Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c5.s3.t3: The Geographical Data about the Origin of Mahāyāna

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c5.s3.t3

Language: English

c5.s3.t3.1 — 4 parts

The Geographical Data about the Origin of Mahāyāna

c5.s3.t3.1.1

Without attaching much importance to the chronology of kings and such other materials presented to us by Tāranātha, we may with sufficient caution utilise some of his statements with regard to the developments in the history of the religion, the geographical distribution of the schools, and the succession of teachers in the various centres. He tells us that according to one tradition, 500 bodhisattvas² took part in the Jalandhara Council of Kaniṣka, that about this time the Mahāyāna texts appeared and were usually preached by monks, who had attained the *Anutpattikadharmakṣānti* ("Geduld in der Lehre des Nichtgeborenerdens"),³ a dogma characteristic of the Mahāyānists. It may be a development of the Hīnayānic Anutpādajñāna (further non-origin of āsravas and hence re-birth) and Kṣayajñāna,⁴ but it bore a completely different sense in the Mahāyāna scriptures. The reference to the existence of a class of monks called Bodhisattvas at the time of Kaniṣka’s Council is also significant, for we read in the *Divyāvadāna* of the existence of a class of monks called *Bodhisattvajātika* along with a hint that they were not looked upon with favour by the Hīnayānists.⁵ Tāranātha expresses his difficulty in accounting for the existence of monks called Bodhisattvas in the Kaniṣkan Council.

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He tells us further that about the time of Kaniṣka, the brahmin Kulika of Saurāṣṭra invited the Sthavira and Arahanta Nanda, a native of Aṅga, who had comprehended the Mahāyāna teaching in order to hear from him the new teaching.¹ The only point that deserves notice is the use of the appellations, Arahanta and Sthavira, indicating that Nanda was a Hīnayānist monk who had comprehended the Mahāyāna teaching. The remark of Tāranātha that monks who had attained Anutpattikadharmakṣānti preached also Mahāyāna shows that there was a class of Hīnayāna monks who had been propagating the Mahāyāna teaching.² Then the association of Odivisa with the beginning of Mahāyāna teaching, and of the monk Nanda with Aṅga suggest that we should look for the origin of Mahāyāna somewhere in the east. A passage occurring in all the Prajñāpāramitās partially lends support to the statement of Tāranātha. The passage says that Mahāyāna teaching will originate in the south (Dakṣiṇāpatha), pass to the eastern countries (Vartanyām),³ and prosper in the north. Evidently, this statement of the Prajñāpāramitās was written while the work was compiled in the north after the Mahāyāna teaching had been effectively propagated there. We may substantiate this statement by pointing to the Tibetan tradition about the existence of a Prajñāpāramitā in the Prākṛt dialect belonging to the Śaila schools, the centre of which was in the south (Guntur District).

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Very probably, this Prajñāpāramitā contained the germs of Mahāyāna teaching. Then the shifting of the centre of Mahāyāna to the east is hinted at by Tāranātha, as referred to above. In this connection it may also be pointed out that Nalanda was one of the earliest centres and storehouses of Mahāyāna teaching, becoming, later on, the seat of Nāgārjuna. So, it seems quite probable that Mahāyānism originated in the south some time before Kaniṣka and became a recognised form of Buddhism by the time of Kaniṣka, i.e., about the beginning of the Christian era when it established its chief centre in the east, gradually pushing its way towards the north to blossom forth in its full glory under the care of the great Nāgārjuna. In the south too, it continued to thrive, for in the *Gaṇḍavyūha* we read that Mañjuśrī started from Jetavana to travel in Dakṣiṇāpatha¹ and came to Māladhvavyūha caitya in the great city of Dhanyākara,² where many devotees lived. Here he delivered a discourse and aroused aspiration for bodhi in the mind of Sudhanu, son of a rich banker of the place and directed him to go to Sugrivaparvata in the country of Rāmavartta (also in Dakṣiṇāpatha) in order to learn the Samantabhadra-bodhisattva-caryā. Sudhanu travelled over many places³ of the Dakṣiṇāpatha in search of knowledge, arriving at last at Dvāravati. After learning all that he could in southern India, he went to Kapilavastu and travelled over some countries⁴ of the north.

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In the *Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa*⁵ also Dhānyakaṭaka, Śrīparvata, and a few other places of the Dakṣiṇāpatha are mentioned, showing the prevalence of Buddhism there. Nāgārjuna, whose birthplace was in Vidarbha (Berar),⁶ also dwelt in the south, passing his last days at Śrīparvata (mod. Śrīśailam).⁷ Āryadeva likewise came from Southern India, as did also Nāga,⁸ the other disciple of Nāgārjuna. So, it appears that the south may claim credit for being not only the birthplace of Mahāyāna itself, but also of the noted figures, who were instrumental in making Mahāyāna what it was in the 2nd and 3rd century A. C. The dates of Āryadeva and Nāga are placed in the early part of the 3rd century (200-225) and Nāgārjuna precedes them by a few decades.¹ The glory of Nāgārjuna and his school of philosophy threw into the shade the great figure of Maitreya, the traditional founder of the Yogācāra school, until the time of Asaṅga, who brought his works into prominence and placed this school of philosophy on a high pedestal.

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² Aśvaghoṣa is called a bodhisattva in the Chinese *Samyukta-ratna-piṭaka-sūtra* (No. 1329, Vol. VI). See Takakusu, *I-tsing*, p. lix. Cf. De Groot, *Le Code du Mahayana en Chine*, p. 8: Two or three days after the first ordination according to the Prātimokṣa rules, the monks pass through a special ordination according to the Brahmajāla sūtra and become bodhisattva. See *infra*, Ch. V.

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³ *Tāra.*, p. 61. See M. Vr., p. 363 n.; *Laṅkā.*, p. 81; *Aṣṭa.*, p. 331: anutpādajñānakṣāntiko bodhisattva. See *infra*, Ch. III.

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⁴ For Anutpādajñāna and Kṣayajñāna, see *Kośa*, VI, 17, 71. The Kṣayajñāna with the Anutpādajñāna makes the Bodhi; see also *Kośa*, vi, 50; vii, 1, 46, 7.

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⁵ *Divyā.*, p. 261.

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¹ Tāra., p. 62.

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² Can it be that Aśvaghoṣa, author of the Buddhacarita, belonged to this class of Hīnayāna monks?

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³ Aṣṭa., p. 225. For Vartanyām, see Trikāṇḍaśeṣa, 2. 1. 12.

c5.s3.t3.9

¹ *Gaṇḍavyūha* (A. S. B. ms.) leaf 19b.

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² *Ibid.*, 21b: Dakṣiṇāpathe Dhanyākaran nāma mahānagaram. Very likely it is the same as the famous Dhānyakaṭaka (Dharaṇikoṭa).

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³ The names of places in some cases seem to be fictitious; some of the names are:—Sāgaramukha, Sāgaranāma, Laṅkāpatham, Vajrapuranāma Draviḍa-paṭṭala, Vanavāsī, Milasphuraṇam nāma Jamudvipaśīrṣam, Potalaka (the dwelling-place of Avalokiteśvara), and Dvāravati.

Linked texts (10)

Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa — Sanskrit
Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra — Sanskrit
Laṅkāvatārasūtra — Sanskrit
*Buddhacarita — Sanskrit
Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā — Sanskrit
Abhidharmakośa — Vasubandhu, Sanskrit
Brahmajālasūtra — Sanskrit
*Saṃyuktaratnapiṭakasūtra — Sanskrit
Trikāṇḍaśeṣa — Puruṣottamadeva, Sanskrit