SYNOPSIS OF TARANATHA’S HISTORY
Diacritical marks are not used; a standard transcription is followed.
Events of the time of Brahmana Rahula
King Chandrapala was the ruler of Aparantaka. He gave offerings to the Chaityas and the Sangha. A friend of the king, Indradhruva wrote the Aindra-vyakarana. During the reign of Chandrapala, Acharya Brahmana Rahulabhadra came to Nalanda. He took ordination from Venerable Krishna and stu¬died the Sravakapitaka. Some state that he was ordained by Rahula- prabha and that Krishna was his teacher. He learnt the Sutras and the Tantras of Mahayana and preached the Madhyamika doctrines. There were at that time eight Madhyamika teachers, viz., Bhadantas Rahula- garbha, Ghanasa and others. The Tantras were divided into three sections, Kriya (rites and rituals), Charya (practices) and Yoga (medi¬tation). The Tantric texts were Guhyasamaja, Buddhasamayayoga and Mayajala.
Bhadanta Srilabha of Kashmir was a Hinayaist and propagated the Sautrantika doctrines. At this time appeared in Saketa Bhikshu Maha- virya and in Varanasi Vaibhashika Mahabhadanta Buddhadeva. There were four other Bhandanta Dharmatrata, Ghoshaka, Vasumitra and Bu- dhadeva. This Dharmatrata should not be confused with the author of Udanavarga, Dharmatrata; similarly this Vasumitra with two other Vasumitras, one being thr author of the Sastra-prakarana and the other of the Samayabhedoparachanachakra. [Translated into English by J. Masuda in Asia Major I] In the eastern countries Odivisa and Bengal appeared Mantrayana along with many Vidyadharas. One of them was Sri Saraha or Mahabrahmana Rahula Brahmachari. At that time were composed the Mahayana Sutras except the Satasahasrika Prajnaparamita.
Events of the time of Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna was a disciple of Rahulabhadra. He preached extensive¬ly the Madhyamika school of thought. He rendered a great service to the Sravakas by turning out many Sravaka bhikshus for transgressing the disciplinary rules. At that time appeared Bhadantas Nanda, Parama- sena, Samyaksatya, who preached Alaya-vijnana, i.e, the Yogachara school of thought. Asanga and his brother Vasubandu were counted as later Yogacharins.
About this time King Munja of Odivisa with a large following obtain¬ed Kayasiddhi. In the west, Malava, king Bhojadeva also obtained Kaya¬siddhi, and the Aryas acquired the Dharanis. Temples were erected in Patavesa (Pukam), Odivisa, Bengal, Radha, Magadha and Nalanda.
Nagarjuna in his later life went to the south. He composed the Panchavidya-samgraha to establish that matter had no existence as held by the Sarvastivadins. In the south in the country of Dravida there were two Brahmanas
Madhu and Supramadhu, who possessed incalculable wealth. They vied with Nagarjuna with the three Vedas and the eighteen sciences. The Brahmins questioned why Nagarjuna, who was so learned in the Vedas should become a Sakya Sramana. But when they heard the praise of Buddha, they became faithful to Mahayana Buddhism. Both of them maintained 2 jo monks. The first had the Satasahasrika copied and gave the copies to the monks while the second supplied them with all the requisites. According to another tradition, Nagarjuna resided in Sriparvata and obtained the first Bodhisattva stage. A friend of Nagarjuna was Vararuchi, who was the purohita of King Udayana. A young wife of the king knew Sanskrit grammar and said to him while swimming in water “modakam ma sincha” (do not splash me with water). The king gave her a cake boiled in sesame oil as he understood it in the language of the south. Realising his ignorance of Sanskrit grammar, he began to learn Sanskrit from Vararuchi. Vararuchi was a devoted follower of Buddha. He became acquain¬ted with Nagarjuna when he was the Pandita of Nalanda. He hailed from the country of Radha, east of Magadha. He recited the Avalokitesvara mantra for 1 2 years.
Kalidasa lived about this time. He came to the south to King Udayana, who wanted to learn Sanskrit from him. He invited Nagar- ajasena, who had mastered Panini. The king wanted to study Indra- karana from Sanmukhakumara, who uttered “Siddho varna-samamnaya” (Kalapa 1) and at once he comprehended the meaning of all words.
