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The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s5: Mahāyāna Canonical Literature

The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s5

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Mahāyāna Canonical Literature

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The origin of the Mahāyāna Scriptures is even more obscure than that of the original collections. In form they are a continuation of the same type of literature—discourses purporting to have been delivered at various places by Buddha usually during his earthly career. But they are expressly termed Mahāyāna sūtras, and they often attack the doctrine of the older collections. About their real origin naturally nothing is expressed in the works themselves. Everything that can be said about their date, authorship, and provenance is mere supposition.

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Some of their characteristic doctrines can already be traced in the Avadānas of the Sarvāstivādins and Mahāsanghikas. Such doctrines must have been taught in the monasteries, and we find the teaching about bodhisattvas, the Perfections, and the two kinds of truth infecting even Ceylon Buddhism. The doctrine that bodhisattvas utter true teaching owing to their being inspired by the direct power of Buddha (*buddhānubhāvena*) is frequent in the Mahāyāna sūtras, and it is possible that their composers may have been influenced by some such theory, which would make it unnecessary to class all the sūtras as conscious fabrications.

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Mahāyāna doctrine was expounded by Nāgārjuna in the second century A.D., and we can certainly hold that some of the sūtras were in existence a century, perhaps two centuries, earlier.¹ But we cannot point to any one of them and feel sure that it belongs to the first century B.C. The question of division into schools is also obscure. The two earlier Mahāyāna schools, that of Nāgārjuna and that of Vasubandhu, both called themselves Mahāyāna, and both taught the doctrine of the void and the career of the bodhisattva. We do not know how far their peculiar doctrines brought them into distinct opposition as sects. Many of the Mahāyāna sūtras are not sectarian at all. Some of them emphasize special doctrines of buddhology, or present imaginative mythology, which may have been accepted by any Mahāyāna sect. The most we can say about the sūtras is that they fall into groups. So far as they have sectarian features their relationship is rather that they arose in certain literary centres. The most distinctive in doctrine and probably the oldest is the Prajñāpāramitā group. Another group is that which emphasizes the worship of Amitābha. The Laṅkāvatāra is distinct from both, not only in its Yogāchāra doctrine, but also in its distinct literary character, which suggests South India.

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¹ Mr. Kimura thinks that Buddha himself taught Mahāyāna. “It was a fact that Buddha preached his ‘Introspectional doctrines’ in an esoteric, mystical garb for the advanced disciples.” *The terms Hinayāna and Mahāyāna*, p. 56.

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The Mahāyāna literature as a whole now exists in Chinese and Tibetan translations. Not much is to be learned as to its origin from the present arrangement. In both countries Buddhist works continued to be introduced for centuries and translated. This was chiefly between the seventh and fourteenth centuries, and the works are arranged in systematic groups, which doubtless to some extent preserve the Indian arrangement.

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The three Piṭakas remained in name in the Mahāyāna schools. They retained the old Vinaya, which was that of one or other of the Sarvāstivāda schools from which they developed.¹ The Chinese who visited India took everything they could find, and they translated the Vinaya of several schools. The Tibetan Vinaya has essentially the same rules as the Pāli, but the commentarial part, though often containing the same legends, is much more extensive. A good idea of its contents can be obtained from Rockhill’s *Life of the Buddha*, which consists chiefly of legends drawn from it.

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¹ Dr. N. Dutt makes the astounding statement that “the Mahāyānists lacked a well-codified Vinaya corresponding to that of the Hīnayānists” (*Aspects*, p. 290), as if the schools that adopted Mahāyāna had not always been in possession of a well-codified Vinaya. The ancient Vinaya belonged as much to them as to the Hīnayānists. They added a compendium of rules for bodhisattvas, but even the bodhisattva, if he was a monk, still had the Vinaya rules to keep, and even though he began as a layman, he was always a monk in the higher stages of his career.

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The Abhidharma was also preserved by the Mahāyānists, i.e. the seven Abhidharma books of the Sarvāstivādins. They were translated into Chinese with the two commentaries, and now exist only in that form. The teaching was systematized in Vasubandhu’s *Abhidharmakośa* and its commentaries, and this was translated both into Chinese and Tibetan, but as this work is not a part of the Scriptures the Tibetan Canon contains no proper Abhidharma. But the Mahāyānists, wanting to have an Abhidharma of their own, made a quite artificial division by taking a group of their sūtras and commentaries and calling it Abhidharma. In the Tibetan they are the *Prajñāpāramitā* sūtras, and in the Chinese the *Vajracchedikā* with commentaries and a number of works by Maitreya, Vasubandhu, and others. Burnouf, although he knew the *Abhidharmakośa*, accepted the *Prajñāpāramitā* as amply representing the Abhidharma, and he added three or four similar sūtras. That is the reason why Abhidharma used to be translated “Metaphysics”.

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The Tibetan Scriptures, known as the *Kanjur* (*bkah-hgyur*), “translation of precepts,” are in seven divisions. The first is the Vinaya as described above (p. 267). The other six consist of sūtras and tantras, works giving instructions for the performance of spells and expounding tantric doctrine. The fifth division has the special name of sūtra, but all are in sūtra-form, except for a number of avadānas and poems. It is impossible to describe the whole in detail, and it will be sufficient to point out the most important sūtras, especially those which have been discussed above.¹ After the Vinaya in seven divisions follow:—

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¹ Csoma gave an analysis in *As. Res.*, vol. 20, 1836–9. In 1845 the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg published the index of another recension with a preface by I. J. Schmidt. It contains 1,083 items of very varying length in 100 volumes.

