A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t4.92

v2.c19.s6.t4.92

The Aṣṭasāhasrikā contains in 32 chapters dialogues between Buddha and his disciples Subhūti, Sāriputra and Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, and frequently Śakra, the prince of the gods, and sometimes a Bodhisattva joins them. The work begins with introductory verses, in which the Prajñā-Pāramitā, the perfection of wisdom, is personified and praised as "the sublime producer and the beloved mother of all heroes, she whose mind is fixed firmly on the highest goal", "as the kind grandmother of all beings" etc.¹ In the very first chapter we have an example of the dialectics which remind us of the Greek sophists, and which are characteristic of the Prajñā-Pāramitās. We read (pp. 4-6):