A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t4.2

v2.c19.s6.t4.2

The Mahāyāna does not possess a canon of its own, and cannot possess one, for the simple reason that the Mahāyāna does not represent one unified sect. There is, indeed, an account of a council which is supposed to have assembled under King Kaniṣka, but it is doubtful whether any canon was established at all at this council, and if so, in which language and by which sect.³ It is true that a Chinese text translated by Hsüan-Tsang⁴ makes mention of a "Bodhisattvapiṭaka" consisting of a long list of Mahāyāna texts, a Vinayapiṭaka and an Abhidharmapiṭaka, and the same text enumerates a lengthy list of Mahāyāna-Sūtras. However, as the text goes on to say that "there are hundreds of myriads of similar Mahāyāna-Sūtras," we are scarcely justified in regarding this as an attempt at a classification of "the Mahāyāna Canon." The so-called "nine Dharmas"¹ are not the canon of any sect, but a series of books which were compiled at different times and belonged to different sects, but which, at the present day, are all held in great honour in Nepal. The titles of these nine books are: Aṣṭasāhasrikā-Prajñā-Pāramitā, Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka, Lalita-Vistara, Laṅkāvatāra or Saddharma-Laṅkāvatāra, Suvarṇa-Prabhāsa, Gaṇḍavyūha, Tathāgataguhyaka or Tathāgataguṇajñāna, Samādhirāja and Daśabhūmīśvara.² All these works are also called "Vaipulya-Sūtras."