Kalidasa’s biography is as follows
Kalidasa was a cow-boy. He cut the branch of a tree at the end of which he was sitting. Vararuchi, in order to deceive the daughter of of King Udayana the princess Vasanti, who rejected him, brought the cow¬boy, dressed him as a Brahmin Pandit and asked him to utter “Om Svas- ti”. Instead of uttering this, he uttered “Usatara”. Vararuchi ex¬plained it as a benediction thus:
Umaya sahita Rudrah, Sankarsahito Vishnu
tamkara Sulapanis cha rakshantu Sivah sarvada
Vasanti was pleased and was married to him. She then found out that Kalidasa was a cow-boy. Kalidasa prayed to the goddess Kali, and suddenly he became very intelligent and expert in dialectics, grammar and poetry and so he was named Kalidasa. Vasanti found that her hus¬band had become very learned. Kalidasa wrote Meghaduta, Raghuvamsa, Kumarasambhava, and many other Kavyas. At this time I ised in the country of Li, Arhat Sanghabhadra in Tukha- ra, the Vaibhashika teacher Vamana in Kashmir and the Sautrantika teacher Kumaralabha in the west. At this time the Turushka faith appeared on the other side of Turfan. The Acharya was know n as Mam-thar and the Anarya doctrine was known as “Ardho” (Vartu/Vardu).
Appearance of the first adversary teacher
The Chandra dynasty was ruling in the Aparanta kingdom. The kings of this dynasty worshipped the Three Ratnas. Not long after Nemachandra’s reign, Pushyamitra, the purohita of the king revolted. When he obtained the sovereignty, an old relation of the usurper came to Nalanda when the gong of the monastery was sounding phattaya and on his enquiry on the meaning of the sound, he was told that it meant splitting of the skull of the heretical teacher. On hearing this from his relative, Pushyamitra asked his heretical ministers to burn the monasteries of Madhvadesha up to Jalandhara. He killed the bhikshus as well, many of whom fled to other countries. The usurper died after five years. Buddha also prophesied that his dharma would last joo years and then it would decline for the next joo years. The Teaching later developed at the instance of Arya Nagarjuna, who worked in the southern countries for the salvation of beings. Lie made his centre at Sriparvata (i.e., Amaravati - Nagarjunikonda).
Events of the time of Acharya Aryadeva and other Acharyas
At that time lived King Salachandra’s son Chandragupta, who was a powerful king and performed both kusala and akusala deeds. He did not take refuge in the Three Ratnas. At that time appeared Aryadeva, a disciple of Nagarjuna, the then head of the monastery of Nalanda. Aryadeva was well-known to the Tibetans. He was born in a miracu¬lous way in the pleasure-garden of the king of Simhaladvipa. Chandra- kirti, the commentator of Nagarjuna’s Madhyamika-karika states that Arya¬deva hailed from Simhaladvipa. He was ordained by Hemadeva. After studying the Tripitaka, he came to Jambudvipa to see the Buddhist temples and Chaityas. Aryadeva met Nagarjuna at Sriparvata but this Nagarjuna propagated the Tantric doctrines [There were two Nagar- junas: the earlier one was the propounder of the Madhyamika school of philosophy and the later was an alchemist, a Tantric master.]
The events of the time of Archarya Matricheta and others
Chandragupta’s son Bindusara was ruling at the time. He was born in Gauda. Brahmana Chanakya conjured up the angry Yamantaka, by which he could kill kings and ministers. At that time Matricheta was residing in a Vihara of Pataliputra. Bindusara’s nephew King Sri- chandra erected a temple of Avalokitesvara and maintained 2,000 bhi- kshus, who were all Mahayanists. When Rahulabhadra was in charge of the Nalanda monastery he erected there 14 Gandhakutis and 14 cen¬tres of learning the Dharma. Acharya Matricheta is identical with Du- rdharsakala. He became a great logician and a disputant. He composed ed] who was both in concord and discord with king Dharmachandra. The Persian king sent to the ruler of Madhyadesa horses and jewels and the latter reciprocated the same by presenting elephants and silk-cloths. The Turushka army conquered Magadha and destroyed all viharas inclu¬ding Nalanda. Dharmachandra sent monks to China and received gold and other valuables in return.
Later Buddhapaksha reconstructed Nalanda monastery and other temples. Matricheta became the spiritual preceptor of the king.
