteriological in intent, taught out of religious
rather than out of philosophical considerations.
In demonstrating how sentient beings come to realize the
Buddha-nature, the MNS often resorts to similes; and so far as
these similes are concerned, the siltra seems to incorporate sev-
eral diverse answers to the above question. One of the best
known of the similes in the MNS with respect to the problem of
the Buddha-nature is the pearl of the strong man:
77
Good sons! Just as there was in the royal family a very
strong man who had an extremely hard pearl between his
eyebrows. When he was wrestling with another strong man
[one day], the other strong man struck his brow with his
head, and as a consequence, the pearl sank under his skin
and vanished. When a boil [began to] develop on the spot,
the strong man called for good doctors to cure it. At that
time, there was a clever doctor well skilled in diagnosing
diseases, and he knew that the boil was caused by a pear1
which had entered the body and was concealed under the
skin. So the doctor asked the strong man, "Where has the
pearl on your brow gone?"
In great alarm, the strong man replied to that king of
doctors, "Is the pearl on my brow lost? Where is the pearl
now? Has it disappeared into thin air?" And [so speaking,
he began to] wail m anxiety and sorrow.
Then the good doctor consoled the strong man, "You
need not be in such great sorrow! pearT had entered
your body when you were fighting, and is now dimly per-
ceivable under the skin. Since you were in an angry and
malignant mood when fighting, you did not notice even
when the pearl had sunk into your body."
At that time, the strong man did not trust the doctor's
words, [and he demanded,] "If the pearl is [hiding] under
the skin, why didn't it come out with the bloody pus and
[other] impurities? Ifit is inside the muscle, you would not
be able to see it. Why do you try to deceive me?"
Then the doctor took a mirror and showed the strong
man his face; and there, the pearl appeared distinctly in
the mirror. When the strong man saw it, he was greatly
surprised, and a thought of wonder arose in his mmd.
Good sons! The same is true of all sentient beings. Since
they do not cherish virtuous friends, they cannot perceive
the Buddha-nature even though [all of them] possess it ...
Good sons! Just as the good doctor showed the strong
man the hard pearl [under the skin], in the same manner
the tathagata teaches that all sentient beings possess the
Buddha-nature. Sentient beings, due to the superimposi-
tion of myriad defilements, fail to realize the Buddha-
nature [which they have]. When all defilements come to an ,
end, they will be able to discern it perfectly, just as the
strong man recognized the precious pearl distinctly in the
bright mirror.
43
Since the precious pearl was initially part of the constitution of
the strong man, and was never lost, even though it had disap-
peared under the skin, the comparison of the Buddha-nature
with the pearl seems to imply that the Buddha-nature is an
inborn essence of sentient beings, even though sentieht beings
are ignorant of it at present due to the superimposition of
myriad defilements. The simile calls forth in our mind the doc-
trine of the intrinsically pure consciousness found in the Ta-
ch'eng ch'i-hsin and taught by masters of the Ti-
lun School -ttJ * and the She-Iun School:til * in the
Northern and Southern Dynasties.
44
According to that doc-
trine, there is immanent in every sentient being from the begin-
78
ningless past a pure mind, or the tathagatagarbha, and so ev-
eryone is destined for enlightenment-just as the strong man
was born with a precious pearl between his eyebrows, which
remained his property forever. However, due to the perme-
ation of ignorance, sentient beings do not realize this nature of .
enlighenment which they originally possess-just as the strong
man fought with another strong man in "an angry and malig-
nant mood," and did not notice that the precious pearl had
sunk under his skin. Religious awakening, when interpreted in
the framework of this theory, would mean the coming into
awareness of the intrinsic pure essence inherent in all living
beings, just as the strong man, when given a mirror by the king
of doctors, came to perceive the precious pearl he had deemed
lost. Indeed, there is no lack of indications in the MNS that the
attainment of the Buddha-nature by all sentient beings in the
future is understood as the rediscovery of something with
which everyone is initially endowed, and attainment is consid-
ered possible also on this ground. Besides the simile of the
precious pearl of the strong man, the comparisons in the MNS
of the Buddha-nature with the gold mine and the diamond
buried underground also appear to carry similar connotation.
45
Repeatedly, we encounter in the sutra the remark that all sen-
tient beings are in actual possession of the Buddha-nature, but
they fail to notice it because it is hidden by defilements.
46
And,
if the Ta-ch'eng ch'ihsin lun says that the pure mind of sentient
beings is "eternal and immutable," but "being defiled by igno-
rance, a defiled [state of mind] comes into being,"47 we also find
in the MNS the statement that the Buddha-nature is "not a
dharma newly created, but is kept from view due to [the pres-
ence of] adventitious defilements."48
Nevertheless, if it is not difficult to cite passages which
support the allying of the concept of Buddha-nature in the
MNS with the idea of the intrinsically pure consciousness in the
Ta-ch'eng ch'i-hsin lun and in the teachings of the Ti-Iun and
She-Iun masters, it is also easy to produce excerpts from the
sutra which prove the contrary. For instance, right after the last
quotation, we find the sutra comparing the Buddha-nature
with flowers blossoming on the tusks of elephants:
79
All elephant tusks send forth flowers when clouds and
thunders gather in the sky, and without [the quaking of]
thunders, no flowers will appear, not even their images.
The same is true of the Buddha-nature with respect to
sentient beings (chung-sheng fo-hsing), which remains al-
ways out of view due to the superimposition of all forms of
defilements. For this reason, I teacb that sentient beings
are without self. [However,] if they have the chance to
listen to the profound scripture which is the MNS, they
will perceive the Buddha-nature, just as flowers [will blos-
som] on elephant tusks [when roused by thundersJ.49
In this passage, a parallel is drawn between the relation of the
Buddha-nature to sentient beings, and the relation of flowers
to the elephant tusks on which they blossom. Just as elephant
tusks send out flowers when roused by thunders, sentient be-
ings achieve the Buddha-nature when coming under the bene-
ficial influence of the teaching of the MNS. However, unlike
the precious pearl, which is originally the property of the
strong man, flowers are clearly not part of the intrinsic
made-up of elephant tusks. At most, we can only say that ele-
phant tusks contain the potency to produce flowers. When this
simile is applied to the interpretation of the relation of the
Buddha-nature to sentient beings, the conclusion would be that
the Buddha-nature does not pre-exist in sentient beings in the
manner in which the pure mind pre-exists in all men, as ex-
pounded in the Ta-ch'eng ch'i-hsin lun and the works of the Ti-
lun and She-Iun masters. The most we can infer from this
comparison is that there is immanent in all sentient beings the
potential to develop the nature of the Buddha when the right
occasions arise. That the MNS conceives of the possession of
the Buddha-nature by all sentient beings in the future as the
actualization in the future of a latent faculty is strongly suggest-
ed by its frequent use of the seed metaphor to illustrate the
Buddha-nature. Thus, the Buddha-nature is once referred to
in the sutra as "the seed of the middle-way, which is the most
perfect enlightenment of all the Buddhas."50 On another occa-
sion, the Buddha is reported to have claimed that he had inside
his body "the seed of the Buddha-nature."51
However, if we accept the above exposition as exemplify-
ing the general position of the MNS, we should be greatly puz-
80
zled when we come across later in the sutra the story of the king
and the lute, the overt objective of which is to controvert any
pretension to base the idea of the future enlightenment of sen-
. tient beings on a paticular understanding of their metaphysical
made-up:
Good sons! There was a king who on hearing the clear and
melodious sound of a lute was deeply attracted; and he
enjoyed and longed for it so much that he could not get it
off his mind. So he asked [one of his] ministers, "Where
does such melodious sound come from?"
The minister replied, "Such melodious sound comes
from a lute."
Thereupon, the king ordered [the minister], "Bring me
the sound."
So, the minister brought a lute right away; and placing it
before the king, he announced, "Your Majesty! Here is the
sound you want."
Thereupon, the king addressed the lute, "Speak out!
Speak out!" However, the lute remained silent. [In a fit of
impatience,] the king cut the strings [of the lute], but still
no sound was produced. And even though the king [pro-
ceeded] to break the cover and frame of [of the lute] in
order to get at the sound, he still could not obtain [what he
wanted]. Then the king [stared] angrily at the minister
[and demanded], "Why do you cheat me?"
The minister explained to the king, "Your majesty! This
is not the way to get the sound. The lute will only give out
sound when all [needed] conditions [are fulfilled] and
when it is played in the proper manner."
[Good sons!] The same is true of the Buddha-nature
with respect to sentient beings. It abides nowhere, and is ap-
prehended when one practices the opportune means. On appre-
hending it, one wIll attain the most perfect enlighten-
ment.
52
This story draws a parallel between the sound produced by a
lute and the Buddha-nature. The lesson it attempts to convey is
that just as it is foolish to try to get at the clear and melodious
sound of a lute by breaking down its cover and frame, it is also
futile to analyse sentient beings in order to arrive at a meta-
physical principle (be it in the form of a latent potentiality or in
the form of an intrinisically pure consciousness) with which
their eventual attainment of Buddhahood can be explained.
81
The central theme of the story is summed up in the concluding
declaration that the Buddha-nature "abides nowhere," i.e., is
not immanent in some form in sentient beings, just as sound is
not immanent in any part of the lute. In the same manner as
sound is produced when all necessary conditions are satisfied,
the Buddha-nature 'Nill reveal itself to sentient beings when
they practice in earnest the way to enlightenment prescribed by
the tathagata.
4. Why All Sentient Beings Will Eventually Possess the Buddha-
Nature: The Purpose of the Doctrine of the Buddha-Nature:
Our cursory examination of a number of similes in the
MNS relating to the problem of the Buddha-nature has dis-
closed at least three possible responses to the question of why
all sentient beings will eventually possess the Buddha-nature:
a. Because all of them are endowed with an intrinsically pure
essence, which they will become fully aware of when they
have brought to an end the working of ignorance.
b. Because all of them embody the potency or "the
seed" of Buddhahood, which will send out fruit, when all
necessary conditions are satisfied.
c. Because the way to enlightenment is open to all to
follow, and one can be certain of achieving Buddhahood if
one follows this way.
Such metaphysical speculations as (a) and (b) are irrelevant to
the actual fulfilment of the Buddha-nature in sentient beings in
the future.
Our next task will be to determine which of the three re-
plies is most representative of the overall standpoint of the
MNS. While granting that all three positions have some textual
support in the MNS, (c) should be given preference for the
following reasons:
i. It is more akin to the general anti-metaphysical tone of
the MNS. The MNS repeatedly enjoins its listeners to steer clear
of metaphysical speculation and to concentrate their minds on
the search for final deliverance. Thus, it is said that the Bud-
dha-nature will not be perceived by bodhisattvas who harbour
specific views regarding dharmas.
53
The well-known indeter-
minate questions, such as "whether the world is eternal or non-
eternal," "whether the world is finite or infinite," "whether the
82
tathagata exists or does not exist after death," etc., appear
several times in the MNS, and are dismissed for being conduc-
ive to attachment rather than to cessation of ills.i,4 Further,
non-attachment to views is pictured in the MNS as the distinc-
tive mark of the sage
55
and the tathagata
56
, and is further
equated with the "ultimate nirval.la," "the supreme form of
emptiness" and "the most perfect enlightenment."57 .
ii. In the MNS, we find statements openly refuting the
idea that the Buddha-nature is an entity immanent in sentient
beings.
Good sons! If it is said that the Buddha-nature abides in
sentient beings [, it is wrong]. Good sons! Dharmas which
are eternal abide nowhere. Ifa dharma abides anywhere,
it is not eternal [in natureJ.58
Again, it is observed:
Good sons! If someone maintains that all sentient beings
definitely possess the Buddha-nature which is eternal,
blissful, personal and pure, [and further maintains that
the Buddha-nature] is neither produced nor born, but is
not perceived by sentient beings due to the presence of
defilements, it should be understood that he has slandered
the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha.
59
iii. Besides the story of the king and the lute, we find in
the MNS miscellaneous remarks and similes indicating strong
opposition to any attempt to ground man's future enlighten-
ment on the existence in him at present of a dormant principle.
A well-known example is the comparison of the cream obtained
from milk and the Buddha-nature to be attained by sentient
beings:
83
Good sons! Only the ignorant will speak as you have ar-
gued: that if milk does not have the nature of cream, it
cannot produce milk, just as if banyan seeds do not have
the nature of being five chang 3t from the ground,60 it
cannot produce concrete [trees] five chang tan. The wise
will never speak that way. Why? For [they understand that
things] do not have [definite] nature.
Good sons! If milk already has the nature of cream, it
would not need the support of various conditions [to pro-
duce cream].
Good sons! Milk will never turn into cream when mixed
with water even if we allow it to stand for one month, but if
we add one drop of the juice of the P' o-chiu J!(l'l)jt tree to it,51
cream will be formed nght away. If milk already has [the
nature of] cream, why is it dependent on [such] conditions
[as the juice of the p'o-chiu tree to produce cream]? The
same is true of the Buddha-nature with respect to sentient
beings (chung-shengfo-hsing). The Buddha-nature is appre-
hended [by sentient beings] at the fulfillment of vanous
conditions ... Since [sentient beings] attain the Buddha-
nature dependent on various conditions, they do not have
any [definite] nature; and since [sentient beings] do not
have any [definite] nature, they can attain the most perfect
enlightenment. 52
Seeing that milk, when properly processed, turns into cream,
common sense usually infers that there must reside in milk the
nature of cream, which explains its tendency to be transformed
into cream. It is this common-sense attitude that the MNS is
attempting to challenge, when it declares that "things do not
have definite nature," and points out that if milk already pos-
sessed the nature of cream, it would not require the support of
external conditions before its transmutation into cream could
take place. When this argument is applied to the Buddha-na-
ture with respect to sentient beings, it speaks against the ten-
dency to infer from the eventual attainment of Buddhahood by
sentient beings to the existence in them at present of an onto-
logical disposition to assume the characteristics of the Buddha.
Just as the transformation of milk into cream should not be
understood as the actualization of the nature of cream in milk,
the realization of the Buddha-nature in sentient beings also
should not be construed as the coming to fruition of an inborn
faculty in sentient beings. And if the necessity of the agency of
the juice of p'o-chiu trees is a proof against the presence of the
nature of cream in milk, the existence of such prerequisites of
the attainment of the Buddha-nature as the observance of mo-
nastic rules and the listening to the teaching of the MNS also
militates against attributing to sentient beings an innate essence
to become a Buddha.
53
84
This comparison of the Buddha-nature with cream is sup-
plemented by a series of other similes, all of which convey the
same lesson. What follow are some of the most prominent ex-
amples, the significance of which can easily be inferred follow-
ing the lineof reasoning outlined above:
85
Good sons! If there is [the nature of] cream in milk as you
have maintained, why do milk-sellers ask for the price of
milk only, and not the price of cream as well? Why do
mare-sellers ask for the price of the mares only and not the
price of colts [which will be born from the mares] also? A
man of the world asks for the hand of a woman because he
is without offspring; and once a woman gets pregnant, she
would no longer be called a girl. Now, if It is said that a girl
gets married with the nature of a child in her, that would
be wrong. Why? For if she had the nature of a child, she
would also have [the nature of] a grandchild; and if she
had [the nature of] a grandchild, [her child and her grand-
child] would be brothers. Why? Because both of them owe
their existence to the same belly. Therefore, I assert that
girls do not possess the nature of the children [to whom
they will give birth]. If there is the nature of cream in milk,
why can't we detect in it simultaneously the five tastes [of
milk, cream, curd, butter and gheeJ? If there is the sub-
stance of a banyan tree five feet tall in the seed, why can't
we observe [in the seed] at once the miscellaneous forms of
sprout, stem, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit? Good
sons! Milk differs [from cream] in its colour, taste and
products, and the same is true of ghee. How can we say
that there is the nature of cream in milk? Good sons! Just
as [it is absurd to maintain that] a person who will eat curd
to-morrow gives out a bad smell today, equally [absurd is it
to maintain that] there exists definitely the nature of
cream in milk. Good sons! A person writes words with a
brush, paper and ink, when there was initially no word on
the paper. It is because there was at first [no word] on the
paper that [we say that] words are formed dependent on
conditions [such as brush and ink]. If there were originally
}'Yords on the paper, why would they need [the presence
of] various condItions to be formed? We mix the colours
blue and yellow together to form the colour green. It
should be understood that the two [colours blue and yel-
low] do not embody originally the nature of greenness. If
[the nature of greenenes] already exists [in the colours
blue and yellow], why do we have to mix [the colours blue
and yellow] together to form [the colour green]? Good
sons! Sentient beings are kept alive with food, but there is
actually no life in food. If there is life in food initially, food
would be life even before it was consumed. Good sons! All
dharmas are without [definite] nature.
64
iv. The MNS seldom alludes to the inherent ontological
structure of sentient beings when it gives its reason for believ-
ing in their eventual enlightenment. Rather, it often satisfies
itself with the general observation that as sentient beings are
different from non-sentient objects such as stones and walls,
which are incapable of the thought of enlightenment and so
can never assume the characteristics of a Buddha, the Buddha-
nature is attributed to them by way of contrast. So the MNS
asserts:
Good sons! I speak of "nirva[.la" due to [the existence of
conditions] contrary to nirva[.la. I speak of the "tathagata"
due to [the existence of conditions] contrary to the tatha-
gata. I speak of the "Buddha-nature" due to [the existence
of things] contrary to the Buddha-nature.
What are [the conditions] described as contrary to nir-
va[.la? They include all dharmas which are -defiled and
conditioned. The destruction of these defiled and condi-
tioned [dharmas] is known as "nirva[.la." As for [the condi-
tions] contrary to the tathagata, they range from [the state
of] the icchantika up to [the state otJ the pratyekabuddha.
