Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
He found Magadha prosperous and pious. Of its capital, Patna, he says
"by the side of the topes of Asoka has been made a Mahayana monastery
very grand and beautiful, there is also a Hinayana one, the two
together containing 600 or 700 monks." It is probable that this was
typical of the religious condition of Magadha and Bengal. Both schools
existed but the Mahayana was the more flourishing. Many of the old
sites, such as Râjagṛiha and Gaya, were deserted but there were new
towns near them and Bodh Gaya was a place of pilgrimage with three
monasteries. In the district of Tamralipti (Tamluk) on the coast of
Bengal were 22 monasteries. As his principal object was to obtain
copies of the Vinaya, he stayed three years in Patna seeking and
copying manuscripts. In this he found some difficulty, for the various
schools of the Vinaya, which he says were divided by trivial
differences only, handed down their respective versions orally. He
found in the Mahayanist monastery one manuscript of the Mahâsânghika
rules and considered it the most complete, but also took down the
Sarvâstivâdin rules.
After the death of Vasubandhu few names of even moderate magnitude
stand out in the history of Indian Buddhism. The changes which
occurred were great but gradual and due not to the initiative of
innovators but to the assimilative power of Hinduism and to the
attractions of magical and emotional rites. But this tendency, though
it doubtless existed, did not become conspicuous until about 700 A.D.
The accounts of the Chinese pilgrims and the literature which has been
preserved suggest that in the intervening centuries the monks were
chiefly occupied with scholastic and exegetical work. The most
distinguished successors of Asanga were logicians, among whom Diṅnâga
was pre-eminent. Sthiramati[238] and Guṇamati appear to have belonged
to the same school and perhaps Bhavaviveka[239] too. The statements as
to his date are inconsistent but the interesting fact is recorded that
he utilized the terminology of the Sânkhya for the purposes of the
Mahayana.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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