Appearance of enemies for third time and reinstatement of Buddhism
In the south, in the country of Krishnaraja lived the bhikshus Mali- kabuddhi and Muditabhadra, who preached the Prajnaparamita doctrine of Sunyata or Anutpattikadharmakshanti (i.e., non-origination and non¬decay of worldly objects and beings). The former set up an image of Prajnaparamitadevi and worshipped it for 20 years and the latter founded 21 viharas and 1000 Chaityas. The former was killed by a Turushka bandit. Muditabhadra restored the Chaityas and surrounded them by small ones and converted Brahamana householders to Buddhism. He was taken by Bodhisattva Samantabhadra to the country of Li. He worked there many years upto the end his life. A heretical teacher by incantations and magical formulas burnt Nalanda and many other viharas and temples. All the manuscripts were burnt. At this time a stream of water from Ratnodadhi extinguished the fire, and the manuscripts, being flooded by water, did not burn. The books saved were Mahayanic texts. Faith¬ful householders restored the viharas and temples and the manuscripts saved were of Avatamasaka-sutras, Mahasamaya, Tathagatagarbha, Lan¬ka vatara and Ratnakuta.
Events of the time of Karmachandra
At the time of Buddhapaksha, a vihara called Ratnagiri was built on the top of a mountain near the sea in Odivisa. In that vihara both Hinayana and Mahayana texts were deposited. The vihara was built by a minister of the king. The texts were presented by Brahmana Sanku and the other requisites by Brahmana Brihaspati while maintenance of the vihara and the monks was provided by the queen. In order to subdue the Nagas, Brahmana Brihaspati built many Buddhist temples in Katak Odivisa and provided food for the monks.
At the time of King Buddhapaksha and after him King Dharma¬chandra, lived Acharyas Nandipriya, Asvaghosa, younger Rahulamitra, pupil of Rahulabhadra and his pupil Nagamitra. All of them propagated Mahayana teachings. Nandipriya was the author of the eulogy of iyo slo- kas of Buddha, available only in Tibet. He wrote also a commentary on the same. He lived, as it appears from the commentary, after Dignaga.
Events of the time of Arya Asanga and his brother
When Karmachandra was in power, Gambhirapaksha, the son of Buddhapaksha ruled over Panchala for 40 years.
In Kashmir lived a Turushka’s son called Mahasammata, who had visualized the face of Krodhamrita. He united Kashmir, Tukhara and Ghazni. He worshipped the Triratna and erected a Chaitya, containing the Buddha’s tooth-relic, at Ghazni. He invited several monks and, nuns, male and female lay-devotees for worshipping the Chaitya. At that time Bhikshu Jivakara and many others tried to comphend the inner meaning of the Prajna-paramita.
After the death of king Gambhirapaksha, his son Vrikshachandra succeeded him, but he was not a powerful ruler and so Jaleraha, king of Odivisa wielded power over all the eastern countries.
Arya Asanga
At this time lived Acharya Asanga, Vasubandhu, Buddhadasa, Sam- ghadasa, Nagamitra and his disciple Sangharakshita. Soon after them ap¬peared many Mahayana followers, practising Anuttara-yogatantra, which spread widely, and many attained Vidyadhara stage. Guhyamati and other preached the Mantrayana, maintaining secrecy. The secret mantras were handed down from teacher to disciples, i.e. from Sri Sa- raha to Tantric Nagarjuna. They wrote commentaries on the Anutta- ra-yoga-sastra. During the reign of King Devapala and his son, kriya and charya tantras became popular. At that time lived Acharyas Paramasva, Lui-pa and Charpavipa in the region around Varanasi.
The biography of Asanga and his brother is as follows :-
At the time of King Buddhapaksha was born Prakasasila, whose son was Asanga, who became very proficient in the art of writing, calcula¬tion, grammar, dialectics, etc. He mastered the Tripitaka and the Prajnapa- ramita sastras. At a later date Asanga composed the Mayajalatantra and Maitreya-sadhana. Bodhisattva Maitreya, being pleased with him, took him to Tushita heaven, where he imparted to him the Yogacharya- bumisastra in five sections. He built a vihara within a forest in Magadha and composed there Abbidbarmasamuchchaya, Mahayana-samgraha, Abhi- samayalankara etc.