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(2) *Prajñāpāramitā*.—There are five large recensions in 100,000, 25,000, 18,000, 10,000, and 8,000 verses respectively. They are in prose, and their length is reckoned according to the corresponding number of verses of thirty-two syllables. The shorter ones are said to be abridgments, but they are really independent treatments of the same subject matter. That in 8,000 verses, *Aṣṭasāhasrika*, has been discussed above (p. 215). Then follow eighteen small works down to the *Ekākṣarī*, which is the Perfection of wisdom in the one letter A. The best known of these is the *Vajracchedikā* (p. 214).

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(3) *Buddhāvataṃsaka* (Adornment of Buddha). This is a collection of sūtras in which Buddha appears on the top of Mount Meru and in various heavens. It is a glorification of Buddha and the career of the bodhisattvas. Some idea of it can be gained from the references to the *Daśabhūmika* above (p. 204) and from the words of Professor Suzuki (p. 252). It contains distinct Yogāchāra doctrine.

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(4) *Ratnakūṭa* (Jewel-peak). This consists of forty-four sūtras, and several have been published. The *Rāṣṭrapāla-paripṛcchā*, describes the qualities of a bodhisattva, and contains a striking prophecy of the decay of Buddhism both in doctrine and morals.¹ The *Prajñāpāramitā* in 700 verses appears in this section.

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¹ Ed. by L. Finot, who has translated the passage.

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(5) *Sūtra*. This is the largest section, and includes all the sūtras, about 300, not elsewhere classified. The first is the *Bhadrakalpika-sūtra*, giving a list of all the Buddhas who have appeared and will appear in this “good cycle” (*bhadrakalpa*). Usually there are five including Maitreya, but according to this doctrine there are to be 1,000.² Then follows the well-known *Lalita-vistara* (p. 282), and among them are also the *Laṅkāvatāra* (p. 230), the *Lotus* (p. 179), the *Sukhāvatī-vyūha* (p. 193), the *Kāraṇḍa-vyūha* (p. 190), and the *Mahāmegha-sūtra*, a spell for obtaining rain. The list closes with a number of Sarvāstivāda works, several collections of avadānas, and single avadānas contained in the *Avadāna-śataka*. Last come thirteen sūtras translated, Feer says, from the Pāli, but the titles are Sanskrit, and the source is more like Sarvāstivāda. Two are not identifiable in the Pāli. It is significant that four of them are spells: the *Mahāsamaya-sūtra* (*Dīgha*, ii, 253), the *Aṭānāṭiya-sūtra* (*Dīgha*, iii, 194), and the two for removing eclipses, *Sūrya-* and *Candra-sūtra* (*Saṃy.*, i, 50). They all occur in the collection of spells used in Ceylon known as the *Paritta* or *Pirit-pota*.

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² It was translated from the Mongolian by I. J. Schmidt in 1834. F. Weller has analysed the names in *Tausend Buddhanamen des Bhadrakalpa*. Leipzig, 1928. The doctrine of the thousand Buddhas is given in Bu-ston's *History of Buddhism*, p. 90 (transl. Obermiller).

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(6) *Nirvāṇa*. This consists of two sūtras on the death of Buddha. The basis is the same as the *Mahāparinibbāna-sutta* of the Pāli. The sūtra lent itself to expansion, as it

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was easy to insert discourses which were held to have been given at the time. Similar expansions took place in the Pāli, but the additions were kept separate (p. 269).

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(7) *Tantra*. This in the St. Petersburg edition is divided into two, 464 items of tantra proper and 262 *dhāraṇīs*. *Dhāraṇīs*, however, occur in both portions.

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Many of these works are ritual magic with instructions for making the magic circles and performing the spells for curing diseases, rain-making, overcoming an enemy, taming animals, increasing understanding, winning long life, etc. The tantras introduce female divinities and demons, beings who supply energy to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas by union with them. The *Kālacakra*, says Csoma, is the first original work of a tantric system that originated in the north, and was introduced into India in the tenth century. It refers to the Muhammadans and mentions Mecca. The *Suvarṇaprabhāsa* is also placed in this section. This is rather an indication of its late date than of any special connection with tantra, but spells are prominent in it. It was a popular work, as is shown by the different recensions. The Tibetan version, like some of the other works, was translated from the Chinese. It is followed by five spells known as the *Pañcarakshā*, “the five protections” (for deliverance from diseases, pain, etc.). Manuscripts of these are very common and indicate their great popularity.

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The Chinese have preserved their Canon in the form of the Tripiṭaka. The translations have been analysed by Bunyiu Nanjio in his *Catalogue of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist Tripiṭaka*.¹ The division of the sūtras is similar to that of the Tibetan, but there is no tantra class. It is more complete in preserving the Hinayāna sūtras, which are kept quite distinct, as are also the Abhidharma and Vinayas of the older schools. Many works not strictly canonical, such as commentaries, have been included.

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¹ To this *Le Canon bouddhique en Chine* of Dr. P. C. Bagchi, Paris, 1926, makes valuable additions.

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Another Tibetan collection of non-canonical works is the *Tanjur* (*bstan-hgyur*), “translation of commentaries.” It consists of one volume of hymns (stotras), 87 volumes of commentaries on the tantras, and 136 on the sūtras. The last division also includes grammatical and medical works and original works by Tibetan authors.

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