The cessation of [tIie state of] the icchantika up to [the state
of] the pratyekabuddha is known as the "tathagata." As for
[things] contrary to the Buddha-nature, they include walls,
tiles, stones and all non-sentient obiects. Apart from such
non-sentient objects, we can apply the name of "Buddha-
nature" [to the restJ.b5
Thus, when it is said that sentient beings have the Buddha-
nature, our attention is drawn to the fact that sentient beings,
unlike non-sentient objects like walls and tiles, can win Buddha-
hood by means of proper religious practices. This way of think-
ing is perfectly illustrated by the familiar story of the blind
men's attempt to describe an elephant, found in the M N S ~ 66
The blind men have no conception of the form of an entire
elephant. Nevertheless, they have some ideas of the shapes of
some of its parts; and if they recover their power of vision, they
can surely report in full the appearance of a complete elephant.
86
In the same way, sentient beings, due to their ignorance, are
strangers to the Buddha-nature. That does not, however, pre-
clude them from having some vague inkling of what the Bud-
dha-nature is like at present, and from gaining a perfect con-
ception of the Buddha-nature in the future, when their mind's
eye is opened. It is based on this belief that sentient beings,
unlike walls, tiles and stones, "are not by nature resistant to the
Buddha-nature"57 and so are forever susceptible to the influ-
ence of the salvific work of Buddhas and bodhisattvas (rather
than on speculation of their ontological structure) that the MNS
propounds the idea that all sentient beings possess the Buddha-
nature.
58
v. The MNS stresses very much the practical implication
of the teaching of the presence of the Buddha-nature in all
sentient beings. Thus, it explains why bodhisattvas preach the
concept of the Buddha-nature:
Even though bodhisattvas perceive the evil deeds and er-
rors of sentient beings, they never dwell on them. Why?
They are afraid that this will lead to the arising of [further]
defilements [in sentient beings]. With the ansing of [fur-
therJ defilements, sentient beings will fall into the evil
modes of existence.
59
On the other hand, bodhisattvas, on perceiving the least
sign of goodness in sentient beings, praise them. What do
we mean by good? It is the so called Buddha-nature.
Bodhisattvas laud the Buddha-nature so that sentient be-
ings will develop the thought of the most perfect enlight-
enment.
70
Of similar import is the story of the Buddha's encounter with
five hundred brahmins, in which the Buddha declares explicit-
ly that the Buddha-nature is in fact not the self, but is called the
self only for the sake of instructing sentient beings:
87
Good sons! Once, I was bathing in the Nairanjana River
... At that time, five hundred brahmins also came to the
riverside, and approaching where I was, they talked
among themselves, "What has [Gautama] done to achieve
the diamond body? If Gautama has not taught that life
ends with death, we shall follow him and receive the rules
of discipline [of the Buddhist order]."
Good sons! At that time, I, with my power to discern
others' thought, knew what the brahmms had in mind. So
I spoke to tliese brahmins, "Why do you' say that I teach
that life ends with death?"
The brahmins replied, "Gautama, you have taught in
various sutras that all sentient beings are without self. If
you preach [the idea of] no-self, how can you maintain that
[you have not taught that] life ends with death? If there is
no self, who keeps the rules of discipline, and who tran-
gresses them?"
The Buddha answered, "Surely, I have not preached
that all sentient beings are without self. [On the other
hand,] I always proclaim that all sentient beings possess
the Buddha-nature. What else can the Buddha-nature be
if not the self? Thus, I have never taught that life ends
with death ... "
When the brahmins heard that the Buddha-nature is
the self, there immediately arose in their minds the
thought 9f the most perfect enlightenment; and soon, they
left the household lIfe to practIse the path of enlighten-
ment. All birds of the air and animals of the land and the
sea [who were present at this discourse] also resolved to
attain the supreme enlightenment, and with the arising of
such thought, they soon abandoned their [animal] form .
. Good sons! The Buddha-nature is in fact not the self. For the
sake of [guiding] sentient beings, I described it as the self.71
When so viewed, the tenet of the eventual Buddhahood of all
sentient beings is essentially a soteriological doctrine, the pri-
mary significance of which lies in its efficacy in developing "the
thought of the most perfect enlightenment" in man. As the
tenet is not the outcome of a systematic investigation of the
nature of reality, any wholesale attempt to interpret the Bud-
dha-nature taught in the MNS as entailing either (a) a pure
essence or (b) a potency, should be looked upon with some
SuspICIon.
NOTES
I would like to thank the University of Hong Kong for a research grant
which has made this study possible.
88
L Fragments of the Sanskrit original of this Mahayana version of the
MNS have been recovered in recent years, and are recorded in Watanabe
Kaikyoku rJt i:l Watanabe rombttn shU r1t. 51:: 2nd ed. (To-
kyo: 1936), pp. 570-585 and TakakusuJunjiro ii1li ;j'iJ jlW! 1)( Jill) & Watanabe Kai-
kyoku, eds., TaishO shinshu daizokyo *- iE *'T *- Hl 85 vols. (Tokyo: 1924-
1934) (henceforth abbreviated to T), vol. 12, p. 604. Also see G. M. Bongard
Levin, "New Buddhist Sanskrit Texts from Central Asia: An Unknown Frag- ,
ment of the Mahayana MahaparinirvarLa-sutra, " Journal of the International Asso-
ciation of Buddhist Studies 4,2 (1981), pp. 7-16.
2. See T, vol. 12, p. 388b, 1.22, p. 390a, 1.8, p. 470c, 1.14, p. 485b.11.11-
12 & p.493b.11.4-5. Also consult Mochizuki Shinko )j Bukkyo kymen
naritatsu-shi ron {i/ll 1L.R 2nd ed. (Kyoto: 1946), pp.255-273.
3. A very comprehensive study of the various Chinese translations of the
MNS has been done by Fuse Kogaku:tp Jjfli t.5.ffi. in his Nehanshtl no kenkyu
* no iiff ,2nd ed. (Tokyo: 1973), vol. 1. In this work, Mr. Fuse has
made an elaborate comparative study of the three Chinese translations of
the MNS, and has found only minor discrepancies in content. Also consult
Tang Yung-t'ung m riHan Wei Liang-Chin Nan-pei ch'ao fo-chiao shih
rl fifj m .R, 2nd ed. (Peking: 1963), pp. 601-610 and Taka-
saki Jikido ii1li Wffr @. Nyoraizo shiso no keisei * Hl ,'GJ, 1JjI, no lB,gX: 2nd ed.
(Tokyo: 1974), pp. 128-131.
4. For a detailed study of the tradition of the study of the MNS in China,
consult Fuse Kogaku, op. cit., vol. 2. Also refer to Tang Yung-t'ung, op. cit.,
pp. 677-678 & pp. 832-834; Kenneth K. S. Ch'en, Buddhism in China (Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1964), pp. 113-116, 128-129 & pp. 180-
181; and Ando Toshio '1T.. iH2!Ot "Hokugi Nehangaku no dento to shoki no
shiron-shi S no 1l} 1'JE to YJ AA no ejji " in H okugi bukkyo no
{i/ll iiff 1E 2nd ed. (Kyoto: 1978), pp. 179-201.
5. For an erudite study qf the historical transformation of the concept of
the Buddha-nature in India, China and Japan, refer to Tokiwa Daijo's
'it !At *- it ,BUsshO no kenkyu :{i/ll'11; no iiff 1E (Tokyo: 1944). Also consult Shina
bukkyo no kenkyu 3!OfIHi/ll no iiff vol. 3 (Tokyo: 1943), pp. 247-300, by
the same author.
6. Discussion on this problem will lead to the problem of the textual
development of the MNS. See Tokiwa Daijo, BusshO no kenkyfl, pp. 36-66 and
my paper "Do All Sentient Beings Possess the Buddha-nature?-The Prob-
lem of the Icchantika in the Mahayana Mahaparinirva'[La-sutm" (presented at
the Fifth Conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies,
1982).
7. T, vol. 12, p. 511a,11.16-18.
8. Ibid., p. 399a, 11.5-7.
9. Ibid., p. 487a, 11.15-18. For similar passages, refer to p. 472b & p.
553c.
10. Ibid., p. 414c, 1. 29-p. 415a,1.2
11. Due to limited space, we will not enter into the difficult problem
of the Sanskrit original of the term "Buddha-nature" and its synonyms.
For information on this much discussed subject, see Mizutani Kosho
89
7]<. tt jf"Bussho ni tsuite iiJil t1. ni tsuite," Indogaku bukkyogaku no kenkyu
E:[J OC iiJil ~ ~ : n o 1i:Jf1j\'.,2p94,2 (1956), pp. 550-553,Okawa Ichijo /J\ J 11- ~ ,
"Bussho to buddhatva 1511'ti to buddhatva," Indogaku bukkyogaku no kenkyu
11,2 (1963), pp. 544-545 and TakasakiJikido, op. cit., p,art I, chap. 2.
12. Ibid., p. 524a, l.28-b, 1.1
13. Ibid., p. 526a, l.28-b, l.2
14. Ibid., p. 463c, 11.21-22.
15. Ibid., p. 576a, 1.29-b, l.1. Also refer to p. 395c.
16. Ibid., p. 513a, 11.3-5.
17. Ibid., p. 524c.
18. The ten powers are concrete manifestations of the omniscience of
the Buddha, who has perfect knowledge of (1) what is right or wrong in every
situation; (2) what is the karma of every deed, past, present and future; (3) all
stages of samadhi and liberation; (4) the fa\ulties and powers of all beings; (5)
the desires and aspirations of all beings; (6) the nature and deeds of all
beings; (7) the direction and consequence of all conducts; (8) the previous
existences of all beings; (9) the birth, death and destinies of all beings; and
(10) the destruction of the asravas of all beings. Consult Mochizuki Shinko,
Bukkyo daijiten, iiJil ~ *- ~ ~ vol. 3 (Tokyo: 1933), pp. 2402-2404.
19. The four forms of fearlessness are (1) fearlessness arising from the
attainment of the most perfect enlightenment, (2) fearlessness arising from
the abandoning of all defilements, (3) fearlessness regarding all anti-Buddhist
teachings, and (4) fearlessness arising from the cessation of all sufferings.
20. The Buddha remains undisturbed whether (1) all creatures believe
in his teaching, or (2) do not believe in his teaching, or (3) some believe and
others do not believe in his teaching.
2l. T, vol. 12, p. 525c, 1l.3-4.
22. For a detailed list of these marks and characteristics, refer to Leon
Hurvitz, op. cit., pp. 353-36l.
23. T, vol. 12, p. 574b, 11.15-20.
24. Ibid., p. 461b, 1.19.
25. Ibid., p. 480c, 11.13-14.
26. Ibid., p. 526a, 1l.2-6.
27. Ibid., p. 447c, 1l.9-12.
28. Ibid., p. 524b, l.25-c, 1.1 O.
29. The eight powers are: (1) the power of self division, (2) the power of
self expansion, (3) the power of flying, (4) the power of manifesting. in count-
less forms in one time and at one place, (5) the power of using one physical
organ for the functions of all the others, (6) the power of achieving all things
while remaining unattached, (7) the power of preaching for countless kalpas
. by expounding just one stanza, and (8) the power of being all-pervasive like
space. See Ibid., p. 502c-p. 503a.
30. Ibid., p. 556c, 11.11-14.
31. The parajikas refer to the most serious transgressions of monks and
nuns, such as sexual immorality, stealing, murder and false speaking, which
entail expulsion from the sangha.
32. T, vol. 12, p. 405b, 11.12-18.
90
33. Ibid., p. 405a, 11.19-20.
34. Ibid., p. 555b, 11.9-1S.
35. Ibid., p. 524b, 11.11-21.
36. Ibid., p. 572b, I1.1S-23.
37. Ibid., p. 530c, 11.15-17.
3S. ibid., p. 530b, 11.26-29. Refer to n.62 below.
39. See n. 2S above.
40. Ibid., p. 524a, 11.5-8.
41. Ibid., p. 523c, 1.26-p. 524a, 1.5.
42. Ibid., p. 524a, 11.12-15.
43. Ibid., p. 408a, 1.9-b, 1.11.
44. The Ta-ch'eng ch'i-hsin lun (Awakening oj Faith) is one of the most
influential Buddhist texts in China, and has been translated into English
several times. The orthodox view is that the work was composed by Asvagh-
o ~ a , and was translated into Chinese by Paramartha in 550, but both claims
have been challenged in recent years. Mochizuki Shink6 suggests in his Bukkyo
kyoten naritatsu-shi ron that the work was the compilation of a Ti-Iun master
living in the second half of the sixth century. See op. cit., pp. 532-641. For a
list of titles of classic studies on the problem of the authenticity of the Ta-
ch'eng ch'i-hsin lun, consult Yoshito S. Hakeda, trans., The Awakening oj Faith
(New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1967), pp. 119-122. The
teachings of the Ti-Iun and She-lun schools represented the initial Chinese
interpretation of Yogacara Buddhism when the latter was first imported into
China in the sixth century. While the two schools disagreed with each other
on many points, both agreed that there exists in every sentient being an
intrinsically pure consciousness, which serves as the ontological basis of en-
lightenment as well as the metaphysical ground of the phenomenal world.
Even though both schools gradually died out in the second half of the seventh
century, their concept of the pure mind was passed on through the Ta-ch'eng
ch'i-hsin lun as well as the teachings of the Hua-yen school ~ * and cer-
tain sects of the Ch'an school ff,lf! * , and continued to exert enormous influ-
ence on the development of the Buddha-nature doctrine in China.
45. See T, vo!' 12, p. 407b & p. 408c.
46. For example, see ibid., p. 462c, 11.1-2.
47. Yoshito S. Hakeda, trans., op. cit., p. 50.
48. T, vo!' 12, p. 411 b, 11.2S-29.
49. Ibid., p. 411c, 11.1-5.
50. Ibid., p. 523c, 11.1-2.
51. Ibid., p. 410c, 11.13-14.
52. Ibid., p. 519b, 11.6-17.
53. Ibid., p. 521b.
54. Ibid., pp. 596c-597b.
55. Ibid., p. 413a, 1.17.
56. Ibid., p. 503a, 11.8-9.
57. Ibid., p. 464b.
58. Ibid., p. 555c, 11.27-2S.
59. Ibid., p. 5S0c, 11.2-4.
91
60. "Chang" is a Chinese unit of length equivalent to 3 \I, metres.
61. I still cannot find out the Sanskrit original of the name "p'o-chit,."
62. T, vol. 12, p. 51gb, 1.22-c, 1.3.
63. The argument above would certainly appear i'1conclusive to those
who are sympathetic with views (a) and (b), for they also believe that the
fulfilment of the Buddha-nature in sentient beings in the future requires the
satisfaction of various conditions, but that has not deterred them from investi-
gating the metaphysical basis of sentient beings' eventual deliverance. Howev-
er it may be, this analogy between cream and the Buddha-nature is significant
for our present purpose, for it displays in the most emphatic fashion the
aversion to speculation on the ontological source of enlightenment, character-
istic of the MNS. Several pages later, this simile of milk and cream is again
picked up for similar purpose:
The Buddha explained, "I have never maintained that there is [the na-
ture of] cream in milk. When people say that there is [the nature of]
cream in milk, it is because [they see that] cream is produced from milk."
[The Bodhisattva Sirp.hanada asked,] "World-honored one! Everything
produced surely must have its occasions."
[The Buddha replied,] "Good sons! When there is milk, there is no .
cream, and tbere is also no curd, butter and ghee .... If there is [cream
in milk], why don't we give milk the double name [milk-cream],just as we
call a person skillful in [making] both [articles of gold and iron] gold- and
black-smith? ... Good sons! There are two types of causes: first, direct
cause, and secondly, auxiliary cause. Direct cause is like milk which pro-
duces cream, and auxiliary cause is such as warmth and yeast [which are
added to milk to form cream]. Since [cream] is formed from milk, we say
that there is the nature of cream in milk."
The Bodhisattva Sirp.hanada asked, "World-honored one! If there is
not the nature of cream in milk, there is also not the nature of cream in
horns. Why isn't cream formed from horns?"
[The Buddha replied,] "Good sons! Cream is also formed from horns.
Why? I have mentioned two auxiliary causes of cream: first, yeast, and
secondly, warmth. Since horns are warm in nature, they can produce
cream."
[The Bodhisattva] Sirp.hanada asked, "World-honored one! If horns
can produce cream, why do people who want cream look for milk and
not horns?"
The Buddha replied, "Good sons! That is why I teach that there are
[two types of causes:] direct cause and auxiliary cause. (Ibid., pp. 530b,
1.20-c, 1.6)
In this interesting dialogue, the bodhisattva Sirp.hanada represents the posi-
tion of the ordinary man, who sees the need of postulating "occasions" to
account for the production of cream from milk. Thus, it is asked, if there is
nothing in the composition of milk which is especially conducive to the forrna-
92
tion of cream, why do people who want cream look for milk, and not some
other things such as horns? The Buddha, on the other hand, consistently
refuses to view the matter this way. He declares that the everyday assertion
that there is cream in milk should not be taken literally as indicating the
presence of the nature of cream in milk, but rather as a loose way of relating
the fact that cream is always formed from milk. As for the question why
people look for milk instead of horns when they need cream, the Buddha
answered by classifying causes into two categories: direct and auxiliary. Milk
is the first thing to come to our mind in case we need cream because it is the
direct cause. Furthermore, horns, being warm in nature, can serve as the
auxiliary cause of cream. So it is not totally wrongheaded if a person wanting
cream asks for horns, because warmth, as the auxiliary cause, is as necessary
to the formation of c ~ e a m as milk. This falling back on the idea of two types of
causes in the reply again will not satisfy questioners like the bodhisattva Sirp-
hanada, for they can continue to beg for the principle behind the division of
causes into direct and auxiliary, as well as the ontological ground for regard-
ing certain causes as direct and other causes as auxiliary. It would take us too
far afield to follow the intricate and often quite unpromising discussion which
follows the above quotation, but if the two parties appear to be arguing at
cross-purposes all the time, that alone suffices to demonstrate how strongly
antipathetic the iVINS is to the form of reductive reasoning exhibited in the
interrogation of the bodhisattva Sirphanada.