King Gambhirapaksha’s son invited several monks to Ushmapura vihara and maintained them. Asanga taught here the Tripitaka of the Sravakas and about 500 Mahayana sutras. Asanga, as a Bodhisattva, cut¬off some flesh from the calf of his leg, to feed the worms, which were sucking the blood of a diseased dog in order that both the worms and the the dog might not die. Maitreya appeared before him at that time, ra¬diating light on all sides. Though Mahayana Buddhism flourished, there were some persecutions. The King asked Asanga a few questions relating to the true meaning of Sunyata. In his later life, he lived in Na- landa. Finally his life ended in Rajagriha.
Vasubandhu, younger brother of Asanga, became a bhikshu and stu¬died the Sravaka including the Abhidharma. He became acquainted with the doctrines of the eighteen schools. He went to Kashmir and became a disciple of Samghabhadra. He obtained vast erudition by studying the Vibhashas. He studied also the difference in the Sutra and Vinaya of the different schools. At the same time he studied the work of the heretical teachers and all kinds of dialectics. He came back to Magadha recited the Sravara-pitaka. After studying the Yogacharyabhumi-sastra, he felt sad that Asanga, inspite of of 12 years of practice of samadhi, could not attain perfection. Asanga felt that Vasubandhu’s conversion to Mahayanism was near, and so he asked a bhikshu to study the Aksha- yamati-nirdcsa-sutra and another bhikshu to learn the Dasabhumika-sutra and advised them to recite the two Sutras before Vasubandhu. Lis¬tening to these texts, Vasubandhu realised the fundamentals of Mahayana. He regretted that he had committed a great sin by reviling Mahayanism and wanted to cut off his tongue. At that time, the two bhikshus dis¬suaded him from doing so, saying that your brother Asanga had the power to give you atonement for the sin and therefore you should go to the the Acharya and ask him for atonement. Asanga asked him to study the Mahayana texts and write commentaries on the same and thereby make amends for the sin and he recited to him the Ushnisha-vijaya-vidya. When Vasubandhu understood all the texts and the Dharanis, he practised samadhi, according to the direction in the texts. Vasubandhu studied the Pitakas of the Sravakas as well as the Ratnakuta-sutras, Avatamsaka- sutras, Astasahasrika and Satasahasrika Prajnaparamita and other Mahayana treatises. He wrote commentaries on the Pachavimsati-sahasrika Pra- jnaparamita, Akshayamatinirdesa, Ratnanusmriti, Panchamudrasutra, Prati- tyasamutpada, two Vibhangas and other Hinayana and Mahayana texts. He composed the eight Prakarana sections. He established several centres of learning in the south. Vasubandhu at last went to Nepal, composed the Abhidharmakosa and sent it to Sanghabhadra for his opinion. . .
Events of the time of Acharya Dignaga and others
After the death of King Gambhirapakasha in the west in Maru land Sri Harsha came into power and ruled over all the western countries. This happened during the life-time of Vasubandhu. In course of time the king de \ eloped faith in Buddhism and made Acharya Gunaprabha his spiritual preceptor. Acharya Gunaprabha came of a Brahmana family, mastered the Vedas and other Brahmanic sastras. He learnt from Vasu¬bandhu the Sravaka-pitaka and gained knowledge of many Mahayana sutras. He became a master of the Vinaya Pitaka. While he was in Mathura he himself expiated for any monk failing to observe the disciplinary rules. At this time, the Chandras were ruling in the eastern countries. They believed both in Jainism and Buddhism. Sthiramati and Dignaga were preaching the dharma for the salvation of the beings in the east. Sthira¬mati was born in Dandakaranya, obtained the blessings of the goddess Tara. He studied both Hinayana and Mahayana Abhidharma and the Ratnakuta sutras, on which he wrote a commentary. He wrote also commentaties on Madhyamak-mula and Abhidharmakoshabhashja. He defeated the heretical teachers in dialectics. Buddhadasa, a disciple of of Asanga with Gunaprabha was preaching the religion in the west while Bhadanta Samghadasa assisted by Buddhadasa propagated the religion in Kashmir, and Buddhapalita in the south. Samghadasa came of a Brah-min family of the south. He became a disciple of Vasubandhu and a fol¬lower of the Sarvastivada school. He established 24 centres of learning for Vinaya and Abhidharma studies in Bodh-Gaya. He was invited by Mahasammata, the Turushka king, to Kashmir. He built there the Ratnaguptavihara and the Kumbhakundavihara, and propagated the tea¬ching of Buddha much more than Asanga and his brother. He wrote a com¬mentary on the Yogacharyabhumi.
