Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
Many works are attributed to him but they have not the same
authenticity as the poems of Aśvaghosha. Some schools make him the
author of the Prajñâ-pâramitâ but it is more usually regarded as a
revelation. The commentary on it known as Mahâ-prajñâ-pâramitâ-śâstra
is generally accepted as his work. A consensus of tradition makes him
the author of the Mâdhyamika[212] aphorisms of which some account has
been given above. It is the principal authority of its school and is
provided with a commentary attributed to the author himself and with a
later one by Candrakîrti.[213] There is also ascribed to him a work
called the Suhrillekha or friendly letter, a compendium of Buddhist
doctrines, addressed to an Indian king.[214] This work is old for it
was translated into Chinese in 434 A.D. and is a homily for laymen. It
says nothing of the Mâdhyamika philosophy and most of it deals with
the need of good conduct and the terrors of future punishment, quite
in the manner of the Hinayana. But it also commends the use of images
and incense in worship, it mentions Avalokita and Amitâbha and it
holds up the ideal of attaining Buddhahood. Nâgârjuna's authorship is
not beyond dispute but these ideas may well represent a type of
popular Buddhism slightly posterior to Aśvaghosha.[215]
In most lists of patriarchs Nâgârjuna is followed by Deva, also called
Âryadeva, Kâṇadeva or Nîlanetra. I-Ching mentions him among the older
teachers and a commentary on his principal work, the Śataśâstra, is
attributed to Vasubandhu.[216] Little is known of his special teaching
but he is regarded as an important doctor and his pupil Dharmatrâta is
also important if not as an author at least as a compiler, for
Sanskrit collections of verses corresponding to the Pali Dhammapada
are ascribed to him. Âryadeva was a native of southern India.[217]
The next epoch in the history of Buddhism is marked by the names of
Asanga and Vasubandhu. The interval between them and Deva produced no
teacher of importance, but Kumâralabdha, the founder of the
Sautrântika school and perhaps identical with Kumârata the eighteenth
Patriarch of the Chinese lists, may be mentioned. Hsüan Chuang
says[218] that he was carried off in captivity by a king who reigned
somewhere in the east of the Pamirs and that he, Aśvaghosha, Nâgârjuna
and Deva were styled the four shining suns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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