64. Ibid., p. 531a, 11.8-26.
65. Ibid., p. 581a, 11.17-23.
66. See Ibid., p. 556a, 11.8-21.
67. The story of the blind man and the elephant are preceded by the
following remarks:
Good sons! As sentient beings are not [by nature] resistant to the Bud-
dha-nature, we declare that they have [the Buddha-nature]. As sentient
beings are heading straight for [the Buddha-nature], as they will some
day possess [the Buddha-nature], as they will definitely attain [the Bud-
dha-nature], and as they will definitely perceive [the Buddha-nature],
we thereby say that all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature. (Ibid., p.
556a, 11.6-8).
68. Of course, to those who are accustomed to look for an explanation
for everything, it would seem necessary to go on to inquire for the metaphysi-
cal basis of this peculiar propensity of the sentient to participate in the essence
of the Buddha, which is not shared by the non-sentient. Furthermore, they
would question the iVINS for repeating the obvious, for is it not common
knowledge that only beings with life and consciousness can be taught and so
only they can apprehend the Buddha-nature? We have seen that the iVINS has
inherited the anti-metaphysical attitude inherent in the doctrine of the mid-
dle way and the discussions on the indeterminate questions in early Bud-
dhism, and so tends to view all searches for underlying ontological principles
with suspicion. As for the criticism of repeating the obvious, the reply of the
iVINS would be that what is obvious may still be of great significance, especially
in the realm of practical religious life. See (v) below.
93
69. Of the five modes of existence in the realm of sarpsara, those of
animals, hungry ghosts and beings in hell are considered evil.
70. T, vol. 12, p. 517c, 1.29-p. 51Sa, 1.4.
71. Ibid., p. 525a, 1.12-0, 1.1.
94
The Development of Language in Bhutan*
by Lapan' N ado
The Kingdom of Bhutan or, as it is called by its inhabitants,
Druk Yul, "Land of the Drukpa Kargupa Sect," is situated on
the southern slope of the great Himalayas, between Tibet in the
north and India in the south. It is surrounded by numerous
mountains, and countless rivers and streams rise from its gla-
ciers and flow down its valleys to the Brahmaputra River to the
south. The fauna and flora are rich and the country abounds in
medicinal plants. This is the reason why Bhutan is also known
as Menjong, which means "the country of medicine."
The population and size of the country are small, but its
history can be traced for well over a thousand years. Through-
out its history, Bhutan has preserved its independence. It has
developed unique cultural traditions, quite distinct from those
of its neighbours. These are clearly reflected in its
traditions and customs, language, manner of dress, arts and
crafts, and sq forth.
King Songtsen Campo unified Tibet in the first half of the
seventh century A.D. Before then there was no written script in
Tibet. According to tradition, Songtsen Campo sent Thonmi
Sambhota, son of the minister Thonmi, to India to study Indi-
an languages and scripts. Under different teachers, such as the
Brahmin Lipikara and Deva Vidyasinha, he mastered Indian
philology and scripts. According to the Lalitavistara (Gyacher rol
pa'i mdo), there were as many as sixty-four scripts in India.
Thonmi Sambhota chose the Devanagari script and adapted it
to the Tibetan language.
There are in Sanskrit 16 vowels and 34 consonants, so the
Devanagari script has in all 50 letters and signs. Thonmi Samb-
hota omitted some which were not needed for Tibetan and
95
added a few which did not exist in the Devanagari. Finally, he
fixed a set of 4 vowel signs and 30 consonants.
Tibetans transcribed the words of the Buddha-the sutras
and tantras-which had been preached in different places in
India and Uddiyana (Ogyen) and preserved in different lan-
guages, such as Sanskrit and pali.
The new alphabet was also of great importance for political
and administrative purposes. Laws were written down and Ti-
betan civilization began to develop socially and spiritually.
In Tibet itself, although the basic form of the script re-
mained unchanged, different adaptations developed. for spe-
cial purposes. Among numerous scribes who left models of
letters, Khyungpo Yukhribar is famous and had many disci-
ples. He fixed the proportion of letters, the methods of fabri-
cating pen and paper, and standardized calligraphy. His meth-
od spread widely in Tibet.
The introduction of the script into Bhutan is closely relat-
ed to the spread of Buddhism. Padmasar:nbhava, known in
Bhutan as Guru Rinpoche, came to Bumthang in central Bhu-
tan in the 8th century A.D. He taught the Dharma to the King
of Bumthang and his subjects. At that time the Bhutanese had
no written language. Therefore, Denman Tsemang, who was in
the retinue of Guru Rinpoche, wrote down certain important
scriptures for the King of Bumthang. He also taught the Bhu-
tanese how to read and write.
Denna Tsemang was a famous scribe who legends claim
could write innumerable texts in a moment. He is the pur-
ported scribe of the majority of the concealed texts (terma) re-
corded in Bhutanese script-which is different from the Tibet-
an script. One name for this cursive form is lhoyig. This literally
means "southern script," so named because Bhutan is situated
to the south of Tibet. The other name is juyig which refers to
the use of this script for ordinary correspondence. The origin
of the Bhutanese scripts thus is traditionally traced back to the
8th century A.D.
Some specimens of the script of this period are still extant.
At Samye Chimphu in Tibet Guru Rinpoche revealed the
teaching of the Kagye desheg dupa cycle to King Krisong Detsen
and 24 subjects. All of them received the initiation, explanation
and precept from the Guru himself. After practice, they at-
96
tained perfection (and showed different signs of it). Guru Rin-
poche then ordered Denma Tsemang to write down on yellow
paper the teaching of the Kagye desheg dupa for the King. Then,
in order to transmit these teachings to Nyang Nyima Oezer, the
future reincarnation of the King, the manuscripts written out
by Denma Tsemang were hidden behind a statue of Vairocana,
which is the principal image of the Khomthing Lhakang temple
in Lhobrag, southern Tibet. In. accordance with the prophecy
of Guru Rinpoche, the terton or "discoverer of treasures,"
Nyang Nyima Oezer discovered the manuscripts of Denma
Tsemang. Fragments of these manuscripts discovered by
Nyang Nyima Oezer are still preserved today. Between the
form of writing used by Denma Tsemang and the actual Bhu-
tanese script in use today, there is a striking similarity, This
offers evidence that the writing of Denma Tsemang is the
model from which today's Bhutanese script originated.
In his Deb ther dkar po, or "White Annals," the eminent
Tibetan historian of the 20th century, Gendun Choephel,
states: "The Tibetan alphabet was invented by Thonmi Samb-
hota on the basis of the Devanagari alphabet. Other scripts such
as teryig (script used in the terma literature) are very similar to
the Indian scripts of the Gupta period. It seems, therefore, that
the difference between ucen formal script and ume cursive script
didn't exist when the Tibetan alphabet was invented, and that
the ume script resulted from the quick handwriting style of ucen
letters. In ancient script and the Bhutanese scripts of the pre-
sent, there is no differentation into ucen and ume, and they.
seem to represent a state which existed before the emergence
of the difference between the ucen and ume scripts. Tibetan
scripts changed in the course of time, and their actual forms
differ much from the Gupta-period Indian scripts of more
than one thousand years ago."
As pointed out in this passage by Gendun Choephel, the
Bhutanese script differs only slightly from the ancient scripts,
and its origin goes back to Denma Tsemang in the 8th century
A.D. Moreover, the contemporary manuscripts found at Tun-
huang appear to bear the same similarity to the Bhutanese
script of today as those of Denma Tsemang. After the creation
of the Tibetan alphabet, the Tibetans started a vast project of
translating Buddhist literature from Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and
97
other languages into Tibetan. Songtsen Gampo, Khrisong Det-
sen and Khri Ralpacen are the three Tibetan religious kings
who are considered to have been incarnations of the Rigsum
Gonpo, that is AvalokiteSvara, Manjusri and Vajrapal,li. Under
the patronage of these kings, the translation project was carried
out by Indian pandits and Tibetan lotsawas (translators). The
most famous among them are Padmasarnbhava, Vimalamitra,
Jinamitra, Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Chokro Lui
Gyeltshen and Yeshede. To ascertain an exact and faithful
translation, the orthography, grammar and terminology were
revised and unified; the Kesarche, or "newly fixed language,"
was worked out in the first half of the 9th century A.D. The
standard fixed classical Tibetan became the religious language
for all Buddhists in the vast region which include Tibet, Mon-
golia, Bhutan and other Himalayan areas. Thanks to the efforts
of kings, pandits and translators, a comprehensive collection of
Buddhist literature has been translated into classical Tibetan
with remarkable accuracy and fidelity. The Tibetan Buddhist
Canon consists of two major collections, the Kanjur and the
Tenjur. The Kanjur, of 108 volumes, comprises the teachings
of the Buddha and the Tenjur, of more than 200 volumes,
comprises the commentaries of pandits. These two collections
in Choeke or the "classical religious language" are still in use in
Bhutan, and they form the foundation of Buddhist teaching
and practice.
In the 17th century A.D., the great spiritual and temporal
leader Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel unified Bhutan. A zong
(fortress) was established as an administrative centre in each
region. These buildings are also the regional religious centres
which house the monastic communities known as dratshang or
rabdey. Officers such as penlops, dzongpons, drungpas al}d thrim-
pons were appointed throughout the country. The linguistic
situation of this unified Bhutan is complex and there are many
dialects. The most important are the N galonoggikha of western
Bhutan, the Tsangla or Sharchhobikha of eastern Bhutan, the
Bumthangpaikha of central Bhutan, the Kurtoeparkha of
northeastern Bhutan, and the Khyenkha of central-south Bhu-
tan.
In the past, written communications in Bhutan, both of an
official and private nature, always had been in Choeke, the classi-
98
cal religious language written in juyig, the Bhutanese cursive
script. Because of its classical nature, Choeke can be understood
only by people who have received a traditional education. To
become intelligible to the common man, it has to be interpreted
into the local language or dialect. Despite this, Choeke is still in
wide use among educated persons, both in ordinary correspon-
dence and in the broader context of religious teaching and
practice.
In addition to Choeke, which exists only in written form,
Bhutan has long used an official form of speech known as
Dzongkha. Dzong means fortress, kha means language; therefore
the "language of the fortress."
Dzongkha is based on the major language group of Nga-
longkikha, prevailing in western Bhutan, but it most closely
resembles the vernacular speech of Punakha, the valley where
the ancient winter capital was situated. From the 17th century
A.D. onwards, Dzongkha has been the language of government
used in all dzongkhag, administrative units of local government
centred in the fortress or dzong of each district.
When Eve-year economic and social development plans
were launched to modernise the country two decades ago, the
Royal Government decided to develop Dzongkha as a modern
language. For this purpose, the Dzongkha Division was estab-
lished in 1961 in the Department of Education, then headed by
Mr. Dawa Tsering.
The principal reason for adopting Dzongkha as the na-
tionallanguage was that, except for a few differences of accent,
spelling and grammar, Dzongkha maintains the basic standard
set by Choeke and lends itself readily to written standardization.
The initial problems of choosing the most convenient written
form for Dzongkha were solved about a decade ago by the
Dzongkha Division, and now textbooks written in Dzongkha
are used by students in schools throughout the country. In each
school, Dzongkha is taught from Classes I to XII. Textbooks in
Dzongkha for use in college are being prepared at present.
These Dzongkha textbooks cover the history of Bhutan, history
of religion, poetry, literature, and so on. Religious subjects,
which have usually been treated only in Choeke, will also grad-
ually be translated into Dzongkha. It is hoped that in this way
the full heritage of Buddhist culture, formerly the preserve
99
largely of monks, will be brought within the reach of the com-
mon men.
In this context, the Simtokha Rigney School deserves a
special mention. This school was established in 1961 in the
historical site of Simtokha Dzong, built in 1629 and situated 7
km. to the south of Thimphu, the present capital of Bhutan. In
this specialised school, traditional Buddhist philosophy and lit-
erature are taught together with Dzongkha. In this way, stu-
dents learn both the classical and the modern Bhutanese lan-
guage. Degrees equivalent to Bachelor of Arts and Master of
Arts are awarded in this school. Graduates of the school are
employed either in government offices or as teachers in
schools, and they contribute to the promotion of both classical
literature and the Dzongkha language.
There is another department whose contributions to the
development of Dzongkha are considerable. This is the Depart-
ment of Information, which publishes a quarterly magazine
and a weekly news magazine. The former publication contains
a variety of in Dzongkha on different subjects, includ-
ing religious and traditional themes that are difficult to under-
stand in Choeke. The latter is an official bulletin on current
affairs and events.
In order that Dzongkha fulfil the functions of a modern
language in a period of rapid economic, social and technologi-
cal development in Bhutan, Dzongkha must develop a suffi-
cient range of terminology, especially with regard to science
and technology. For this reason, the Department of Education
is compiling a dictionary of Dzongkha containing a fundamen-
tal vocabulary of scientific and technical words. We hope, in
due course, to have a sufficient Dzongkha vocabulary to meet
the needs of both traditional and modern usage. The other
benefit derived from developing a written form for Dzongkha
is that it has enabled us to record our oral literature for the first
time. This includes folk poetry, minor epics and various leg-
ends which must be preserved in writing if they are to survive
for posterity.
*This paper was originally presented at The 5th Confer-
ence of the lABS, at Oxford, England. It was translated by ,
Rigzin Dorji.
100
Prolegomena to an English
Translation of the Sutrasamuccaya
by Bhikkhu Pasadika
The different versions and editions of the Sutrasamuccaya (here-
after abbreviated as SS), as well as relevant commentaries, have
been mentioned by A. Pezzali
1
and, recently, by D. Seyfort
Ruegg
2
. Regarding the problem of the authorship of the SS, A.
Pezzali has recorded important comments by a number of
scholars, and remarks that the Sutrasamuccaya is most often at-
tributed to Nagarjuna.
3
In the same context, Ruegg sums up:
On the basis of what Santideva has written in verses v. 105-
6 of the Bodhicaryavatara Buston and Taranatha have
ascribed to him a work entitled Sutrasamuccaya. The pas-
sage in question is not altogether clear, however, and Na-
garjuna, the author of the well-known Sutrasamuccaya, is
also mentioned in it. At all events, no work entitled Sutra-
samuccaya attributable to Santideva is known to exist; and
it has therefore been concluded that the above-mentioned
ascription is erroneous.
4
Apropos Pezzali's monograph on Santideva
1
, J. W. de Jong
wrote a long article entitled "La Legende de Santideva,"5 in
which he also reviews Pezzali's work and completes her biblio-
graphic information by enumerating what Japanese scholars
published on the SS between 1965 and 1972.
6
In the same place
he also discusses the question of attributing one Sutrasamuccaya
to Santideva. He mentions, in the section of Mahayana sastras,
the list of Dpal-brtsegs, which includes, inter alia, a Mdo-sde sna-
tshogs-kyi mdo btus-palVisvasutrasamuccaya and the SS attributed
to Nagarjuna. Both these works consist of five sections (bam-po).
Although the Visvasutrasamuccaya is not extant, de J ong says
that "la possibilite n'est pas exclue que cet ouvrage soit identi-
101
que au Sutrasamuccaya que les commentateurs indiens du Bo-
d.hicaryavatara et les historiens tibetains attribuent a Santi-
deva." Before mentioning two points that may be of some rel-
evance to further discussion of the problem in hand, I should
first like to say a few words about modern translations and the
quotations in our text. .
In the quarterly "Linh-So'n" - publication d'itudes bouddholo-
giques,7 the Yen. Thich Huyen-Vi has nearly finished translat-
ing the SS from the Chinese version into both French and
Vietnamese, and in the same journal I have attempted an Eng-
lish translation of the same text from the Tibetan.
8
Eight quota-
tions from the SS have already been translated into English by
J. Hopkins in his Meditation on Emptiness.
9
He translates samuc-
caya as "compendium," an appropriate rendering signifying an
independent genre of Buddhist literature started by Indian
acaryas and perpetuated and further developed by Tibetan .
masters. 10 With reference to the SS, however, I have preferred
to translate samuccaya as "anthology"ll because, unlike, e.g.,
Santideva in his Si!?Jiisamuccaya, the compiler of the SS very
rarely paraphrases scriptural authority. His own words are
limited to a minimum of stereotyped words introducing each
quotation. The fact that the SS is just a collection of citations,
mostly from Mahayana discourses, seems to corroborate the
Tibetan belief that the SS is the first example of a samuccaya
work, whereas the authorship of the S5, as will be seen below,
does not appear to be less problematic than before.
In the introduction to his edition of the Sik$iisamuccaya,
P.L. Vaidya refers to the quotations in the SS12 thus: " ... Na-
garjuna wrote a Sutrasamuccaya ... containing extracts from
about 60 sutras." Vaidya evidently took his information from
A. C. Banerjee's article in the Indian Historical Quarterly, March
1941.
13
The Chinese text of the SS is a bit shorter than the
Tibetan version, in which are found several citations wanting in
the Chinese. Contrary to what Vaidya claimed, the Tibetan text
quotes from 69 scriptures, or even 71, if one separates out
three of them, the 4$tasiihasrikii, the 4$tiidasasiihasrikii, and the
Pancavi'l'fi,Satisiihasrikii, from the "Prajftiipiiramitii" given in the
text. The sum total of quotations from these 71 scriptures is
174, some of them being no longer than two or three short
sentences, others, especially in the 5th section, being fairly long.