At this time appeared Bhavya and Vinitasena. At the advice of Lui- pa, the king of Odivisa, Jalasimha, gave up the rulership. The Tantric Siddharcharya Darika became the king of Odivisa and Tengi his minister. A contemporary of Bhavya was Triratnadasa.
Acharya Triratnadasa learnt the Abhidharma from Vasubandhu and later from Dignaga.
Acharya Dignaga was born in a Brahmin family in the south at Simha- vaktra near Kanchi. Hfe joined the Vatsiputriya school. He mastered the Sravaka-Pitaka as well as the Mahayana texts and Dharanis. He resided at Bhorasaila in Odivisa. In the Pramanasamuchchaya of Dharma- kirti appear the words “Bowing before him, who is logic personified and who wishes welfare for all beings, fragments of his different works are collected here”. Dignaga converted to Buddhism Bhadrapalita, minis¬ter of the king of Odivisa. Acharya Buddhapalita bom in the south at Hamsakrida. He became very learned. He learnt the teachings of Nagarjuna from Sangharakshi- ta. He visualised Manjusri. In the south at Dantapura he wrote com¬mentaries of many sastras of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva.
Acharya Bhavya was born in a Kshatriya family of the south. He studied the Tripitaka but he preferred to study Mahayana texts and Nagarjunopadesa with Acharya Sangharakshita. He, however, criticised the commentary written on Nagarjunapadesa. Both of these Acharya considered Yogachara as a separate system. Buddhapalita was the ear¬lier and Bhavya a later disciple of Nagarjuna. Chandrakirti was a dis¬ciple of Aryadeva.
Acharya Vimuktasena was a nephew of Buddhapalita. He joined the Kurukulla school, but he turned later to Mahayana, came to Vasu- bandu and studied with him the Prajnaparamita. Then he became the disciple of Sangharakshita. He went to Varanasi and procured a copy of the Panchavimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita in eight sections, which was in harmony with Abisamayalankarakarika.
Events of the time of King Sila (=Sri Harsha)
There lived Sri Harsha (also called Siladitya), who became a great and famous king, collected the monks of the four quarters and maintained them with excellent food. He had a palace in the Lata city. In the east, lived a very powerful king of the Licchavi race called Simha. At this time was born Acharya^Chandragomin and also lived Bhavya and Vimuk¬tasena in their old age with their disciples Varasena and Ravi- gupta, Kamalabuddhi, disciple of Buddhapalita, and Chandramani, dis¬ciple of Acharya Gunaprabha. In the south, appeared Acharya Jaya- deva and Chandrakirti. It was thebeginning of the life of Acharya Dharma- pala and Santideva, Tantric Siddhacharya Virupa and Arya Visakhadeva. In the translation of Pushpamala is mentioned by the translator Prajnakirti that this work was composed by Arya Visakhadeva, disciple of Samgha- dasa. Jayadeva, a great master of sastras lived at Nalanda.
Venerable Chandrakirti was born in the south and obtained proficiency in all the Pitakas. He studied the works and teachings of Nagarjuna with Kamalabuddhi, disciple of Bhavya and Buddhapalita. He wrote com¬mentaries on the Madhyatnakamula and Madhyakavatara. He preferred the views of Buddhapalita and propagated the same. He refuted many heretical teachers in Konkan and converted several persons. Acharya Chandragomin was born in the east, Varendra,. He proved the theory of rebirth. Then with some traders he went to Simhadvipa. He came across Nagasesha’s commentary on Panini. With the help of the commentary, he composed the Chandravyakarana.
Chandragomin followed the school of Asanga and became an idea¬list. But Chandrakiriti followed the commentary of Buddhapalita for the works of Nagarjuna. Chandragomin wrote many sastras on archi¬tecture, grammar, dialectics, medicine, metre, lexicography, art of poetry, astronomy etc. He studied the Dasabhumikasutra, Chandra- pradipa (i.e. Samadhiraja sutra), Gaudalankara, Lankavatara and Prajna- paramitra. He composed the abstract of contents of these books. He composed also Pradipamalasastra teaching the functions of a Bodhisattva. His works Samvara-vimsaka and Kayatrayavatara were taught to all Maha¬yana students. He went from Jambudvipa to Potala in a boat.
