A History of Indian Literature v2.c27.99

v2.c27.99

P. 353 note 3, add: The Sanskrit text and Tibetan translation of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra-Prajñāpāramitā-Upadeśa-Śāstra have been edited by Th. *Stcherbatsky* and E. *Obermiller* in Bibl. Buddh. XXIII, 1929. It is, according to *Stcherbatsky*, "the fundamental work for the study of the Buddhist doctrine of the Path towards moral perfection and the attainment of the condition of a Buddhist Mahāyānistic Saint, and of a Mahāyānistic Buddha in the blessed Nirvāṇa.'' *Stcherbatsky* explains *abhisamaya* as a synonym of *mārga*, and says: "*Alaṃkāra* is the name for a literary form popular with the Buddhists. It means that the work in question contains no full and detailed exposition of the doctrine, it is not a mahāśāstra, like the Abhidharmakośa, but it is only a short summary of the salient points of the system contained in the prajñāpāramitā sūtras.'' The Alaṃkāras are always composed in memorial verses (kārikās) which, like the Brahmanical Sūtras, again require a commentary. See also *Tucci*, On some Aspects of the Doctrines of Maitreya(nātha) and Asaṅga, Calcutta 1930, p. 10ff., and in JASB N.S. XXVI, 1930, p. 127.