102
In the following, I give a list of the SS quotations in the se-
quence of their sources' first occurrence in the text:
Work
( 1) S addharmapurpj,arzka
(2) Nir(l,ayarajasutra
(3) Avadana
(4) B odhisattvapitaka
(5) B hagavajjnanavaipulyasutra
(6) Candragarbhaparivarta
(7) Ga(l,rj,avyuhasutra
(8) Bhadrakalpikasutra
(9) Sa'Y{Lyuktagama
(10) Ekottarikagama
( 11) Tathagataguhyasutra
(12) Vimatisamudghatasutra
(13) S raddhabaladhanasutra
(14) S agaranagarajapariPrccha
(15) T athagatagu(l,a-
-
ayavataranirde.sasutra
(16) Si'Y{Lhasutejo'vadana
(17) Prasenajitpariprccha
(18) Prasantaviniscayapratiharyasutra
(19) Ajatasatruparivarta (= sutra)
(20) Ratnarasisutra
(21) Kasyapaparivarta
(22) Pitaputrasamagamanasutra
(23) Dharmasa'Y{Lgztisutra
(24)
(25) Upayakausalyasutra
(26) Prajnaparamita
(27) Viradattagrhapatipariprccha
(28) Ratnameghasutra
(29) Dhara1Jzsvararajapariprccha
(30) Maitreyasi'Y{Lhanadasutra
(31) M anjusrzvikrzrj,itasutra
(32) Candrapradzpa( = Samadhiraja,
Candraprabhaparivarta) sutra
(33) N iyataniyatavataramudrasutra
103
Quotations
4
1
1
8
2
6
6
2
3
1
5
1
5
2
2
1
2
3
5
6
2
3
2
2
1
10
3
4
2
2
1
5
2
(34) Manjusrfvikuruar.wparivarta 3
(35) Sagaramatipariprcchasutra 4
(36) U grapariprcchasutra 1
(37) Pravrajyantarayasutra 1
(38) Udayanavatsarajapariprccha 1
(39) Saddharmasmrtyupasthanasutra 2
(40) Arthaviniscayasutra 1
(41) Vimalakfrtinirdesa 7
(42) Satyakaparivarta 2
(43) Vicikitsasudhvarrtsasutra [perhaps identical
with (12)] 1
( 44) S uryagarbhaparivarta 1
(45) Akasagarbhaparivarta 1
(46) 3
(47) Adhyasayasarrtcodanasutra 3
(48) BrahmapariPrccha 5
(49) Anavataptasutra 1
(50) 1
(51) M ahakarur;1i(pur:u)arfka)sfitra 2
(52) Tathagatabimbaparivarta 1
(53) Anupurvasamudgatasutra 1
(54) Tathagatotpattisarrtbhavasutra 1
(55) Lokottaraparivarta 1
(56) Lankavatarasutra 4
(57) M ahasarnnipataparivarta 1
(58) Avaivartacakrasutra 1
(59) Srfmalasirrthanadasutra 2
(60) Bhadramayakarasutra 1
(61) Buddhavatarrtsakasutra 3
(62) 1
(63) Saptasatika(prajnaparamita) 2
(64) RatnasarrtnicayanirdeSasutra 3
(65) Trisatika(prajnaparamita) 2
(66) Ratnadattamar.tavasutra 1
(67) Tathagatakosasfltra 1
(68) Maradamanaparivarta( =sutra) 2
(69) Dasabhumikasutra (ace. to the Chinese,
identical with Buddhavatarnsaka) 1
104
From the viewpoint of textual history it is rather bewilder-
ing that four quotations from the Lankavatiirasutra, one of them
dealing with tathagatagarbha; and also two short passages from
the Srzmalasir(lhanadasutra are included in the SS. As general
editor, S. Bagchi writes in his introduction to Vaidya's Lankava-
tara edition that this sutra "was brought into existence after the
compilation of the Agama-literature. The consideration of these
facts paves the way for giving rise to the tentative suggestion
that the Lankavatara was compiled about the beginning of the
Christian era or probably before it."14 Unfortunately, so far
there does not seem to have been adduced any evidence to
substantiate such a suggestion, and many scholars cannot imag-
ine Nagarjuna's having known the Lankavatarasfitra.
15
Judging by the frequency of quotations found in the SS,
three scriptures must have been the compiler's favourites: a)
Prajiiaparamita texts, b) the Bodhisattvapi(aka, and c) the Vima-
lakzrtinirdefa. In quotations from these texts, but also in a num-
ber of other passages of our anthology, we find the tenets of the
Madhyamik;:ts, which clearly are our compiler's preference, in
spite of one citation about tathagatagarbha.
The Chinese version of one SS quotation from the Vima-
lakzrtinirdesa (in the following abbreviated Vkn) is of special
interest. 16 This quotation is taken from what corresponds to the
12th chapter of the Tibetan text of the Vkn.17 Twice in chapter
12, the Tibetan gives an additional title to the Vkn, which can
be reconstructed, after Mahavyutpatti 798, as Yamakavyatyasta-
hara or Yamakavyatyastabhinirhara.
18
According to E. Lamotte,
none of the Chinese versions that have come down to us has
anything corresponding to the additional title of the sutra in
Tibetan 19-which I can confirm as far as Kumarajlva's transla-
tion is concerned. In the Chinese version of the SS, on the
other hand, this passage from the last chapter of Vkn is accom-
panied by something at least resembling the additional title of
the Tibetan: P'u she chung chung wen i tz'ii pieh chih men
'llHiIli fi:rn x ~ ~ J3U Z F ~ which may tentatively be translated as
"The Presentation (ahara) of a Comprehensive Collection of All
Sorts of [Twin (yamaka)] Phrases and of the Distinction of their
Meanings" (vyatyasta = "reversed, opposites" that have to be
distinguished).
105
According to TaishO 32, No. 1635, p. 49, the translator of
the SS is (Fa-hu 11::. ). Lamotte mentions two
a) of the Chin Dynasty ( ), and b) of the
Sung Dynasty ( '* ). The former translated the Vkn, in 303
A.D. (this translation is lost), and the latter the Sik:iasamuccaya in
the first half of the lIth century A.D. Having drawn on the
available Chinese catalogues, Lamotte lists all Chinese transla-
tions of the Vkn, lost or extant;21 in that list, only one Dharma-
figures, i.e., the Indian master who translated the Vkn in
303. The latest Chinese translation of this text is Hsuan-tsang's.
It is, of course, tempting to identify the translator of the SS with
the translator of the Vkn translated in 303, for all quotations
from the Vkn occurring in that SS contain a considerable num-
ber of textual divergencies, archaisms (e.g., brahmacarya: Dhar-
translates fan hsing 'Jtfj- , Kumarajlva tao hsing
ili 1'r ), and, in other citations, a predilection for transliterated
Sanskrit words. As for the Chinese, at least, one can assume
fragments of an unknown Vkn translation. If the SS was trans-
lated by during the Chin Dynasty, our anthology
cannot, in fact, be ascribed to Santideva; the Lankiivatara quota-
tions in the SS, however, guard against any real confidence
where the authorship of the SS is concerned.
To delve into the problem of fixing approximate dates for
(a) the Lankiivatara, particularly in respect of a nucleus or root-
text of the sutra, and (b) the SrfmalasiT(/,hanadasutra, is a desider-
atum and would help us draw conclusions about the authorship
of the SS.
Before concluding, let me touch on the structure of the SS.
Already in the Pali canon we come across the term anupubbi-
katha,22 which the P.T.S. dictionary renders as "a gradual in-
struction, graduated sermon, regulated exposition of the ever
higher values of four subjects (dana-katha,sflao, saggaO, maggaO)
.... " Although the SS is an anthology consisting of quotatiQns
from various sutras, the compiler has, to some extent, made an
original contribution to Buddhist literature (actually befitting
Nagarjuna, the great systematizer of early Mahayana thought,
if he should really be the compiler) by expanding the terse,
formulaic anupubbikatha into a Mahayanalekayana system of ex-
position indicating the gradual journey to final emancipation
and Buddhahood. The compiler of the SS has indirectly out-
106
lined the doctrine of the "three scopes," pertaining to the per-
sons of small, medium, and great scope (adhamapUnl!ialskyes-bu-
chung-ngu; madhyamaO I skyes-bu-'bring; maMa I skyes-bu-chen-po) ,
which later on plays an important role in the lam-rim literature
of the Tibetans. That the SS served Tibetan writers of lam-rim
treatises as a model is confirmed by the fact that, e.g., sGam-po-
pa cites in his Dvags-po Thar-rgyan ("The Jewel Ornament of
Liberation")IO quite a few passages already occurring in the
SS.23 The climax in the development of the samuccayallam-rim
literature is, no doubt, Tsong-kha-pa's Lam-rim chen-mo. Geshe
Lobsang Tengya has written a note entitled "The Themes of
the Sutrasamuccaya (mDo-kun-las-btus-pa) and the Corre-
sponding Passages in the Lam-rim chen-mo--aJuxtaposition,"
in which he lists the themes of the SS that constitute its struc-
ture and, by juxtaposing the respective folio Nos., indicates
where these themes are dealt with in the Lam-rim chen-mo.
24
The themes of the SS are as follows:
(1) The utmost rareness of a Buddha's appearance
(2) The utmost rareness of being born a human
(3) The rareness of obtaining an auspicious rebirth
(4) The rareness of having trust
(5) The rareness of aspiring after Buddhahood
(6) The rareness of great compassion
(7) The rareness of forsaking obstructive conditions
(8) The rareness of really serious Dharma-practice on the part
of householders
(a) The Dharma-practice of householder-bodhisattvas
(b) Wrong practice, the evil of taking life, etc.
(c) Further wrong practice on the part of laymen-attach-
ment to life, riches, etc.
(d) Spiritual friends as prerequisites for really serious
Dharma-practice
(9) The utmost rareness of beings who are truly and resolutely
intent on the tathagatas' complete nirval).a
(10) The utmost rareness of beings who are resolutely intent on
the ekayana
(11) The utmost rareness of beings who progress in the direc-
tion of a Buddha's and bodhisattva's sublime and exalted
position
This structure does not appear to be altogether systematic,
107
and will need further research by consulting the commentator
on the SS, Ratnakarasanti.
25
NOTES
1. Cf. A. Pezzali, Santideva-mystique bouddhiste des VIle et VIlle (Fir-
enze: Vallecchi Editore, 1968), p. 80ff.
2. Cf. D. Seyfort Ruegg, The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philos-
ophy in India (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981), pp. 29, 84,113,114,124.
3. Ibid" 80. .
4. Ibid., 84. In this quoted passage, three Nos. referring to footnotes
have been omitted. A forthcoming monograph on Nagarjuna by Chr.
Lindtner (Denmark) most probably deals with the problem of the authorship
of the SS.
5. Cf. J. W. de jong, Buddhist Studies (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press,
1979), pp. 119-140.
6. Ibid., 140.
7. No.2 (1978) ff., published by Institut de recherche bouddhique Linh-
So'n, joinville-le-Ji'ont (Paris).
8. These serialized translations, though published in the "Linh-So'n"
Quarterly, still have to be regarded as drafts and will only appear in book
form after careful revision.
9. J. Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness, Part 2 (Ann Arbor, Michigan:
University Microfilms International, 1973), pp. 742-750, 759-760.
10. Cf. inter alia, or Bhavanakramasiltrasamuccaya (bsGom-
pa'i rim-pa mdo-kun-las-btus-pa), Peking ed. 5329, vol. 102, p. 65.5.8ff. Thanks
are due to Mr. P. Skilling for having drawn my attention to the latter text. Cf.
also sGam-po-pa's Dvags-po Thar-rgyan-Engl. tr. by H. V. Guenther, The
Jewel Ornament of Liberation (Berkeley: Shambala Publications, 1971) or
Tsong-kha-pa's Lam-rim chen-ma-partial Engl. tr. by A. Wayman, Calming the
Mind and Discerning the Real (New York: first ed., 1978; Delhi: Motilal Banar-
sidass, 1979).
11. So does Ruegg, p. 29.
12. P. L. Vaidya, edition of the of Santideva (Darbhanga:
Buddhist Sanskrit Texts No. ll-Mithila Institute, 1961), VII.
13. A. C. Banerjee, The Siltrasamuccaya in the "Indian Historical Quarter-
ly," Vol. XVII, No.1 (March 1941), pp. 121-126. Banerjee had consulted the
sNar-thang edition of the SS which, as far as the st1tra titles are concerned,
seems to be considerably less accurate than the other editions. Moreover, for
his restoration of Sanskrit titles Banerjee did not have at his disposal the bulk
of more recent aids of Tibeto-Sanskrit lexicography. Therefore, the publica-
tion of a new list of SS quotations seems to be called for, though, as a matter of
fact, I cannot pretend that my restoration of sutra titles is altogether free
from Tentative restorations are mentioned as such together with
relevant references in the footnotes to my English translation of the SS. I am
108
much obliged to Dr. H. Braun for sending me xeroxes of Banerjee's SS article
and of Japanese contributions on the same work in Indogaku Bukkyogaku Ken-
kyu. Cf. also P. V. Bapat, Vimuktimarga DhutagU1.w-nirdeia (BombaylDelhi: Asia
Publishing House, 1964), XV and Appendix II, pp. 111-116. Referring to
Banerjee's article, Bapat points out a long interpolation, due to scribal inad-
vertence, in the Vimuktimarga, corresponding to seven rather long quotations
in the SS.
14. Cf. P. L. Vaidya, edition of the Saddharmala/nkavatarasutram (Dar-
bhanga: Buddhist Sanskrit Texts No. 3-Mithila Institute, 1963), XV. S. Bag-
chi actually follows a surmise of D. T. Suzuki; cf. D. T. Suzuki, The Lankava-
tara Sutra (English tr.) (London: 1932; Boulder: Prajiia Press, 1978), XUI
(The Date of the Lanka).
15. After a reading of the present paper, in the ensuing short discussion
Prof. Ruegg suggested that, instead of the author of the Mulamadhyamakakari-
kas, we speak of "a" Nagarjuna as being the author of the SS, so as to be free
from qualms regarding the Lanka quotations. [Cf. in this context Ruegg's
article, "Le Dharmadhatustava de Nagarjuna," in Etudes tibitaines dediies it la
mimoire de Marcelle Lalou (Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1971), p. 448 ff.] On
the other hand, Dr. Chr. Lindtner mentioned that he found evidence that the
early Madhyamaka masters did already know an Urtext of the Lanka. Cf., e.g.
Aryadev.a's CatuMataka, XIII, v. 25-V. Bhattacharya's ed., p. 197.
16. Taish6 32, No. 1635, p. 72.
17. Cf.E. Lamotte, L'Enseignement de Vimalakirti (Louvain: 1962), p. 388.
18. Ibid., p. 392.
19. Ibid., p. 388, note 33.
20. Ibid., pp. 6, 94. Ruegg also mentions the of the Chin
Dynasty (op. cit., 29, footnote 67), who is given as having translated into
Chinese the which also is ascribed to Nagarjuna. 'This
could mean," he says, following Lamotte, "that a work by Nagarjuna reached
China by the year 265, long before Kumarajlva."
21. Lamotte, pp. 2-14.
22. Cf. Yin I.l5, 18; II. 156, 192; D 1.110; lI.41; M 1.379; J 1.8, etc.
23. Cf. "Linh-So'n"-publication d'etudes bouddhologiques, No. 10 (March,
1980), p. 45; No. 12 (Sep[ember, 1980), p. 38ff.
24. Cf. "Linh-So'n", No.4 (August, 1978), pp. 24-26.
25. Ruegg, p. 124.
109
The Issue of the Buddha as Vedagil with
Reference to the Formation of the Dhamma
and the Dialectic with the Brahmins
by Katherine K. Young
Controversy surrounds the question: was the Buddha vedagu
according to the Brahmanical understanding of expertise in
the three Vedas-Ji'k, Yajur, and Sama? 1
The nikayas of the Pali Canon commonly describe the
Brahmin as the vedagu, the "knower," or to be specific, the
"expert-goer" of the Vedas.
2
Further elaboration of expertise
in the Vedas is encountered in the standard description of the
Brahmins as:
The repeaters who know the mantas by heart, who are
experts in the three Vedas with the nighan(a (list of difficult
words), the ke(ubha (ritual), the a ~ k h a r a (syUa.bles; phonol-
ogy), the pabheda (exegesIs), the ztzhasa (stones), the pada
(words), the veyyakara1Ja (grammar), the lokayata, and the
theory of the 32 marks on a mahapurisa (a great man).3
Similar descriptions are found in Brahmanical works. There-
fore, we may assume that the canonical definition was accord-
ing to the Brahmanical understanding of Vedic exper,tise.
The evidence for the Buddha's "textual knowledge" of the
Veda must be sought from the earliest, presumably authentic,
portion of the canon, namely the Dzgha and MaJjhima nikayas.
The first question is whether there is concrete evidence that the
Buddha knew the mantas by heart. In other words, is there
record of his memorization, recitation, citation or even para-
phrase of Vedic verses?
As the canon records and implies, the Buddha did not use
110
Sanskrit for his discourses or conversation.
4
Even when he oc-
casionally encountered Vedic content expressed by some Brah-
min, the canon does not cite the original expression in Sanskrit.
Instead, a periphrastic description of the Vedic content, with its
source unclear, is given. Neither is the Buddha depicted as
quoting or citing the Vedic content in Sanskrit or in Pali trans-
lation or paraphrase.
5
The Buddha probably felt no need to
quote or cite except while debating with Brahmins. But, even
then he was silent regarding the Vedic content and context.
The question becomes: did the Buddha at least employ the
tools of exegesis and interpretation from the Brahmanical
branches of learning, such as grammar, etymology, sentence-
analysis, etc., either for his own understanding of Brahmanism
or for exposition of his own views? Even these principles of
hermeneutics do not seem to have been known to him either
verbatim or in application. Moreover, to him they were exclu-
sively Brahmanical apparatus. On the general level as well, the
Buddha seems to have had little authoritative information of
the Vedic content. For example, when he attempted to identify
the Vedic gods, he revealed striking ignorance of their epithets,
standard descriptions, and the mythical associations; Indra, for
example, was not the killer of Vrtra to him. In fact, he was not
even Inda, but Sakka, the inda (chief) of the gods.
6
Since the concepts of dvija (twice-born) and upanayana (ini-
tiation into learning) are of much later date, we cannot super-
impose the routine academic career on the Buddha just be-
cause he was a khattiya.
7
Whatever information the nikayas
supply us is the only record that proves the status of his knowl-
edge. As the Buddha refrained from using Sanskrit, and did
not cite Vedic references, employ the hermeneutical principles
from the various "sciences," or demonstrate extensive and ac-
curate knowledge of the Vedic content, he was probably not
qualified as a scholar on the primary sources and methods of
Brahmanicallearning.
