A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t4.44

v2.c19.s6.t4.44

The whole of a long Mahāyāna-Sūtra is also devoted to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, who is glorified in Chapter XXIV of the Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka. The complete title of this Mahāyāna-Sūtra is Avalokiteśvara-Guṇakāraṇḍa-Vyūha, "the detailed description of the basket of the qualities of Avalokiteśvara," but it is usually briefly called Kāraṇḍa-Vyūha. There are two versions of this work, an earlier one in prose and a later one in Ślokas.¹ The latter is based on a theistic view of the world. It relates how, at the beginning of all things, Ādibuddha, the "first Buddha," also called Svayambhū, "the self-existent," and Ādinātha, "the First Lord," appeared and created the world through meditation. Out of his spirit arose Avalokiteśvara, who also takes part in the work of creation, creating the gods out of his own body. Not only does this introduction remind us forcibly of the Purāṇas, but the language and style of the metrical Kāraṇḍa-Vyūha are entirely those of the later Purāṇas. Now we know that in the fourth century A.D. there were already Buddhists who believed in Ādibuddha as God and Creator.² The cult of Avalokiteśvara, too, was already prevalent at that time, for the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien, who came to India in the year 399 A.D., prayed to this Bodhisattva for deliverance, when he was overtaken by a storm on the voyage from Ceylon to China. The earliest pictures of Avalokiteśvara date from the 5th century.³ For this reason it is possible that the metrical Kāraṇḍa-Vyūha was in existence even prior to the 4th century A.D., though this is not probable, since the Tibetan translation in the Kanjur, which originated in 616 A.D.,⁴ is based upon the prose version which makes no mention of Ādibuddha. The prose version that contains a large section in the style of the Tantras, is probably not very old either.¹