The University of Nalanda c7.116

c7.116

Yet another doctrine was propounded in Buddhism by Maitreyanātha. While calling himself a Mahāyānist, he still disagreed from Nāgārjuna. Whereas the latter was a Nihilist out and out, believer in All-Void; the former maintained that objects had no real existence but in our mind; that only our ideas were real, everything else unreal. This doctrine is often called *Ālayavijñāna*, and popularly known as Yogācāra. Scholars were doubtful about the historicity of Maitreyanātha, but it is now proved from the colophon of *Abhisamayālaṃkāra-kārikā*, a commentary on *Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā-sūtra* which is ascribed to Maitreyanātha.¹