There is, of course, one other possible explanation for the
Buddha's apparent lack of Vedic expertise: that he did have
technical knowledge of the three Vedas but for dialectical rea-
sons chose to remain silent. This alternative explanation, how-
ever, requires proofs for one if not all of the following state-
111
ments: 1) that the Buddha's childhood education involved
study of the Veda, 2) that the early canon contains textual and
contextual references to the Veda and sacrifice (yajiia), and 3)
that the Buddha himself claimed that he was vedagu according
to the Brahmanical understanding of the term. Since there is
no such evidence in the nikayas, we are left to conclude that his
knowledge was "popular." Apart from the Sakya's religion,
which must have maintained some continuity with Aryan prac-
tices, he could have derived his popular knowledge from obser-
vation of Brahmanical practice during his travels, from his de-
bates with the Brahmins, and from discussions with disciples
who had formerly been Brahmins.
The next question is: if the Buddha was an Aryan and a
khattiya, why was he not ti'f}'f}am vedanam paragu, an expert in the
three Vedas?
Perhaps textual knowledge of the Vedas had become a
hermetic tradition known only to the Brahmins because of 1)
their prolongt:d and highly technical education, 2) the continu-
ity of the specialized training through family tradition, or 3) the
jealous guarding of the expertise for racial, political, and eco-
nomic reasons. Then, too, the hiatus of geography may account
for the Buddha's lack of knowledge. The Sakya principality,
where the Buddha spent his childhood, was located far from
the centres of Aryan culture, even those of the eastern frontier
on the Gangetic plain. Accordingly, the principality was prob-
ably without communities of Brahmins. The A m b a ~ ~ h a Sutta
(Dfgha Nikaya, 3.10-13) alludes to this context: Ambattha says
to the Buddha that his Sakya tribe (jati) is horrifying (ca(l,rja) ,
harsh (pharusa), and petty (lahusa); moreover, they did not give
honour or gifts to Brahmins. When challenged, Ambanha sup-
ports his statement by re: -.ting an incident that occurred when
he went on business to the Sakyas' congress hall (santhagara).
When he arrived there, the Sakyas were making merry and
joking together, nudging one another with their fingers; they
did not even offer him a seat. The Buddha defends the Sakyas,
saying: In our assembly we have full freedom to talk the way we
want. Moreover, this is ours, 0 Ambanha, this Kapilavatthu
belongs to us, the Sakyas; Ambanha should not be obsessed
with this minor detail! While this sutta could be read as illustra-
tive of Ambanha's foolish Brahmin superiority, we find it cur-
112
ious that the Sakyas seemed qUIte oblivious to the Aryan norms
of behavior-showing respect to a stranger or guest, much less
to a Brahmin-and that the Buddha excused his kinsmen on
the grouncis that people may act as they please in their own
home.
Passages such as this lead us to surmise that Brahmins did
not live in the Sakyan territory. If Brahmins did not dwell
there, there probably would have been no education in the
Vedas available and consequently no respect for Vedic knowl-
edge, Moreover, on account of such isolation the Sakyas would
not have been exposed to the Brahmins' assertion of superior-
ity by birth, fLnd even if they had encountered it from visitors,
they could have conveniently ignored it in their society. We
therefore conjecture that the Sakyas were nominally Aryan but
that their popular religion and culture were developing along
distinct lines. It is against this background that we must view
the Buddha's childhood and education. He was not a vedagfl
according to the Brahmanical understanding of the term prob-
ably because Vedic education was not available to him.
Now we must ask: how does the Buddha's lack of Vedic
knowledge influence his formation of the Dhamma?
When the Buddha became a wanderer (paribbajaka) and
travelled to other regions, he would have encountered Brah-
mins who claimed to be superior by birth and knowledge. It
may be true that he lacked the qualifications of a vedagu. It may
also be true that he had no respect for those who had such
knowledge, since to him it appeared only to lead to animal
sacrifice, unproductive asceticism, or gross materialism and
psychological dependence through the "peddling" of fortune-
telling, charms, cures, and promises of mundane or super-
mundane pleasures. Consequently, the Buddha would have
looked to other directions for true knowledge.
Hence, the Buddha's "lack of expertise in the Veda" does
not seem to be detrimental in any way to his quest for knowl-
edge and truth. Precisely because he was an outsider to the
Brahmin circle and because he was a sincere seeker of supreme
knowledge, he availed himself of the freedom to criticize the
existing religion and its Brahmanical leadership. He could af-
ford to think independently and thereby go the root of the
issue. His major "breakthrough" was to realize: 1) that the key
113
to knowledge and wisdom was analysis of human experience, 2)
that self-effort in thought and deed was the means, not reliance
on the Brahmins or the gods, and 3) that there was a consum-
mate realization (nibbana), which anyone could attain, regard-
less of the caste of birth. Accordingly, the Buddha's contribu-
tion to the religious milieu of the time was his provision of a
more existential and universal dimension to religion. ,
The Buddha's silence on the Vedas must be understood in
terms of his original ignorance of the texts, which, in fact, en-
abled him to discover the path to supreme knowledge. It must
also be seen as resulting in a superb means to propagate his
Dhamma without any risk of dialectical interference by the
Brahmins. For, the Buddha knew that the more he debated
with the Brahmins, the more he would have been caught in
their "great confusion," since they wrangled with "hair-split-
ting" of the Vedas and emerged with contradictory conclusions
(D. l.18; D. 13.35). Making expertise in the Vedas a non-issue
by relegating them to superfluity (D. 4.13), making metaphysics
a non-issue by refusing to discuss the famous ten questions, and
making Sanskrit a non-issue by promoting the vernaculars, the
Buddha successfully avoided the arena of Brahmanical exper-
tise and, for him, their confusion. As he bypassed their exper-
tise, he surpassed all criticism levelled by them and forced on
them a serious consideration of his Dhamma. The absolute cer-
tainty of his radical insight thus stayed intact and stood unchal-
lenged. Confidence was engendered among his disciples
through the singular concept of the two levels of knowledge:
his Dhamma was supreme, whereas the Veda was not only lower
and unnecessary but even an obstacle.
. The dialectics of the Buddha's silence had an immediate
appeal. In so far as the Buddha's silence silenced the Brahmins,
he made an impact on society:
1) He appealed to the khattiyas of Magadha and Kosa!a.
For, although they had a "working relationship" with the Brah-
mins (gifts such as villages in exchange for advice and perfor-
mance of ritual), they were annoyed over the Brahmins' claim
to superiority by birth and the designation of the khattiyas as
their attendants. The khattiyas needed a way to change the bal-
ance of power. Because they too may have lacked expertise in
the Veda, they would be attracted to the Buddha's teaching of
114
higher knowledge. Furthermore, the Buddha was a khattiya and
stood up for the khattiyas' superiority when challenged by the
Brahmins (khattiyo settho janetasmin ye gottapatisarito vijjacara1Ja-
sampanno so settho devamanuse 'ti,' D.3:24: 17-18). The khattiyas
knew that the Buddha's religious entrepreneurship would tip
the balance of power in their direction.
2) He appealed to the Sakyas, for the Buddha belonged to
them. They knew that his fame would bring fame to their re-
mote region and their tribe.
3) He appealed to the other Aryans, who also lived liminal-
ly in the shadow of Brahmanical expertise.
4) He appealed to those non-Aryans who wanted a way to
integrate into the society.
5) And, finally, he appealed to some Brahmins.
Thus, one may argue that the Buddha's ignorance of the
Vedas contributed positively to his analysis, realization, and
teaching, as well as to the subsequent popularity of his perspec-
tive. But, the question might be raised: was the Buddha as
indifferent to the status of the vedagu as it might seem? Why,
for example, did he choose to revalorize certain terms that were
central to the Brahmanical tradition? Take the term ariya,
which hitherto had meant "one of Aryan descent." The Bud-
dha kept the term, but changed the meaning to a "true Brah-
min" with the implication that anyone could be a true Brahmin.
Why, if he was so critical of the Brahmins, did he want to be a
Brahmin, even if a true Brahmin? Similarly, why did the Bud-
dha choose to parallel the term tayoveda (the three Vedas, i.e.,
Sk, Yajur, and Sama) with the term tevijja, understood as the
three knowledges?8 Again, was there some special reason why he
chose to refer to himself as vedantagu, which may have implied
a subtle ambiguity depending on whether veda was understood
as "text" or "knowledge"; in other words had the Buddha gone
through to the end or culmination of the Veda proper, or simply
to the end or culmination of knowledge, i.e., the perfection of
wisdom? This ambiguity was also reflected in the Kutandanta
Sutta, where the Buddha did admit that he was a Brahmin in a
previous life, which implies that he was a knower of the three
Vedas (D. 5.26: 26-29). Because one of the three knowledges
that the Buddha claimed to have as a result of his enlighten-
ment was the knowledge of the details of his previous births,
115
the implication is that he would have remembered his previous
memorization of the three Vedas. Thus, the Buddha circu-
itously suggested, although he never explicitly stated it, that he
was vedagu according to the Brahmanical understanding. This,
coupled with the concept of the Buddha's omniscience, creates
ambiguity with reference to the issue of his expertise in Vedic
learning. We are led to conclude that he wanted to claim his
Aryan heritage and that he indirectly acknowledged the impor-
tance of the Brahmins' status. Thus, he used his dialectical skill-
in-means to obscure his difference from the Brahmins with
reference to learning. This created sufficient scope for his fol-
lowers to claim that he knew all that the Brahmins did and, in
addition, the "other shore." Furthermore, the Buddha's reva-
lorization of terms enhanced the appeal of his teaching, for he
knew that the Brahmins' status would not be totally ignored by
the people. Thus, his clever device was to argue that they too
could be true Brahmins and could be perfect in wisdom (vedan-
tagil).
The outcome of this dialectic over the issue of vedagu may
be characterized as follows. The Buddha's attempt to bypass
and surpass the Vedas, the core of the Brahmanical tradition,
encountered formidable opposition. While the Brahmins even-
tually countered the concept of vedantagu with that of vedan-
tajiia,9 they were not willing to eliminate the Vedas: their
"scripture," ancestral memory, definition of identity, and basis
of occupation and status. Some of their solutions involved 1)
extending the concept of the Veda to the entire corpus of texts
ending with the U and 2) enshrining the Veda so de-
fined as sruti, understood as the one eternal truth. While they
now acknowledged the three Vedas as "lower" knowledge, they
argued that nonetheless knowledge of the Veda was pre-
requisite for By the time of the Dharmafastras the Brah-
manical goal was to encourage all Aryans, both Brahmins and
non-Brahmins, to become vedantajiia. While their attempt to
open the tradition of Vedic learning was not as radical as the
universal salvation proposed by the Buddha, they did try to
consolidate those of Aryan descent and even to propose that all
Aryans are Sl1dra until upanayana and initiation into the Vedic
education, which entitles them as dvija or "twice-born." In addi-
116
tion, the sannyasz (the renunciate who pursues liberation) was
(like the Buddhist monk) beyond identity by caste definition.
While it may be argued that the Brahmins subtly inte-
grated the critique levelled by the Buddha (and often used the
tactic of silence in return, as if he and his Dhamma did not exist),
it may also be argued that the later followers of the Buddha
quietly fused the image of the Buddha with that of the Brah-
min. For example, the J atakas describe several of the Buddha's
previous lives as a Brahmin with expertise in the Veda. In the
Nidana-katha, a story is related about how Yasodhara wanted to
know about the attainments and capacities of the prince before
she would consider marriage. Accordingly, the king arranged a
display. Gautama was victorious in his knowledge of astrology
and other sciences and his "erudition in Brahmanicalliterature,
philosophy, economics, and politics."10 in his Budd-
hacarita, portrays the Buddha as belonging to the Aryan tradi-
tion, which upholds the concept of repayment of the three
debts, one of which is the learning of the three Vedas, the
repayment to the (seers). We are told that:
He passed through infancy and in the
course of time duly underwent the
ceremony of initiation. And it took
him but a few days to learn the sciences
suitable to his race, the mastery of which
ordinarily requires many years.!!
The immense popularity of work, which, accord-
ing to I-tsing, was sung throughout India and other Buddhist
countries, accounts for the propagation of the claim of the
Buddha's expertise in the Vedas.
We now are in a position to conclude that the modern
divergence of scholarly opinion regarding the Buddha's exper-
tise in the three Vedas is determined by whether one bases his
study on the nikayas (in which there is no concrete evidence that
he was a vedagil) or on the later Buddhist texts (which claim that
he was a vedagil). Our analysis concludes that he was not vedagil,
but, more importantly, that the issue of vedagil directly affected
the formation of the Dhamma and the Brahmalfa-Bauddha dia-
lectic.
117
NOTES
1. A number of scholars have noted the absence of references in the
oldest strata of the P ~ i l i Canon to the Buddha's knowledge of the Vedas;
however, they do not offer explanations of why he appears to lack this exper-
tise. See Sir M. Monier-Williams, Buddhism: in its Connexion with Brahmanism
and Hinduism, and in its Contrast with Christianity (Varanasi: Chowkhamba San-
skrit Series Office, 1964), p. 24. See also, Govind Chandra Pande, Studies in the
Origins of Buddhism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1974), p. 373, hereafter re-
ferred to as Studies; and Hermann Oldenberg, Buddha: His Life, His Doctrine,
His Order, trans. from the German by William Hoey (London: Williams and
Norgate, 1882), p. 100. J. Kashyap, however, assumes that the Buddha was
educated according to highest standard of the times. Presumably, this means
the standard of Brahmanicallearning. See Kenneth W. Morgan, Ed. The Path
of the Buddha (New York: The Ronald Press Co., 1956), p. 6.
2. The suffix gu is the Prakrit form of the Sanskrit gal; from the verbal
room gam meaning "to go." By the time of the Veda, we find that the etymolo-
gical (yaugika) meaning of "going" has expanded to connote "going" in the
sense of "moving about easily within a subject," "pervading through in the
sense of knowing and understanding," in other words, "expertise." Hence,
vedagu, "one who.has expertise in the Veda." Another stock epithet employed
in the Pilli Canon to designate a Brahmin is tir;r;am vedanam paragu. The same
suffix, gu, occurs here. Paragu denotes "one who has gone to the other shore"
and connotes one who is well-versed or an expert; therefore, til.11J,am vedanam
paragu means "one who has gone to the yonder shore of the three Vedas,"
that is, "one who has crossed the knowledge of the three Vedas," i.e., is an
expert in H-k, Yajur, and Sama.
3. tena kho pana samayena brahmar;assa pokkharasatissa ambattho nama mar;-
avo antevasi hoti ajjhayako mantadharo, ti1rr,a1'(/, vedamaT{l paragu
sanighar;rjuketubhanaT{l sakkharappabhedanaT{l itihasapaiicamanaT{l padako, veyya-
kara1J,o, lokayatamahapurisalakkhan,esu anavayo . . . anuiiiiatapatiiiiiato sake acar-
iyake teviyjake pavacane - 'yamahaT{l janami taT{l tva1'(/, janasi, yarp tvaT[! janasi
tamahaT{l janami' ti. Ambat(l;a Sutta 3: 18-23 in The Dighanikaya, 1. SIlakk-
handha Vagga (Bihar Government: Pilli Publication Board, 1958), p. 76;
henceforth refered to as Dighanikaya 1. All citations of the Dighanikaya are
from Vols. 1 and 2 of this source.
4. It is thought that the Buddha spoke a Prakrit called ardhamagadhi.
The Brahmins' spoken Sanskrit was probably close to the prose style of the
BrahmaTfas. In its description of the Brahmins, the canon does not point out
that they had a separate language. Therefore, ardhamagadhi and Brahmanical
prose were close enough to be considered one language in the sense that
communication could take place, although grammatical mistakes and funda-
mental misunderstandings might arise. That the Buddha's discourses were
preserved canonically in a more literary Prakrit, which came to be known as
Pilli, perhaps obscured further subtle linguistic differences between the
speech of the Buddha and that of the Brahmins. Nonetheless, it is striking
that there is no indication that the Buddha knew how to speak like the Brah-
118
mins. Anyone who lives in a bilingual culture is familiar with the phenom-
enon of switching languages according to the mother tongue of the one who
is being addressed or the context. If Sanskrit was the academic and literary
language, if the Buddha had received an education in the texts (oral) and
disciplines of the day, then we can assume that he was at ease speaking
Sanskrit prose, and would have employed it from time to time when speaking
with the Brahmins. However, there is no evidence of Buddha's Sanskrit
prose. Even if the records were in Pali, it is linguistically possible to
recognize translation.
S. A characteristic of the Brahmanical style of discourse is the tendency
to illustrate a point orally with recitation of a Sanskrit sloka. To be cultured
involved the ability to give ornamentation to speech with appropriate recita-
tions, allusions, figures of speech drawn from the stock of literary examples,
etc. It is likely that this idiom of Aryan culture and identity had evolved well
before classical Sanskrit. If this is the case and if the Buddha had this type of
Sanskrit education, then it is most likely that he would have used it spontane-
ously and naturally if his aim was to refute the Brahmins. In other words, if
one knows a language game, one is most likely to use it with others
who share the expertise. Thus, even though the Buddha wanted to revalorize
certain terms and to change the focus of the tradition, e.g., from yajna (sacri-
fice) to dana (gift), he might have illustrated his point with the citation of a
Vedic passage, which would prove that he knew ChandasI, the language of
the Vedas. Once again, we would recognize the translation or at least para-
phrase in the Pali Canon. We do not have sufficient examples to the contrary
to provide evidence that the Buddha did indeed know the Veda.
6. Sakka is the Prakrit of sakra, an epithet of Indra meaning able, capa-
ble. In the Tevijja Sutta, Indra is mentioned among other gods invoked by
Brahmins. Now, it could be argued that if the Buddha had been trained in
Vedic recitation, he would be familiar with the Vedic content, even though
the popular religion had departed significantly from its roots. Furthermore,
it is likely that he would have honoured Indra, even though Sakka was fore-
most in his mind. On the contrary, Indra is specifically associated with the
Brahmins, not with all Aryans.