Events of the time of King Chala, Panchamasimha and others
After the death of King Bharsha and King Simhachandra, lived in the west at Matrikota King Chala who was very powerful and was in alliance with King Sila. All of them including Sila died. In the east lived King Panchamasimha, son of King Bharsha. He ruled over the nor¬thern countries up to Tibet and in the south up to Trilinga, in the west up to Varanasi and in the east up to the ocean. Simhachandra’s son Balachandra was ousted from Bengal, and so he went to Tirhut. At that time lived in Magadha Acharyas Vinitasena and Gunamati, specia-lising in Abhidharma, and Acharyas Dharmapala, Isvarasena, and in Kash¬mir Acharya Sarvajnamitra.
In Magadha ruled King Prasanna, son of King Bharsha, whose king¬dom was small and was later expanded. In the south in the lands near Vin- dhya mountain ruled King Pushpa.
King Chala erected a monastery and provided all requisites to the monks. Panchamasimha honoured both the heretical as well as the ortho¬dox teachers. King Prasanna honoured Chandrakirti, Chandragomin and other teachers of Nalanda. Vinitadeva set up an image of Ajitanatha and visualised his face.
Acharya Gunamati wrote a commentary on the Abhidharma-kosa. He followed Sthiramati in his commentary of the Madhyamika-sastra, refu¬ting Bhavya. Acharya Dharmapala was born in the south, he became a Pandita of Nalanda.
Acharya Santideva was born in Saurastra. He visualised Manjusri. He is the author of Sikshasamuchchaya, Sutrasamuchchaya, and Bodhicharya- vatara.
Events of the time of Acharya Dharmakirti
After the death of King Chala, his brother Chaladhruva ruled over many western countries. His son Vishnuraja also reigned for many years. In the west in the district of Hala, lived 500 Brahmins as hermits. The king destroyed the huts of the hermits and for this sin he was swal¬lowed up by a river. At that time Praditya ruled over Madhyadesa and over most of the countries in the east.
In the north in the town of Haridvara King Mahasakyabala ruled over all the countries in the north up to Kashmir. He supported the religion of Buddha. King Praditya honoured Acharya Dharmakirti; King Mahasa¬kyabala honoured the Abhidharma scholar Vasumitra. King Vimala- chandra honoured Panditas Amarasimha and Ratnakirti, and Srigupta, master of the Madhyamika teaching. Though Buddhism was spreading but not as much as it spread during the time of Asanga and his brother and Dignaga because the heretics were on the increase in the south.
At the time of Panchamasimha appeared two heretical acharyas, Dattatreya and Sankaracharya. They received mantras from Mahadeva. In Bengal the bhikshus felt difficult to defeat Sankaracharya in disputa¬tion, so they invited either Dharmapala or Chandragomin or Chandra- kirti. At that time appeared in the south Brahmana Kumarila and Kanada, Dharmapala’s disciple Devasarma tried to refute Chandrakirti and wrote a commentary called Sitabhyudaya on the Madhyamika doctrine. He was, however, defeated by Sankaracharya. King Salivahana was converted to Buddhism. He erected many viharas and Chaityas.
At the time of this king, lived the Tantric acharya Goraksha. Rat¬nakirti is known through a commentary written by him on the Madhya- makavatara. Vasumitra also composed a commentary on the Abhi- dharma-kosa and is the expounder of many important sectarian doctrines summarised by him in the Samaya-bhedoparachana-chakra. Before the time of Vasubandhu, the eighteen schools continued to exist intact. Some disappeared on account of the erstwhile enemies of the religion. There were three sub-sects of the Mahasanghikas, viz., the Purvasailas, Aparaasailas and the Haimavatas; two sub-sects of the Sarvastivadins, viz., Kasyapiya and Vibhajyavadins; of the Sthaviras Mahaviharavasins; of the Sammitiyas the Avantakas; other schools also spread widely. Sravaka doctrines decreased after joo years. There are, however, still many followers of the Sravaka system. It is not a fact that the Sravaka system disappeared after the appearance of Mahayana.
Venerable Dharmakirti was born in the south at Trimalaya, in a Brahmin family. In his childhood he was of very sharp intellect, he was skilful in the art of sculpture, in Vedas and Vedangas, in medical science, grammar and in all non-Buddhist doctrines. When about i6or i8yearsold, he became well-versed in the philosophical works of the non-Buddhists. At one time, when he had became famous, he came across the Buddha- pravachanas. He then realised that these were much superior to their own sastras, and so he became an Upasaka. He came to Madhyadesa and was ordained as a bhikshu by Acharya Dharmapala and acquired knowledge of the Pitakas and studied many dealectical treatises but his mind was not satisfied. He then studied Pramanasamuchchaya with Is- varasena, disciple of Dignaga.
