On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s6.18.3

v1.c8.s6.18.3

These "vehicles" or progressive stages are given as lay believer (or "inferior degree"), ordained disciple, Pratyeka Buddha, Bodhisattva, Buddha. They are also said to be Men, Devas, ordained disciples, Pratyeka Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas, and there is further difference of opinion as to the classes of beings which form the successive groups.¹ In the Buddhist śāstras moreover the student found the doctrine of karma stated, defended, and illustrated with a subtlety of intellect and boldness of imagination almost matchless. All the five groups of learning here enumerated were apparently comprised in the training of an Indian Buddhist; and no one could be a leader in the church, or an authority on dogma, who did not shew himself a proficient in these departments of learning. We are told of Kumārajīva that he studied the śāstras of the Five sciences, and of Guṇabhadra it is recorded that in his youth he learned all the śāstras of the Five sciences, astronomy, arithmetic, medicine, exorcisms. The religious training in the Tripitaka was according to some authorities a separate affair, while others treat it as a part of the "Inner Science".