7. In the Dharmasastras (c. 200 B.C.-SOO A.D.) the Aryans were charac-
terized as the twice-born (dvija) organized into brahmal)a, and vaisya
varfl,as. Some of the differences among the varfl,as were: the area of specializa-
tion, the length of time required for training in the Vedas and the vedangas
(the branches of knowledge), and the extent of expertise. Many scholars, on
the basis of such descriptions in the Dharmasastras, anachronistically assume
that the of the 6th Century B.C. had some education in the Vedas.
While some princes had Brahmins as teachers, probably most non-Brahmin
Aryans did not. For example, when Brahmin teachers are mentioned, in the
Pali Canon they are teachers of Brahmin students. For example, Sonadanta
instructs 300 Brahmin students from various directions and various coun-
tries. Also, the Pali Canon indicates a considerable segregation of Brahmins.
Brahmin villages, often gifts from the king, are repeatedly mentioned as the
habitat of the Brahmins. If Brahmins live in their own communities, there is
119
less chance that Sanskrit learning would extend beyond these villages to oth-
ers of Aryan descent. Perhaps this is why the Buddha criticizes the "closed fist
of a teacher."
8. The three know ledges are 1) remembrance of forme: lives, 2) insight
into the destiny of all individuals, 3) recognition of the origin of suffering and
the way to end it, i.e. the path.
9. The words vedanta and vedantajna do not appear in the early Upani-
See Colonel G. A. Jacob, A Concordance to the Principal and
Bhagavadgfta. Reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971, p. 894.
10. See Nalinaksha Dutt, Early Monastic Buddhism, (Calcutta: Calcutta
Oriental Book Agency, 1960), pp. 83-84.
11. See E. H. Johnston, trans., The Buddhacarita: or Acts of the Buddha
Reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1972, p. 24.
120
121
II. BOOK REVIEWS
Focus on Buddhism. A Guide to Audio-Visual Resources for Teaching
Religion. Editor, Robert A. McDermott. Focus on Hinduism and
Buddhism, Robert A. McDermott, series editor. Chambersburg,
PA: Anima Booka, 1981. 165 pages. 3 appendices, Index of
Topics and Terms, Alphabetical Listing of Materials Reviewed.
Spiritual Discipline in Hinduism, Buddhism, and the West, by Harry
M. Buck. Focus on Hinduism and Buddhism, Robert A. McDermott,
series editor. Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1981. 69 pages.
Appendix, Bibliography, Glossary.
Few of the millions of students who attend colleges and
universities in America receive any exposure to Asian thought.
Of those few, the vast majority approach the East through gen-
. eralized survey courses that cannot possibly do justice to the
richness of the various Asian traditions; and in many cases these
courses are taught by professors with little or no expertise in
matters Asiatic. It is with a clear and realistic eye to this situation
that Anima Books, under the general editorship of Robert A.
McDermott, has published the six volumes that comprise the
series Focus on Hinduism and Buddhism. These books are aimed
primarily at non-specialist teachers who wish to supplement
their lectures on Asian thought with audio-visual presentations,
in the form of films, slide shows, or recordings. (One of the six,
Buddhism and Society in Southeast Asia, by Donald K. Swearer, was
reviewed by Robert]. Bickner in]IABS, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 126-
127.)
Focus on Buddhism is a marvelously useful guide to available
audio-visual resources on Buddhism. In his brief but thoughtful
Introduction, Prof. McDermott argues that, unlike such "reli-
gions of the Book" as Christianity and Islam, "Buddhism is re-
markable for the degree to which it should be seen to be under-
stood" (p. 5). He goes on to describe the aims and scope of the
book and, most helpfully, to indicate those films that the review-
ers found markedly superior and therefore worthy of special
attention.
The heart of Focus on Buddhism is its reviews, which are
divided into seven sections: General and Historical Introduc-
tions, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Himalaya, China, ] apan and
Korea, and Buddhism in the West. The four primary reviewers
are Frederick J. Streng (Indian Buddhism and General/Histori-
cal Introductions), Donald K. Swearer (Southeast Asian and
Theravada Buddhism), Robert A. F. Thurman (Tibetan and
Chinese), and Richard B. Pilgrim Qapanese Buddhism). David
Dell was the primary reviewer of the slides and recordings that
are listed after the films in most sections. Thereviews are con-
cise and informative, generally describing the contents of the
film (or slide show, or recording), evaluating its style and con-
tent, indicating the sorts of classroom use to which it might be
put, and comparing it with other films under consideration.
Throughout, the reviewers have taken particular care to praise
films that reflect sound scholarship and to contrast them with
those films that reflect sensationalistic or idiosyncratic views of
Buddhism.
Each review is preceded by particulars of the film's produc-
tion, running time, distribution, etc. This information-supple-
mented by appendices that list sources for additional informa-
tion, distributors, and the names of filmmakers, narrators, and
series-makes Focus on Buddhism as practical as it is informative.
It should prove helpful to those teaching Buddhism at both
introductory and more advanced levels, although particularly to
the former, since few materials of a highly specialized nature
have yet been produced.
Harry M. Buck's "essay" on Spiritual Discipline in Hinduism,
Buddhism, and the West, like the other non-review-oriented books
in the series, is intended as a companion volume to the books
that focus on audio-visual materials available for the study of
Hinduism and Buddhism. Beginning with the recognition that
"Western students of religion, as well as a good many easterners,
need a radical reorientation to understand meditation and spiri-
tual practices" (p. 5), Prof. Buck attempts to delineate the essen-
tial yogic practices of Hinduism and Buddhism, both as systems
unto themselves and as part of a broader human exploration of
the "interiority of Deity."
Along the way, he brings out a number of important points.
He emphasizes that spiritual discipline is fundamentally a form
of action (praxis), action that is more than mere technique, and
must be imparted by a teacher as sensitive to his student as is the
teacher of a musical instrument. He recognizes that religious
experience (defined, after Wach, as "a total response of a total
person to what was seen as Ultimate Reality") is based on disci-
pline of the body, speech, and mind, and that it is attained only
122
123
as part of a slow unfolding. He points out how the differing
cosmologies and ontologies of monotheistic and non-monotheis-
tic religions entail varying spiritual practices. He argues that
religion is far more than a set of doctrines, and that teachers
must attempt somehow to convey what it is like to be a Hindu or
a Buddhist, which is to have a "commitment to Ultimate Reality
that is quite different from the usual viewpoint of the West" (p.
33). He finds a common ground in prayer and mantra, each of
whose aim is "to establish a relationship" (p. 49). Finally, he finds
as "constant emphases" in Hindu and Buddhist spiritual practice
three qualities: authentic immediacy, concentration on the pre-
sent moment, and relaxed intensity.
Sound as many of Prof. Buck's points are, his discussion is
undercut by a number of conceptual and factual problems. His
contention that spiritual practice in general aims at "uniting my
little self with the great life-giving Self in wholeness" (p. 6) would
be acceptable to most Hindus, but hardly seems relevant to Bud-
dhism. Similarly narrow is his definition of meditation as "a
careful restraining of the faculty of attention to let go of all
distractions from the present moment" (p. 12). This may (or
may not) be the primary purpose of Zen or satipaahiina medita-
tion (with which Prof. Buck seems somewhat familiar), but it
fails to account for the great variety of experiences that may be
classed as meditative, e.g., visualization, philosophical or topical
analysis, etc. The injunction to "be here now" may be important
to the meditator, but it is not all there is to meditative technique;
let alone reflective of the often transcendental goals of medita-
tion. A Buddha or afivanmukta undoubtedly is able to "be here
now," but most Buddhists or Hindus would attribute to him
attainments far surpassing simple presence-of-mind. Prof.
Buck's discussions of mantra ("numinous sounds") and mar;H;la-
las (a search for wholeness through relating center with circum-
ference) are suggestive only in the most general way, and give us
little sense of the specific uses to which Hindus and Buddhists
put these aids to meditation. Finally, it must be admitted that
observation and/or control of the breath is an important basis
for further meditation, but it hardly "renders teaching the doc-
trine superfluous" (p. 38)1
The book also contains a number of annoying-if not neces-
sarily grave-factual errors. The Four Noble Truths are stated
rather imprecisely, if not misleadingly, on p. 20. Zen did not, as
maintained on p. 26, come to japan through the efforts of Bod-
hidharma-who brought it from India to China. The Tibetan
"wheel of life" is held not in the jaws of "illusion" (p. 26), but of
Yama, the Lord of Death. A lama, contrary to what Prof. Buck
says (p. 24), is not necessarily a "priest," and only occasionally is a
tulku. Tibetan meditation (with which Prof. Buck seems rather
unfamiliar) is founded on considerably more than the "basic
texts" listed by Prof. Buck,viz., the publications of Evans-Wentz
(p. 24). In addition, there are various misspellings, misprint;;,
and misplaced diacriticals, which more careful editing might
have eliminated.
Despite its limitations, Spiritual Discipline in Hinduism, Bud-
dhism, and the West may be used profitably, if cautiously, by teach-
ers of courses in Asian religion or comparative religion, who
may find its discussions occasionally stimulating, and its reviews
of audio-visual materials useful.
Roger Jackson
Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine, edited and translated by T. J.
Tsarong, et al. Dharamsala: Tibetan Medical Centre, 1981.
One of the biggest problems in reviewing a book on Tibetan
medicine is deciding on the proper approach to take. Should
one approach the subject as an example of cultural history or
anthropology? Should one see the book as an example of history
of science? Some, I know, would take it as a medical textbook
with no questions asked; but in the interests of maintaining neu-
trality, I shall take none of the above approaches, and yet all of
them at the same time, by first discerning the purpose of the
book, and then examining whether or not the book succeeds in
its purpose.
The purpose of the book according to the publisher, is to
"establish the Tibetan art of healing on a correct academic basis"
in order to make a presentation to the "international commun-
ity." The publishers complain, and in some cases justifiably, that
the few works published on the subject have often created
"much misunderstanding and confusion." The publisher goes
on to name anumber of authorities who had a hand in the work
so that no one can doubt that this work was not the product of
some one's mistaken imagination.
The editors, along with the translator, echo the publisher's
sentiments, saying again that though the international commu-
124
125
nity has become "increasingly aware of the rich cultural heritage
of Tibet," Tibetan medicine has become the victim of "much
neglect, prejudice and indifference." Therefore, they are going
to do their best in correcting the situation.
The book is divided into three parts. Part one is to serve as
an introduction to the basic concepts of Tibetan medicine. Part
two is to go a little deeper, into the causes of disease, its diagnosis
and its treatment. Part three, according to the editors, is for the
serious student. There are also appendices. The arrangement is
such that there are needless repetitions. In addition, some con-
cepts are mentioned, but not explained. For instance, the text
gives varying explanations of the five Indian elements: earth,
water, fire, air and space, but neglects the five Chinese elements:
earth, water, fire, metal and wood. This is a shame, since the
Chinese elements appear in two important illustrations, leaving
the reader to wonder what they are. There is also the' matter of
the use of the word "iatrogenesis." The editors have it mean the
natural course of a disease. In fact, it means a disease caused by
medicine.
I don't mean to nitpick, but if it is the purpose of the book to
present Tibetan medicine to the international community, some
improvements should be made. For instance, part three, which
does little but repeat the rest of the book, is in Tibetan. I would
suggest to the publishers that it is not the people who have taken
the time to learn Tibetan and are able to read a medical text in
that language that need to be convinced of the worth of Tibetan
culture.
In a similar vein, it is not very convincing to say to a Western
audience that Tibetan medicine is not based on "witchcraft and
magic as some misinformed critics have noted," (p. 41) when 13
pages earlier it says that if the doctor is unable to read the pulse
of a patient, then he can check the pulse of the patient'S wife in
order to make a diagnosis. There are other such instances,
which I will not mention here.
In the last analysis, maybe what this book really does is
present a modern Tibetan view of a tradition existing in a world
dominated by Western ideas. The book's dedication gives a hint
of this: "To the people of Tibet who must preserve their cultural
heritage and identity at all costs." The book really represents an
attempt to do just this. It is evidence of a determination to pre-
serve Tibetan culture on the part of some of its members. In this
it succeeds, at least partially.
The book is unlikely to convert Western doctors to Tibetan
medicine, though I know of many who are interested in it for its
possible practical (as opposed to theoretical) applications. There
is interest in its pharmacology and methods of diagnosis, as well
as methods of therapeutics, such as the Tibetan versiort of acu-
puncture (which, unfortunately, is not well treated here). The
statement that Tibetan medicine is part of a great tradition and
that it was first taught by the Buddha will be compelling to a few
apart from Asianists, Buddhists and others already somewhat
outside the mainstream of Western culture.
However, for those outside the mainstream, the book might
be interesting. I think the book would be helpful for one want-
ing to read Tibetan medical texts, because it translates many
terms and gives an outline of the basics. There is nothing in it
that hasn't been published before, but here, it is all included in
one small and convenient book. The tables and appendices are
helpful in organizing information.
One high point, which should not go unnoted, is footnote
#2, which weakens the common claim that the rGyud bzhi was
originally an Indian work. This sound point of scholarship how-
ever, is undercut in note # 14. There, the author claims that
Tibetan physicians knew about the circulation of the blood long
before Harvey because the rGyud bzhi said that the blood left
from and returned to the region of the heart. This is a common
error among apologists for traditional medicine. That the blood
came and went everywhere was never in dispute in the West.
What Harvey did was describe how the blood circulated, how it
went out through arteries and back through veins, what the
anatomical differences between arteries and veins were, what
part of the heart the blood from the body entered and went out,
and what part blood from the lungs entered and went out. This
is something the Tibetans did not do.
The idea behind the book, a presentation of Tibetan medi-
cine for the international community, is a good one, but a re-
vised version seems necessary. As a reference work, it has some
value, but it is too superficial. As a manual for practitioners, it is
also too superficial, though it might inspire some to exploration.
As an apology for Tibetan medicine, it is a failure. As a docu-
ment for historians and social scientists it is evidence of the ways
in which a people try and preserve their culture, in what may
very well be a losing battle.
E. Todd Fenner
126
127
Pratrtyasamutpadastutisubhii:jitahrdayam of Acarya Tsong kha pa,
translation by Gyaltsen Namdol and Ngawang Samten, The Dalai
Lama Tibeto Indological Series, Vol. III. Sarnath: Central Institute
of Tibetan Higher Studies, 1982. 191 pages. Appendices, Index-
es. Rs. 60 Hardbound, Rs. 40 Paperback.
These words are attributed to the Buddha:
yo pratrtyasamutpada1'(l pasyati so dharma1'(l pasyati
yo dharma1'(l pasyati 50 buddha1'(l pasyati
He who sees dependent arising sees the Dharma
He who sees the Dharma, sees the Buddha.
To whatever extent sunyata can be considered the "central phi-
losophy of Buddhism," to that extent pratrtyasamutpada can be
considered its essence. For Tsong kha pa, and indeed for all
Madhyamikas, sunyata and dependent origination are two sides
of the same coin:
snang ba rten 'brel bslu ba med pa dang
stong pa khas len bral ba'i go ba gnyis
ji sria 50 sor snang ba de srid du
da dung thub pa'i dgongs pa rtogs pa med
As long as appearances, i.e. the inevitability of interdepen-
dent arising
And emptiness, free of beliefs,
Appear to be separate things,
There is a lack of understanding of the present Victor's
purport.
(Lam gsto rnam gsum of Tsong kha pa)
So, to see, i.e. to understand, the doctrine of dependent arising
and its connection to emptiness is to see the Buddha, especially
to a Madhyamika. In fact, it is this doctrine of emptiness/depen-
dent arising that is considered the uncommon (thun mong ma yin
pa'i) feature of the Buddha's teachings; and it is undoubtedly
this fact that inspired Tsong kha pa to compose his famous brTen
'hrel bstod pa (A Praise of Dependent Arising), which is actually a
praise of the Buddha as the source of the doctrine of dependent
ansmg.
The present edition of the Tibetan text, with translations
into Sanskrit, Hindi, and English is a most welcome addition to
the field of Buddhist studies. Being for the most part of the
same views as Prof. Guenther on the subject of Sanskrit recon-
struction (see his address to the second lABS conference, in
}JABS vol. 4 no. 2) I was very glad to see included in the present
edition good translations into one modern Asian and one mod-
ern Western language.
The work forms part of The Dalai Lama Tibeto-Indological
Series, and contains short forewords in Tibetan and Hindi by
the general editor, the Ven. Samdong Rinpoche. There is a
short Hindi introduction and an extensive Tibetan one (on the
importance of the doctrine of pmtrtyasamutpada in the Buddhist
scriptures) by the Ven. Gyaltsen Namdol. In addition, there is a
short English introduction by the Ven. N gawang Samten.
The actual four-language edition of the text occupies the
bulk of the work. It is supplemented by verse indexes in Tibetan
and Sanskrit, a list of the more famous commentaries on the text
in Tibetan, a complete dual language (Tibetan and Sanskrit)
index to the works of Tsong kha pa, and a Sanskrit-Tibetan
glossary. All of these features make the present work the most
valuable to date on Tsong kha pa's brTen 'brel bstod pa.
Jose Ignacio Cabezon
Repertorie du Canon Bouddhique Sino-japanais. Edition de Taisho.
Fascicule Annexe du Hobogirin, Edition Revisee et Augmentee.
Compiled by Paul Demieville, Hubert Durt and Anna Seidel.
L'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Institut de
France: Tokyo and Paris, 1978. 372 pages.
In 1931 the important bibliographic work Repertoire du Can-
on Bouddhique Sino-japanais appeared as a supplement to the
series Hobogirin. The usefulness of this catalogue of the Taisho
edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon has made it a prominent
volume in the research libraries of Asian scholars for the past
fifty years.
A new edition of Repertoire is welcome news because it pro-
vides a great deal of information not included in the original
version. The additional material in this edition includes the fol-
lowing:
(A) A listing of the titles found in the last forty-five volumes
of the Taisho Daizokyo (vols. 56-100), which appeared after 1931
128
129
and were not available for the original volume. More than a
thousand titles (T2185-3283) of importance to a variety of
scholarly disciplines are covered for the first time in the revised
catalogue. In these later volumes of the Taisho version of the
canon are Japanese commentaries and sectarian treatises, as well
as a variety of topical texts, such as those dealing with the study
of iconography (T 2921-3283). There also are descriptions of
the seventy-eight catalogues of the canon (vols. 98-100).
