Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
4. The Lankâvatâra[135] gives an account of the revelation of the good
Law by Śâkyamuni when visiting Lanka. It is presumably subsequent to
the period when Ceylon had become a centre of Buddhism, but the story
is pure fancy and unconnected with history or with older legends. It
relates how the Buddha alighted on Mt. Malaya in Lanka. Ravana came to
pay his respects and asked for definitions of virtue and vice which
were given. The Bodhisattva Mahâmati (apparently Mañjuśrî) proceeded
to propound a series of more abstruse questions which are answered at
considerable length. The Lankâvatâra represents a mature phase of
speculation and not only criticizes the Sânkhya, Pâsupata and other
Hindu schools, but is conscious of the growing resemblance of
Mahayanism to Brahmanic philosophy and tries to explain it. It
contains a prophecy about Nâgârjuna and another which mentions the
Guptas, and it appears to allude to the domination of the Huns. This
allusion would make its date as late as the sixth century but a
translation into Chinese which is said to correspond with the Sanskrit
text was made in 513. If so the barbarians referred to cannot be the
Huns. An earlier translation made in 443 does not agree with our
Sanskrit text and perhaps the work existed in several recensions.
5. The Suvarṇa-prabhâsa or Glitter of Gold[136] is a Vaipulya sûtra
in many ways resembling the Lotus. It insists on the supernatural
character of the Buddha. He was never really born nor entered into
Nirvana but is the Dharma-kâya. The scene is laid at Râjagṛiha and
many Brahmanic deities are among the interlocutors. It was translated
into Chinese about 420 A.D. and fragments of a translation into Uigur
have been discovered in Turkestan.[137] The contents comprise
philosophy, legends and spells.
6. Gaṇḍa-vyûha[138] or the Structure of the World, which is compared
to a bubble. The name is not found in the catalogue of the Chinese
Tripitaka but the work is said to be the same as the Avataṃsaka sûtra
which is popular in the Far East under the name of Hua-yên in China or
Ke-gon in Japan. The identity of the two books could not have been
guessed from the extracts and analyses which have been published but
is guaranteed by high authorities.[139] It is possible however that
the Gaṇḍa-vyûha is only a portion of the larger work called
Avataṃsaka. So far as can be judged from the extracts, this text
preaches in a fully developed form, the doctrines of Śûnyatâ,
Dharma-kâya, the omnipresence of the Buddha and the redemption of the
world by the exertions of Bodhisattvas. Yet it seems to be early, for
a portion of it was translated into Chinese about 170 A.D. (Nanjio,
102) and about 405 Kumârajîva translated a commentary on it ascribed
to Nâgârjuna (Nanjio, 1180).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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