A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t4.264

v2.c19.s6.t4.264

At all events, the Abhisamyālaṃkāra-Kārikās, also known as the Prajñā-Pāramitopadeśa-Śāstra, are certainly the work of Maitreyanātha. The text is usually to be found at the beginning of the manuscripts of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-Prajñā-Pāramitā, which was translated into Chinese between 261 and 316 A.D.³ In all probability, the text of the Mahāyāna-Sūtrālaṃkāra, which is composed of memorial verses (Kārikās), which was discovered by S. Lévi and attributed to Asaṅga by the same scholar, is also the work of Maitreyanātha.¹ Without being a great poet, the author of these memorial verses certainly has the art of writing Buddhist Sanskrit skilfully, and also of utilising elaborate metres side by side with Ślokas and Āryā stanzas. However, he is decidedly more of a philosopher than a poet. Even when, in the last two chapters he glorifies the perfections of the Buddhas, and concludes with a hymn (verses 43-61), there is more erudition than enthusiastic worship in the enumeration of all the perfections of the Buddhas. Only in Chapter IX, in which Maitreyanātha expends all his mental energy in elucidating the conception of Bodhi and Buddhahood, is the dry-as-dust tone occasionally enlivened and elevated by more imaginative and picturesque language. Thus, for instance, Bodhi, by which the Buddhas enlighten the world, is compared with the sun, in a series of metaphors (IX, 20 ff.).