(B) Composite texts have been analyzed into their various
divisions and each of the sub-categories is listed in the Index.
Three major examples of this type of treatment are:
(1) T. 397 Mahavaipulyamahasamnipiitasiltra (17 divisions)
(2) T. 310 Maharatnakiltasiltra (49 divisions)
(3) T. 220 Mahiiprajniipiiramitiisiltra (16 divisions)
The catalogue does not deal with the divisions of non-Ma-
hayana texts such as T 1 Dfrghiigama, T 26 Madhyamiigama, T.
125 Ekottiigama, T 99 Samyuktiigama, etc. These non-Mahayana
texts have, in some cases, hundreds of sections and the compil-
ers have chosen to limit indexed analysis to Mahayana texts
made up of items that appear as individual sutras as well as parts
of other slitras.
(C) A number of new Sanskrit title reconstructions have
been added. While reconstructions from either Chinese transla-
tions or transliterations and Tibetan renderings of the words are
never without suspicion regarding their match with an Indic
original, it is true that Sanskrit titles provide a standard mode of
reference, making the catalogue more useful to Buddhist schol-
ars who do not read Chinese.
(D) The appended tables and charts have been improved
and expanded; authors and translators for the texts in Vols. 56-
100 are included in the Index. Former listings are corrected and
new information has been added in many instances, as in the
case of the biographical entry for "Chosen" where the article
about him written by Chou Yi-liang in HJAS is cited. These
biographic aids are invaluable and provide a quick reference to
available Western language sources.
(1) An entirely new entry, Table V (p. 355), provides the
user with an alphabetical listing of the Romanized Chinese
names of authors and translators, followed by the characters and
the Japanese equivalents.
(2) "Tables Complementaires" contain references to dates,
dynasties and locations referred to in the entries of the cata-
logue.
(3) Of special note in the latter part of the Taisho edition is
the inclusion of texts which have been found in collections such
as those of Stein and Pelliot. The cataloguers have noted these
sources in the tables and under each appropriate entry.
(E) One major new item in the revised text is the inclusion
of the Korean numbers that match those used in the reviewer's
catalogue, The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue.
Corrections have been made in the revised version, indicat-
ing the care with which the compilers undertook their task. In
the original publication there was a misnumbering of pages in
the "Sanskrit-Pali Index," which resulted in a wrong arrange-
ment of the alphabetical listings. This flaw has now been re-
moved. Also, under the index portion, titles and names that
appeared under radical 109 in the ''Table par Characteres Ini-
tiaux" in the previous volume have been shifted to their proper
place, under radical 143 (p. 332). An example of the careful
process of checking data can be noted under the listing for "Aji-
kuta" in "Table des Auteurs et Traducteurs," where the date of
his arrival in Cp'ang-an has been corrected to read 651 rather
than 625 (p. 235). There are errors and typographical mistakes
in the new Repertoire, but when one considers the enormous
array of facts represented in the book, these are comparatively
few in number. Recently, Hubert Durt and Anna Seidel put
together a comprehensive list of errors and they offer a copy to
all who wish to have it. In view of this effort by the authors to
note the problems it does not seem necessary to burden this
review with a listing. A few examples will indicate the types of
items which occur inadvertantly: T. 71 "Cf. 20 (151)" should
read "26 (151); T. 843 "Nj. 936" in error for "963"; T. 1076 "K
3118" is supposed to be "K 1338."
There are some questions that arise with regard to cross
reference under the sign of "Cf." If one consults an entry such
as T. 1555, there is a note comparing it with T. 1556, 1557, and
154l. When the user turns to T. 1541 there is no reference back
to T. 1555. It would be appropriate to have some indication of
these relationships between the texts.
Reference works of the type represented by this volume are
an important part of the development of scholarship. We need
to have more researchers who are willing to add to the corpus of
reference works and aids to the use of the Buddhist materials.
Without such works to provide guides to the material, the task of
the scholar is an unnecessarily arduous one. In terms of such
needs the Repertoire is without doubt a masterful work and de-
130
131
serves full praise. At the same time that we acknowledge the
value of such a work, the question of its limitations can be con-
sidered. These limits are not to be interpreted as flaws; they are
only indications of the present state of the art. The Repertoire is,
in common with other published catalogues of this century, de-
pendenton the catalogues of the past from China. It is in effect
a catalogue of catalogues, combining information taken from
the mu-lu literature. The catalogues of the Chinese, no less than
those of our present century, relied on the previous compilers
for most of their information. Only Tao-an has the honor of
being a true pioneer cataloguer of the Buddhist canon, for it is
he who made the first one, in 374. Succeeding catalogues, start-
ing from the Ch'u san tsang-chi chi (515-518), reproduced infor-
mation from the preceeding catalogues and added such new
material as was available. Apart from this literature there are
few records with which we can construct a history of the canon
in China. There is now a growing secondary literature which has
begun to question some of the information in these documents.
Japanese and Western scholars make a strong case for saying
that some of the attributions and dates assigned to texts are
incorrect. The study of aprocryphal texts, those thought to have
been written in China and not translated from an lndic original,
points out many problems in the traditional listings. The revised
Repertoire has in some instances indicated that a text is consid-
ered to be apocryphal (i.e. T. 273, 945, 1667 etc.), but the list of
candidates for this designation is far longer than is indicated
under the entries. No one cataloguer can hope to solve the many
issues being raised by such research; it will take decades for the
detailed arguments and assessments to find their way into the
literature and eventually be encompassed in some future cata-
logue.
While the catalogues of the Chinese canon contain informa-
tion that may be discredited as scholarly research advances,
these documents nevertheless remain unique storehouses of in-
formation. The mu-lu should not be ignored or discounted;
rather, the texts deserve much more study, because we have only
just begun to explore the possibilities for research that are avail-
able in them. The compilers of this present volume are to be
congratulated for having made the data of the ancient cata-
logues available and for carefully including in the entries essen-
tial non-Chinese materials in a clear presentation and with admi-
rable accuracy.
Lewis R. Lancaster
Three Worlds According to King Ruang: Thai Buddhist Cosmology.
Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Frank E. Reynolds
and Mani B. Reynolds. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press. Moti-
lal Banarsidass, 1982, 383 pages. Preface, Introduction, 2 Ap-
pendicies, Glossary, Index. $30.00.
In translating the Three Worlds According to King Ruang the
authors have taken upon themselves a most difficult task. The
text, known in Thai as Trai Phum Phra Ruang, is long and com-
plex, and much of the language is archaic. Complicating the
situation, the extant manuscripts often disagree, and there are
passages which are evidently corrupt. Nevertheless, the text is a
most important one, that should be available in English transla-
tion. We are most fortunate that this publication, the fourth in
the Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, brings us a fine translation,
accompanied by clear and informative explanatory material.
The Three Worlds According to King Ruang, generally attrib-
uted to Phya Lithai of the Kingdom of Sukhothai, is a rich and
vivid description of the cosmos as it was understood by the royal
author. The text was composed as a sermon, and it covered a
broad range of topics. For example, the ways in which different
kinds of beings come to be born and finally die are spelled out in
detail. Heavens and hells are also described in specific detail, as
are the acts by which a creature earns a place of residence in one
or another of them. All of the many realms which together make
up the cosmos are also described, along with the inhabitants of
each of those realms. The sermom also includes a concise and
specific description of the path to perfection mapped out for
humanity by the Buddha. All of this, and much more that is to
be found in the Trai Phum Phra Ruang, have made the text one
of great importance in the development of Thai religious
thought, and it has served as an important source of literary and
artistic inspiration. It would be difficult to understate the signifi-
cance of the text, or the usefulness of a translation of it for those
interested in Thai or Theravada Buddhist studies.
In this translation, introductory material serves to place the
text in perspective. A brief description of what is known about
Phya Lithai is presented first, followed by some introduction to
early Thai kingship. The basic trends in the development of
traditional Theravada cosmology are sketched out for the
reader, as are the trends of development within the Thai tradi-
tion itself, demonstrating a two-fold process of preservation and
innovation which is at work in the text. The structure and con-
132
133
tent of the Trai Phum Phra Ruang are then described in some
detail. Finally, the authors present a history of the text. Here
they discuss briefly the difficulties involved in translating a work
of this type, and the reasons which led them to adopt their
translation strategies, with maximum "clarity, readability and
general usefulness of the English text" as the goal. This goal has
certainly been achieved.
The text itself reads easily and naturally, as does the ex-
planatory material that has been provided. The introduction is
always informative and clear, and care is taken to explain each
term that might be unfamiliar to the general reader. This is true
throughout the translation as well, in which extensive footnotes
are used in a variety of ways. They are used, for example, to
clarify references, to point out passages in which the Trai Phum
Phra Ruang differs significantly from the older source material
used by the royal author of the sermon, and to clarify and com-
ment on sections in which the manuscripts have conflicting read-
ings. Useful charts and diagrams are also provided, and a glos-
sary of selected terms gives the original wording on which the
English version is based. For each glossary entry the source lan-
guage of the original term, Pali, Sanskrit or Thai, is also given.
Along with the quality of the translation, and of the accom-
panying explanatory material, the volume also has beautiful il-
lustrations to recommend it. Ten color illustrations from a re-
production of the manuscript commissioned in the 18th century
by King Taksin of Thonburi are included here, as are three
color illustrations painted by Thawan Dachanee, a modern Thai
artist who works on Buddhist themes.
Robert J. Bickner
The Way to Shambhala, by Edwin Bernbaum. Garden City, New
York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980. xv + 316 pages. Map,
figures, plates, glossary, bibliography, index. $6.95 (paper).
Mr. Bernbaum has accomplished a major feat in producing
this interesting and richly informative volume; he has brought
considerable clarity to the much obscured issue of Shambhala
and Buddhist eschatology, combining wide scholarly research
with extensive reportage from living informants, including a
number of distinguished lamas of all the major schools, and he
has done this within the engaging context of a personal journey,
giving the book a popular appeal that is rare in this field.
The more popular, and personal, sections of the book are
the first three chapters, wherein Bernbaum introduces the vi-
sion of Shambhala, the "hidden land" vivid in Asian folklore
(and underlying the Shangri-la of James Hilton's Lost Horizon,
which has become part of modern folklore); introduces the var-
ious cosmologies in use in various segments of Buddhist civiliza-
tion within which the Shambhala myth is located; and introduces
himself, as a mountain-climber, thinker, scholar, and seeker of
Shambhala. These chapters are factually precise, widely re-
searched, and clearly and sincerely written, effectively posing
the problem of Shambhala and relating it to larger issues. The
next chapter, "The Underlying Myth," explores world folklore
for parallels to the Shambhala myth, comes up with a great
profusion of such myths, and extracts from them three general
themes common to most, those of a "hidden sanctuary," "quest
or journey," and "golden age to come." Then, the chapter
"Wheel of Time" presents some basic doctrines of the Kalacakra
Tantra in a clear, if simplified, manner. In fact, of the many
chapters one can find in the popular literature on Tibet or on
Buddhism, where an author pauses to give a general account of
"Tantrism," this is one of the very few that is solid, clear, and
informative, without pretending to do more than introduce this
very complex subject.
In chapter six, "The Inner Kingdom," the author seems to
be on the right track in relating the eight-petalled structure of
the mythical land to the eight-petalled heart-plexus (cakra) of
the tantric subtle neurology. This chapter is a good example of
the outstanding way in which the author combines textual re-
search with faithful recording of oral tradition information pro-
vided by learned lama informants. Chapters seven and eight,
"The Journey" and "The Guidebooks," present an overview of
the literature and lore on various journeys to Shambhala. First
there is an oral account of a dream by a living lama of the r N ying
rna tradition, remarkable for its vividness and beauty. Then,
Bernbaum translates (freely but quite reliably) the bsTan-'gyur
guidebook, Ka la par 'jug pa, ("Way to Kalapa"), and an account
by the 16th century Tibetan Prince, Rinpung Ngawang Jigdag,
including all the essential portions. Since the most famous gui-
debook, that of the Third Panchen Lama, Lobsang Palden
Yeshe, is much longer, the author understandably did not in-
clude it, as specialists who do not know Tibetan can consult
134
135
Gnlnwedel's German translation, published in 1915. We may
perhaps expect Bernbaum in the future to provide us with an
updated English version in a subsequent monograph. The
ninth, "Inner Journey" chapter departs somewhat from this
procedure, and ventures into the author's own psychological
analysIs of the journeys in the guidebooks. It is thus perhaps the
most labored, least successful section, though fortunately not too
long. The tenth chapter, "Inner Prophecy," gives a lively ac-
count of the Buddhist "Armageddon," combined with more psy-
chological analysis.
The last chapter, "Beyond Shambhala," is a brief but mov-
ing plea for us to find inspiration in the myth of Shambhala, as
providing one key to our discovery of the "inner side of the
myth of progress." This, Bernbaum argues persuasively, is des-
perately needed to balance the materialistic myth of progress
that is driving humanity towards extinction. In this stirring con-
clusion, he presents a clear vision of Shambhala as one of the
powerful symbols of the "kingdom of ends" towards which hu-
mans struggle. " ... As we become aware of the sacred nature of
all that surrounds us, we cease to see people and things as objects
to be abused and exploited. We come, instead, to cherish them
for what they are-and to treat them with the utmost care and
respect .... "
Again, we may look forward, on the basis of this ground-
breaking account of the Buddhist eschaton, to further inquiry
into the important question of the Buddhist attitude toward
history, time, and the Buddhist response to the disparity be-
tween religious and social realities. In the meantime, Mr. Bern-
baum is to be heartily congratulated.
Robert A. F. Thurman
III. NOTES AND NEWS
Computing and Buddhist Studies
The lABS Secretariat is attempting to compile information
on the use of computers in Buddhist Studies research. We are
interested in all uses of computers, but especially in uses of micro-
computers (such as Apple, TRS-80, Commodore PET & other
similar machines). We are also interested in Buddhist Studies
scholars who are developing programs, are using "canned"
programs, or have a problem for which they are seeking a
program.
Our goal is to develop a "network" of Buddhist Studies
computerists and to encourage exploration of microcomputer
use in Buddhist Studies. To do so, we need to know something
about the following: specific machines being used; program-
ming languages being used; minimal memory capacity; disk or
tape external storage; linkages to networks such as Micronet,
the Source, etc.
I have the beginnings of such information from lABS Ox-
ford Conference participants, and I hope we shall be able to
provide an early survey report in an issue of the] oumal. Please
correspond-by mail (we aren't personally hooked in to a net-
work as yet!).
136
Robert J. Miller
General Secretary, lABS
Proposal for an Index of
Publications in Buddhist Studies
We are pleased to announce that beginning with Volume 6, no.
2, 1983, the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies will begin publishing an alphabetical listing of all publi-
cations, either in print or ongoing, by members of the lABS.
We will also 'publish a listing of doctoral dissertations, either
completed or ongoing, by membrs of the lABS qr other stu-
dents, whether members of the lABS or not. Please note the
following information:
1. This is the only announcement on this subject that will be
made by the lABS office: In order for this project to succeed,
we will depend on the timely replies by our members.
2. The information we request is as follows:
a. Your name, with your family name or the name we may
use for indexing underlined.
b. Your title, i.e. Dr., Professor, Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss, Rev.,
etc.
c. An address or addresses where you can be contacted by
the lABS staff from February to August, 1983.
d. The address you wish to appear in the printed listing,
which will be published in December, 1983.
e. A chronological list of your publications, either in print
or ongoing, which are of an academic nature and deal with some
aspect of Buddhist Studies.
f. The title of your doctoral dissertation, whether com-
pleted or ongoing.
g. The title of the doctoral dissertations, either completed
or ongoing, of students you know, who may not necessarily
be members of the lABS. Please be sure to give the informa-
tion requested in items a-d for those students.
3. Please send the relevant information to: Journal of the Inter-
national Association of Buddhist Studies UIABS) , Attention Rena
Haggarty, 1258 Van Hise Hall, University of Wisconsin, Madi-
son, WI 53706 USA, so as to reach the above address no later
than July 31,1983.
137
A Report on an Educational
Television/Film Series on
Tibetan Buddhism
A series of four television/film programs on Tibetan Bud-
dhism is presently being coproduced by Dr. Edward W. Bastian
and Professor Joseph W. Elder of the University of Wisconsin-
Madison. This project has been supported by the National En-
dowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, the
U.S. Office of Education, the University of Wisconsin Graduate
School and WHA-TV, the PBS affiliate in Madison. These are
designed to teach and motivate beginning to intermediate stu-
dents of subjects ranging from world religion to cultural an-
thropology; the target audiences include junior and senior level
high school students, college students and Public Television
audiences.
The titles and purposes of these four programs
are as follows:
138
1). The Wheel of Life (29 minutes)
This program focuses on a classical Indian and Tibetan
painting called the "Wheel of Life," which was created to
teach the fundamental doctrines of Buddhism. Fine exam-
ples of this painting have been photographed in Nepal,
India and Ladakh over the past five years; they provide a
colorful and stimulating presentation of such doctrines as
the Four Noble Truths, the Three Jewels, the twelve links
of Dependent Origination, the path of Enlightenment, and
the stages of rebirth in the Desire Realm of sa11lsara.
2). Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving the Monastic Traditions (29
minutes)
This program focuses on the traditional monastic ca-
reer preserved by Tibetan Buddhist monks of Sera Monas-
tery in Karnataka, south India. The film observes a boy's
decision to enter the monastery and his family's influence
on that decision. It documents the boy's ordination cere-
mony and observes his future career through the daily
lives of other younger and older monks. It observes daily
manual activities of cooking, cleaning, building, farming,
printing scriptures from wood blocks, painting tankas and
139
molding food offerings. The film documents and explains
the style and content of Sera's scholarly curriculum up to
the study and practice of the Buddhist Tantras. It focuses
on the memorization, classwork and debate of six subjects:
Logic, Epistemology, the Three Jewels, the Four Noble
Truths, the Middle Path and Great Compassion. The film
concludes with an overview of the study and practice of the
Buddhist Tantras at Gyume monastery, including: making
a mal)<;iala, training in the tantric voice, taking an initi-
ation, and holding a fire ceremony.
