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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s1: Mahāyāna Humanism

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s1

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English

Mahāyāna Humanism

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The Buddhist *milieu* of this period, extensive as it is, has to be seen also in the tremendous amount of literature produced in Sanskrit. Students of Hindu politics as well as Sanskrit language and literature as a rule have bestowed but a stepmotherly attention on this mass of Sanskrit Buddhist texts.

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For the purpose of studies in secular life and institutions these texts are exceedingly valuable. They are mostly in the form of biographies, legends or legendary biographies and biographical legends bearing on Sākya who in most of this literature is not a mere man or monk or prophet, but a veritable god, the Buddha. These stories of new or rather the only Buddhism, i.e., the Buddha-cult, strictly so called, are as important in Indian social and moral thought as the *Jātakas*, the stories of Sākyaism, i.e., of old Buddhism (*Hīnayāna*).

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Although some of these texts bearing on the new Buddhism (*Mahāyāna*) possess psychological and purely "theological" interest, most of them are ethical addressed to the great problem of the remaking of man.

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Some of the more important of the Sanskrit Buddhist texts and their authors are being enumerated below :³

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³ G. K. Nariman : *Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism* (Bombay 1935) pp. 18, 28-36, 41-75, 92-97, 100.

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1. The *Mahāvastu* (the Book of Great Events), the life of Buddha in "mixed Sanskrit" (c B.C. 150—c A.C. 300).
2. *Avadānaśataka* (c 150 B.C.).
3. *Karmaśataka* (c 150 B.C.).
4. Aśvaghoṣa (c 100 A.C.) a contemporary of Kāṇiṣka, and a founder of *Mahāyāna* Buddhism: i. *Buddhacharita*, a poem ii. *Saundarānanda*, a poem iii. *Sutrālamkāra*, legends in prose and verse based on the *Jātakas* and the *Avadānas*.

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5. Nāgārjuna (c 150 A.C.), another founder of *Mahāyāna* :

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i. *Mādhyamikasūtra*
ii. *Mādhyamikakārikā*
iii. *Dharmasamgraha.*

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6. The *Divyāvadāna* (c 200 A.C.) which contains *Aśokāvadāna* in chs. XXVI—XXIX.

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7. The *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka* (Lotus of the Good Law), in prose and *gāthā* (verse) in "mixed Sanskrit" (c 200 A.C.).

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8. The *Karaṇḍavyūha* (c 200 A.C.) of the Bodhisattva, available in two recensions, prose and verse.

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9. The *Sukhāvatīvyūha* (The Land of Bliss) c. 200 A.C.

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10. Āryadeva (c 250 A.C.), described as a great master of Mahāyāna by Itsing and Yuan Chwang.

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i. *Śataka chatuśataka*
ii. *Śatakaśāstra.*

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11. Vasuvandhu Asanga (c 350 A.C.).

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i. *Abhidharmakoṣa* in sūtras and *kārikās*.
ii. *Gāthāsamgraha*
iii. *Paramārtha Saptati*

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12. Āryasūra (c 350 A.C.): *Jātakamālā* (*Bodhisattva Avadāna-mālā*).

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13. The *Lalitavistara* (Life of Buddha) (c 400 A.C.).

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14. The *Lamkāvatāra* (c 550 A.C.).

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15. Śāntideva (c 650 A.C.).

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i. *Śikṣāsamuchchaya*
ii. *Sūtrasamuchchaya*
iii. *Bodhicharyāvatāra.*

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As usual, most of the dates are questionable. The relative chronology also is not to be depended upon.

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It is this Buddhist Sanskrit literature that furnishes the spiritual inspiration for the peoples of Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet. It is to these texts that the "Greater India" movement of the epoch of the first six or seven centuries of the Christian era owed its *raison d'être*.

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In the history of Hindu positivism no documents are more valuable than these Sanskrit Buddhist texts. The *Mahāyāna* mentality is the most profoundly humanist mentality, the *Weltanschauung* of service to mankind and martyrdom in the interest of the oppressed and the suppressed, the lowliest and the miserablest.

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On the one hand, we have in these documents the most glorious Bibles of selfless social service. On the other hand, they contain the most optimistic messages of unending hope, of eternal possibilities of perfection (*pāramitā*) and of the diverse pragmatic ways to salvation for the meanest creature on earth. It is in the atmosphere of these humane and humanitarian stories, legends, ideals and fancies that the energism of men and women for whom the *Artha*, *Nīti* and other technically sociopolitical *Śāstras* were composed was nurtured.

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In Śāntideva's *Śikṣāsamuchchaya* we have a passage describing the ten things by which a Bodhisattva acquires power. The passage is quoted by the author from a work entitled *Tathāgataguhya-sūtra*.⁴ "How, O Great King," it is asked, "a Bodhisattva gives up his body and life, but he does not give up the Good Religion? He bows before all beings and does not allow his pride to rise. He has patience with the feeble beings and does not put any difficulties in their way. He gives up the best excellent food to the beings who are suffering from hunger. He gives security to those beings who fear. He is full of zeal for the complete healing of the sick. He satisfies the poor with riches. He repairs the shrines of the Tathāgata by lumps of plaster. He brings glad tidings to the beings. He shares his possessions with the poor and the unfortunate. He bears the burden of those who are weary and exhausted.''

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⁴ M. Winternitz: "Notes on the *Guhya samaja Tantra* and the Age of the Tantras" in the *I.H.Q.*, March 1933, Haraprasad Memorial.

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