The University of Nalanda c10.171

c10.171

Though Buddhism had spread well in the time of Buddha himself, still continuous efforts were made after his death to make it still more acceptable to the people, because on its philosophical as well as religious side, Buddhism was found wanting. To improve it philosophically, Aśvaghoṣa gave a new interpretation of *Nirvāṇa*¹, Nāgārjuna introduced his theory of *Śūnya*²—and incidentally Mahāyāna—while Vijñānavādins under Maitreyanāth supplemented the element of *Vijñāna*, a positive element, in the original conception of the *Śūnya*, which was pure vacuity. The masses still remained dissatisfied. For even though they led a strictly moral life, and renounced all the pleasures of life, still nothing—not even these new philosophical ideas of Śūnyavādins and Vijñānavādins—could assure the masses that they would enable them to attain cessation from the birth circle and escape from misery.