He then received consecration from a Vajracharya and devoted himself to the mantras and invoked Adhideva. Heruka himself appeared before him and enquired about his intention. He said that he might attain victory in all directions. Heruka replied “Ha Ha Hum” and disappeared then and there. He then composed the Stava-dandaka (in Tanjur Srivajra-daka-stava-dandaka, also in Abhidhanot- tara). He wanted to learn the secret doctrine of the non-Buddhist system, and so he put on the dress of a household-servant, came to the south and went to Kumarila. As his service pleased Kumarila and his wife and on their inquiry what he desired, he said that he would like to learn the sys¬tem taught by him to his disciples. His wish was fulfilled by Kumarila, and he was liberally rewarded by his master and his wife for his faithful and indefatigable service.
The followers of the system of Kanada met together and contested with Dharmakirti; the contest lasted for three months. They were all defeated by Dharmakirti and converted to Buddha’s teaching. On hear¬ing this news, Kumarila became very angry and told the king that if he won in the contest, then Dharmakirti must be put to death but Dhar¬makirti said that he did not want that the defeated opponent should be killed but he should become a follower of Buddha’s dharma. Dharma¬kirti won in the contest and deafeated also the Nirgrantha Rahuvratin, the Mimamsaka teacher Bhringaraguhya, Brahmana Kumarananda, the Brahmanical champion Kanadaroru and the rest who lived near the Vin- dhya mountain. He then went to a forest and resided in the hermitage of Risi Matanga near Magadha. Dharmakirti went to the palace of King Pushpa and said:
“In wisdom a Dignaga, in purity of language a Chandragomin, in merits a Sura, in disputation who else could be except the humble self, the victor of all disputants’’ (Sura = Aryasura, author of the Jatakamala).
The King Puspa asked “I wonder, are you the Dharmakirti ?” He said that it is the name by which people call me. He erected many viharas for the residence of Dharmakirti. He composed also a Pra- manasastra in seven chapters and he wrote at the entrance hall of the palace the words “When Dharmakirti’s sun of eloquence will go down, the faith¬ful will go to sleep or die, the unbelievers will rise immediately’’. For a long time he spread the doctrine and there were about £o viharas and 10,000 monks. When he visited Gujarat he converted many Brah-mins and other sectarians to Buddhism and erected the temple of Gota- puri. In this land there were many non-Buddhists.
Dharmakirti’s dialectics was propagated in Kashmir, Varanasi and also in the south. Towards the end of his life Dharmakirti built a vihara in Kalinga. This acharya was a contemporary of King Srong- btsan-sgam-po.
Dharmakirti’s disciple Devendrabudhi composed the commentaries of Dharmakirti’s works. His disciple was also Prabhavabodhi. Some say that Jamari was the direct disciple of Acharya Dharmakirti and that Jamari was the author of Pramana-varttika-alankara.
The number of teachers regarded as jewels of the Buddhist scholar¬ship is six, of whom three were Nagarjuna, Asanga and Dignaga and three were commentators Aryadeva, Vasubandhu and Dharmakirti. San- karananda appeared at a much later date, hence he could not be a direct disciple of Dharmakirti. At that time there were five Siddhacharyas, namely, Kambala, Indrabhuti, Kururaraja, Padmavajra and Lalitavajra. Kutaraja was an old Yogacharin, practised Ganachakra and other mysteries in the ceme¬tery and attained Mahamudrasiddhi on the basis of the Chandraguhya- bindu-tantra. He taught to his disciples the Buddhist Tantras and Yoga tantras.
Acharya Lalitavajra was a pandit of Nalanda. He brought the Yamari- tantra from the dharmaganja of Udyana. He composed the Krsna-yamari- tantra, Trisamvara, Saptakalpika and Kalpakramas and propagated them in Jambudvipa. The heretical prince Naravarman in the west became a believer in Buddhism, and built a temple of Manjusri. There are many stories about the contest of Kambala, Lalitavajra and Indrabhuti with others. Kambala procured the Hevajratantrasara and composed the Nairatmyasadhana.
At this time lived in the south Kamalagomin, who had attained Avaliokitesvara-siddhi.
NALINAKSHA DUTT