3). Tibetan Buddhism for the Laity (working title) (56 min-
utes)
This program follows the cycle of life and religious
ritual of a family during the four seasons of the year in the
Tibetan cultural regions of Ladakh. Observing the close
religious, cultural, social and economic relationship be-
tween the family and a neighboring monastery, this pro-
gram documents major religious rituals revolving around
the planting and harvesting of crops, the healing of dis-
eases, and propitiation of major Buddhist and local dieties.
The program concludes with a careful documentation of
the colorful winter festival at the monastery. It also ob-
serves the major craft and artistic activities of the Ladakhi
village. This program aims to provide a beginning to inter-
mediate student or television viewer with a stimulating and
accurate portrait of Tibetan Buddhism in an indigenous
rural setting.
4). The Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism to the West (working
title) (56 minutes)
. This program documents efforts of refugee Tibetans
in India (including His Holiness the Dalai Lama) to pre-
serve their Buddhist heritage, and it documents efforts by
Westerners to practice and promulgate Tibetan Buddhism
in America.
Beginning in India with interviews with the Dalai
Lama and documentary sequences of preservation efforts
of Tibetans in Dharmasala and Manali, India, this pro-
gram then focuses on the historic initiation of 1,500
Americans into the Kalacakra Tantra (Cycle of Time) in
Wisconsin during the summer of 1981. The film contains
interviews with American devotees, and scenes of the prep-
arations for the Kalacakra initiations, including the contro-
versial township hall meetings where local residents tried
to prevent the initiation ceremonies from taking place.
This program also contains the first complete documenta-
tion ever produced of these initiation ceremonies, the most
significant of all public Tibetan Buddhist rituals. The Dalai
Lama allowed complete access to the preparations for and
conferral of the Kalacakra Tantra initiations performed by
18 Tibetan monks from the Namgyal Monastery. This pro-
gram has significant historical value for our understanding
of Tibetan Buddhism and its transmission to the West.
Thus far, one of the above films has been completed and
released for world-wide distribution. This film, Tibetan Bud-
dhism: Preserving the Monastic Tradition, has been shown at the
Anual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, at Chicago
and the 5th Annual conference of the International Association
of Buddhist Studies at Oxford.
The General Membership Meeting of the conference
passed a resolution that states, in part: "The ... Meeting en-
dorses by enthusiastic acclamation [these] ... films of the living
Buddhist traditions. The meeting urged [that these] ... super-
bly accurate and sensitive portrayals of Buddhist practices and
beliefs be made available to as wide an audience as possible."
The second film, to be released in late 1982, will be the one
tentatively titled: Tibetan Buddhism for the Laity. The remaining
films will be released in 1983.
For further information on this series on programs, con-
tact Dr. Edward W. Bastian, Educational Communications,
P.O. Box 1421, Madison, Wisconsin, 53701, telephone (608)
233-3118.
140
TernlS of Sanskrit and Pali Origin
Acceptable as English Words
The following is a partial list of words of Sanskrit and Pali
origin that are included in Webster's ThirdNew International Dic-
tionary. Since Webster's is a dictionary of the English language,
the terms listed here may properly be considered English
words. ,Thus, they require underlining or italicization only
when cited as part of a larger quotation from the lndic lan-
guage from which they come. On the other hand, one need not
follow the dictionary in eliminating diacritical marks; their in-
clusion is a service to the reader, who may wish to research the
terms further in Sanskrit or Pali texts or dictionaries.

dharma
naga
acarya
dharmakaya
nibbana
anatman dhyana
nirmaI).aka ya
anatta garha
nirvaI).a
arahant gUI).a
paramita
arhat guru
prajfla
arya
Hlnayana
prakrti
asura jlva
praI).a
atman jflana

avidya kalpa
pratyekabuddha
bhakti
kama preta
bhikku karma puja

karu I). a PuraI).a
BrahmaI).a
bodhi Mahayana sadhana
bodhisattva man as sadhu
Buddha
maI).c;lala sakti
caitya mantra samadhi
cakra
marga
sambhogakaya
cakravartin maya
sarpsara
deva
sarpskara
devI mudra
sangha
dharaI).I mukti
sastra
141
siddha
skandha
sloka
sraddha
sramal).a
sravaka
sruti
stupa
sudra
142
Sukhavati
sunyata
sutra
tantra
tathata
tathagata
tathagatagarbha
trikaya
triratna
Upanisad
vaisya
Vajrayana
varl).a
Veda
vihara
Vinaya
yaksa
yoga
yogm
Roger Jackson
Assistant Editor
6th Conference of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies
We are pleased to announce that the Sixth Conference of the
lABS will be held in association with the 31st International
Congress of Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa (CI-
SHAAN) from August 31 to September 7, 1983, both in Tokyo
(August 31 to September 3) and Kyoto (September 5 to 7),
Japan. Professor Gadjin Nagao, Honorary Fellow and Found-
ing Chairperson of the lABS, has kindly accepted to act as
President of the 6th Conference.
REGISTRATION
Prospective participants in the 6th Conference of the JABS must regis-
ter for the 31stCJSHAAN (30,000 or US $150 before April 20,
1983, and 40,000 or US $200 after May 1,1983) and will have
the benefit of being able to enjoy every CISHAAN facility dur-
ing the conference. This registration fee will also cover the
registration fee for the lABS conference. The enrollment
deadline for the 31st CISHAAN has been extended for lABS
members, who should enroll by December 10,1982, by contact-
ing the CISHAAN office and requesting a registration form.
JABS members who have enrolled in the 31st CJSHAAN before July
31, 1982, should request a form with "JAB S member" stamped in red
on it, which they should fill in and return to the CJSHAAN office to
reconfirm their registration and enable the conference organizers to
make a separate list of the participants in the 6th Conference of the
convenience of JABS members. It is also important for lABS mem-
bers to register with this specially stamped form so that they
may be informed of all functions organized for lABS members
only.
MEMBERSHIP IN THE lABS
All participants in the 6th Conference of the JABS must be members of
143
the lABS in good standing for 1983. Membership dues may be
paid either at the time of the conference, at the lABS office
desk, or ahead of time by contacting Professor Robert J. Miller,
General Secretary, lABS, c/o Dept. of South Asian Studies,
1258 Van Hise Hall, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
53706 USA. Dues for Full members in 1983 are 5,500 or US
$20 per year; Student members may pay 2,200 or US $7.50
per year; and members from economically developing coun-
tries such as India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and
Indonesia may pay a subsidized rate of2,200 or US $7.50 per
year. Full and Subsidized members will receive the two issues of
the J oumal published in 1983 at no extra cost. Student mem-
bers may buy the two issues for 2,800 or US $12.50 if they so
desire.
PAPERS
The 31st CISHAAN has adopted a "thematic conference," i.e.,
a congress with topical themes. In most cases, papers proposed
by lABS members will be alotted to CISHAAN Sectional Meet-
ing 3: "Spread of Buddhism and Hindu Culture in Asia," al-
though if appropriate, papers may be assigned to other section-
al meetings. Special sessions or seminars may be arranged for
groups of papers, if there are enough good papers to warrant
their organization. Abstracts must be submitted to the office of the
31st CISHAAN Secretary-General by January 31, 1983. Papers of
which the abstracts have not arrived by that date will not be included in
the Collection of Abstracts and may not be read in any meeting or
semznar.
CORRESPONDENCE
This is just a brief announcement. For details, to request a
registration form, and to submit an abstract, please contact:
Professor Jikid6 Takasaki, Secretary General, 31st CISHAAN
Office, T6h6 Gakkai, 4-1 Nishi Kanda, 2 Chome, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 101 JAPAN.
144
IV. OBITUARY
Isaline Blew Horner (1896-1981)
Miss 1. B. Horner, President of the Pali Text Society since
1959, and an Honorary Fellow of the International Association
of Buddhist Studies since its inception, died on 25 April 1981,
a few weeks after her 85th birthday. She had suffered a bad
fall during the summer of 1980, and the surgical operation
which this necessitated confined her to her bed for some time,
and thereafter to her armchair where, growing progressively
weaker, she showed her determination to see the Pali Text
Society'S centennial year in.
Miss Horner came up to Newnham College Cambridge in
1914 to read Moral Sciences (Philosophy), and after graduation
remained in Cambridge, first as Assistant Librarian of her Col-
lege and then as Librarian, becoming in due course a Fellow
and then an Associate of the College. Throughout her life she
remained deeply attached to N ewnham, and especially its Li-
brary, an extension to which was made possible in 1962 by her
generosity.
Her studies in Philosophy led her into the field of Eastern
religions and to Buddhism in particular. Her first published
work was Women Under Primitive Buddhism (1930), which was
researched and written while she held the Sarah Smithson Re-
search Fellowship at Newnham College from 1929-31. Her
research led to an interest in Pali, and to a freindship with Lord
Chalmers, sometime Governor of Ceylon and at that time Mas-
ter of Peterhouse. She repaid him for his lessons in Pali by
producing the Index of English terms in his edition and trans-
lation of the Suttanipata (Buddha's Teachings, 1932). Her second
major publication on a Buddhist subject was a study of the
arahant, published in 1936 under the title of The Early Buddhist
Theory of Man Perfected, although she had meanwhile continued
the work begun by Woods and Kosambi by publishing Volume
III of the commentary upon the Majjhimanikaya (Papancasudanf
III, 1933). The last two volumes of the set appeared in 1937
and 1938. From that date on, all her major publications were to
be editions or translations of Pali texts.
145
In 1946 Miss Horner published an edition of the commen-
tary upon the Buddhava1JlSa (MadhuratthavilasinZ). Like the Pa-
paficasildanf volumes, this was an eclectic edition, comprising a
selection of the best readings from published oriental editions
rather than being a genuine critical edition, but like them it was
a meticulous and valuable piece of scholarship, better than any-
thing else available at that time. She had already produced the
first of a series of translations of Pali texts upon which her
reputation as a Pali scholar rests. The first volume of her mas-
terly translation of the Vinaya-pitaka (Book of the Discipline, I,
1938) was followed by five more volumes of which the last, the
translation of the very difficult and obscure supplementary
Parivara volume, appeared in 1966.
When Mrs. C. A. F. Rhys Davids died in 1942, Dr. W. H. D.
Rouse succeeded her as President of the Pali Text Society, and
Miss Horner became Secretary. Rouse's successor, Dr. W.
Stede, died in 1958, and in 1959 Miss Horner became Presi-
dent. While she was Secretary she had produced a three vol-
ume translation of the MaJjhimanikaya (Middle Length Sayings, 1-
III, 1954-59)'0 to replace that made by her mentor Lord
Chalmers in the twenties, and she celebrated her election to the
Presidency by producinga new translation of the Milinr1.apafiha
(Milinda's Questions, I-II, 1963-64), to replace that made by
Rhys Davids, the founder of the Society, more than 70 years
before. As a consequence of her belief that many of the early
translations published by the Society needed to be replaced, she
made new translations of the Vimanavatthu (Stories of the Man-
sions, 1974), and the Buddhava1JlSa and Cariyapi(aka (Chronicle of
Buddhas and Basket of Conduct, 1975). Her translations were not
only more accurate than the earlier versions, but also combined
an intuitive feeling for the meaning with a clear and very rea-
sonable style.
Her last major work was a translation of her own edition of
the Buddhava'Y{lSa commentary (The Clarifier of the Sweet Meaning,
1978). The Council of the Pali Text Society had decided to
celebrate the Society'S centennial year in 1981 by publishing
translations of those commentaries which were still untrans-
lated, and it was very appropriate that the series should be in-
augurated by a work from the President herself. After her
death, an incomplete translation of the first volume (nos. 1-25)
146
of the set of 50 Apocryphal Jataka stories from Burma was
found among her papers. This translation, completed by Pro-
fessor P. S. Jaini, whose edition of the Paiiiiasa Jiltaka formed
the basis for the translation, will be published in due course by
the Society as a tribute to Miss Horner's memory.
Her minor works included a number of selections and an-
thologies. In 1948 she produced Living Thoughts of Got'ama Bud-
dha-an Anthology in collaboration with A. K. Coomaraswamy;
she contributed the section on the teaching of the elders to
Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, edited by E. Conze in 1954; Ten
Jiltaka stories appeared in 1957; and An Anthology of Early Bud-
dhist Poetry was published in 1963. Besides acting as General
Reviser to the Critical Pilli Dictionary, she also wrote extensively
for periodicals dealing with the study of Buddhism. She was
particularly delighted to contribute to volumes published in
honour of the many friends she had made in the course of her
travels in India, Ceylon and Burma, and whom she enjoyed
entertaining, in former years in her house in Notting Hill Gate
and more recently in St. John'S Woods, whenever they came to
London. The figure of 200 publications, which is quoted in the
biographical sketch prefixed to the volume of Buddhist studies
which her friends offered in her honour in 1974, was presum-
ably supplied by Miss Horner herself, but no list of publications
has come to light among her papers, and a complete bibliogra-
phy awaits the efforts of some future researcher. Although
some of her articles were only a few pages long, on some well-
studied aspect of Buddhism, her lively style of writing made
even the well-known seem new and fresh. Other articles, how-
ever, were long and valuable contributions to Pali or Buddhist
studies, drawing attention to something she had come across
while editing or translating. Her last article appeared in the
special centennial number of the Society'S Journal, and com-
prised an important investigation into the identity of the myste-
rious keci who are sometimes quoted as the authority for some
view or other in the Pali commentaries.
Nevertheless, it is likely that future scholars will judge that
Miss Horner's greatest contribution to the academic study of
Pali and Buddhism lay not in her own publications, valuable
though they were, but in the efforts which she made to encour-
age such studies. Not only did she persuade others to make new
147
editions and translations, to replace works that were out of date
or to fill gaps in the Society's lists of publications, but she enthu-
siastically wrote forewords and introductions to their books,
and made indexes and supplied lists of parallel passages based
uponher extensive reading of Pali works. Perhaps more impor-
tant, she devoted her time, energy and money to the task of
putting the Pali Text Society on a sound financial footing. Be-
sides her own generosity, the full extent of which will never be
known, her enthusiasm excited the generosity of others, and a
steady stream of donations, large and small, helped to support
the Society's general activities or to defray the cost of publish-
ing specified works. Previous Presidents had similarly encour-
aged scholars to edit and translate, but for financial reasons the
Society was frequently unable to take advantage of work done
on its behalf, and shortage of money caused many problems in
the years between the two world wars. Some of the Annual
Reports for that period make sorry reading, and manuscripts
had sometimes to wait years before they could be printed. Un-
der Miss Horner's leadership, however, with donations and the
income from increased sales wisely invested, the Society was
able to reprint all publications which merited it or to replace
them by new editions or translations where the standard was
not satisfactory. Works which for financial reasons had ap-
peared in irregularly sized parts were reprinted in a single
volume, and misprints were tacitly corrected, so that the stan-
dard of earlier publications was constantly being raised. At the
same time the Society was able to increase its range of issues,
and thus help to meet the demand for books caused by the
growing interest in Buddhism in the West.
Miss Horner's academic prowess was recognised by the
award of honorary degrees by the University of Ceylon and the
Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, but it was a matter of considerable
rejoicing for all members fo the Pali Text Society when the vast
amount of work she had done for the Society was recognized by
the award of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's
Honours List for 1980. With her passing goes the last direct
link with the founder of the Society, whom she had once met
when she was young. Miss Horner was the Pali Text Society,
148
and without her it will never be the same again, but in the form
in which she left it it will remain as a living memorial to her
scholarship and generosity.
K. R. Norman
149
CONTRIBUTORS
Robert J. Bickner
Dept. of S. Asian Studies
Univ. of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706
Jose Ignacio Cabezon
House no. 32
Sera Je Monastery
Bylakuppe
Karnataka
India
Balkrishna Govind Gokhale
Director, Asian Studies Program
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
E. Todd Fenner
1516 Simpson SE.
Madison, WI 53703
John C. Holt
Dept. of Religion
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, ME 04011
Shohei Ichimura
Comparative Religion
School of International Studies
Univ. of Washington
Seattle, WA 98175
Roger Jackson
Dept. of S. Asian Studies
Univ. of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706
Aaron K. Koseki
Program in Religious Studies
4016 Foreign Languages Bldg.
707 S. Mathews
Urbana, IL 61801
150
Lewis R. Lancaster
Dept. of Oriental Languages
Univ. of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
Wood-Ming Liu
Chinese Dept.
Univ. of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Rd.
Hong Kong
Lopon Nado
Dept. of Education
Royal Government of Bhutam
Tashichhodzong
Thimpu
Bhutan
K.R. Norman
Faculty Board of Oriental Studies
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Ave.
Cambridge CB3 9DA
England
Bhikkhu Pasadika
Heliososteig 4
3548 Arolsen
West Germany
Robert A.F. Thurman
Dept. of Religion
Amherst College
Amherst, MA 01002
Katherine K. Young
Faculty of Religious Studies
McGill Univ.
3520 University St.
Montreal, PQ
Canada
BOOKS ON SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES
BUDDHIST IMAGES OF HUMAN PERFECTWN
BY NATHAN KATZ. xx+320pp.
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Much of this book is a re-examination of the arahant images as found in Theravada
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A COMPARATIVE STUDY AND THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN
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BY MARK MACDOWELL. xviii + 113
The author found similarities between the teachings of Don Juan and Nagarjuna-in
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DISCIPLINE: THE CANONICAL BUDDHISM OF THE
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Discipline is a penetrating analysis of a hitherto neglected, yet centrally important
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FRAGMENTS FROM DINNAGA
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This treatise contains seventeen fragments attributed to Dinnaga by Vacaspati Misra,
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ON KNOWING THE REALITY
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PHILOSOPHY OF NAGARJUNA
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The book presents a faithful interpretation of Nagarjuna's Philosophy. It is an Eng-
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The book concentrates on the initial 8 stages of the Sthaviravada.
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STORIES OF INDIAN SAINTS
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