The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India PDF
Preview The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India
A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE DAVID SEYFORT RUEGG THE LITERATURE OF THE MADHYAMAKA SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY IN INDIA OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN DAVID SEYFORT RUEGG THE LITERATURE OF THE MADHYAMAKA SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY IN INDIA 1981 OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE Contents of Yol. YH Vol. VII: Buddhist and Jaina Literature Fase. 1 : D. Seyfort Ruegg The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India CIP-Kurzfcftelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek A history of Indian literature / ed. by Jan Gonda. - Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz. NE: Gonda, Jan (Hrsg.] Vol. 7. Buddhist and Jalna literature Vol. 7. Fasc. 1. -► Ruegg, David Seyfort: The literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy In India Rnegg, David Seyfort: The literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India / David Seyfort Ruegg. — Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1981. (A history of Indian literature ; Vol. 7, Fasc. 1) ISBN 3-447-02204-3 © Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1981. Alle Rechte Vorbehalten. Photographische und photomechanische Wiedergabe nur mit ausdrücklicher Genehmigung des Verlages. Gesamtherstellung: Allgäuer ZeltungBverlag GmbH, Kempten. Printed in Germany. Sigel: HIL CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 The early period: the formation of the Madhyamaka school................... .. 4 Nagârjuna ..................................................................................................... 4 Commentaries on Nâgârjuna’s works..............................................................47 Äryadeva . 50 Rähulabhadra .................................................................................................64 ‘Naga’ ..................................................................................................................56 The middle period: the systematization of the Madhyamaka school .. .. 68 Buddhapälita..........................................................................................................60 Bhavaviveka..........................................................................................................61 Later Svâtantrikas................................................................................................67 Šrígupta..................................................................................................................67 Jñanagarbha..........................................................................................................68 Candrakirti..........................................................................................................71 Šantideva................................................................................................................82 The Yogäcära-Madhyamaka synthesis.................................................................87 Šántaraksita..........................................................................................................88 Kamalašila ..........................................................................................................93 Later Yogâcâra-Madhyamikas.........................................................................99 The Madhyamaka-Prajnäpäramitä synthesis.....................................................101 Madhyamaka and Vajrayäna...............................................................................104 The last period of the Indian Madhyamaka school.............................................109 Bodhibhadra, Dharmakïrti and Dípamkaraárijñana....................................109 Jayänanda ........................................................................................................113 Abhayäkaragupta................................................................................................114 Other later Mâdhyamikas...............................................................................115 Appendix I: Works on practice ascribed to Aévaghosa, Arya-Šúra, Dharma- Subhütifghosa), and Mätrceta .......................................................................119 Appendix II: RatnälcaraJäntVs ‘Vijñapti-Madhyamaka'..............................122 Modern editions of the Sanskrit texts of the Madhyamaka school .. .. 125 Modern editions of the Tibetan versions of works of the Madhyamaka school .................................................................................................................129 VI Contents Abbreviations........................................................................................................132 Indices I. Titles................................................................................................................133 II. Names ........................................................................................................139 III. Sanskrit key-words ...............................................................................141 IV. Tibetan terms .......................................................................................146 PREFACE This outline of the philosophical literature of the Indian Madhyamaka school is based on the Sanskrit sources to the limited extent they are now available to us. The major part of this literature is unfortunately not extant in the original and must be presumed lost. However, this loss is at least partly compensated for by the fact that a very large number of important works of this school were translated into Chinese and Tibetan; and for the purposes of the present publication use has been made chiefly of the translations contained in the Peking edition of the Tibetan bsTan-’gyur in the facsimile reprint of the Tibetan Tripitaka Research Institute (Tokyd-Kyoto, 1958). The fact that we possess few good modern editions of the surviving Sanskrit texts and the very nature of our translated sources inevitably raise important philological and exegetical problems which it has not always been possible to pursue in the space available. Limitations of space have moreover allowed the inclusion of short and hence selective summaries of only some of the most fundamental texts from the 1000- year history of the Indian Madhyamaka. The majority of the works from this vast literature have had to be mentioned simply by title, with brief indications being given as to the contents of some of the more important ones. A com prehensive historical treatment and systematic analysis of the Madhyamaka in its entirety will thus have to await much larger publications. Here an attempt has of course been made to determine the relative—and whenever possible also the absolute—chronology of the Madhyamikas; but the same name has not infrequently been borne by more than one person, and in a number of cases the attribution of a work to an author as well as even its precise Sanskrit title remain doubtful and will have to be the subject of future investigation. Be cause of the paucity of reliable historical materials and disagreements between some of our sources many questions may remain open indefinitely; furthermore, the fact that most of our texts are now available only in translations into Chinese and Tibetan makes certain essential kinds of historical, literary and sometimes even philosophical analysis exceedingly precarious if not quite im possible. Since relatively few texts and masters of the Madhyamaka school have hitherto been the subject of monographic study, the present work will in many cases be a preliminary exploration in well-nigh uncharted territory. Further research will also be needed in order to establish the relation of the Madhyamaka with other schools of Indian thought, non-Buddhist as well as Buddhist. If this has not been done extensively in the present book (on earlier connexions with non-Buddhist schools see nevertheless p. 6 note 11), this is because of the complex historical and methodological questions posed VIH David Seyfort Ruegg • The Literature of the Madhyamaka School by such an investigation and the lack of space to pursue such problems; it is not because we would subscribe to the view that the schools of Indian philosophy are to be kept apart according to the particular religion of their representatives: Buddhist (and Jain) philosophers are surely as much part of the history of Indian philosophy as ‘orthodox’ Hindu philosophers. It can at least be pointed, out here, however, that in his Khandanakhandakhádya the twelfth-century Vedántin Sriharsa—who admits the vitanda procedure (see § 168; cf. §§ 14—16)— has throughout regularly employed a method of reasoning based on what he terms khandanayukti, which is very close to the Madhyamika’s form of argument in the prasanga-type of reasoning. At a much earlier period of the Vedanta also the links between the Gaudapadiya- or Mándükya-Kárikás (c. 500?) and Buddhist thought are well-known. Moreover, the continuous debates carried on between Bráhmanical, Buddhist and Jain thinkers led not only to a sharp ening of minds and a refinement of argument on all sides but also to commonly recognized methods in philosophical discussion; but the precise history of these developments still remains to be traced in detail. In writing a work of this kind there arises the question of the extent to which the secondary literature in Asiatic languages can be included by a single writer and in a limited space. Scholars from East and Central Asia in particular have in fact devoted themselves over the centuries to translating, commenting on and explaining the Madhyamaka literature. (In Tibet for example there has existed for over a millennium a tradition of study of a very considerable portion of Indian literature, including even works that are not specifically Buddhist; and with a view to both translation and exegesis Tibetan scholars developed remarkable philological and interpretative methods that could well justify us in regarding them as Indologists avant la lettre.) The sheer bulk of the secondary literature in Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Mongolian relating to the Madhyamaka is, however, so great that it will have to be the subject of separate publications.1 1 Although the Tibetan secondary literature to which it has been possible to refer in this book cannot pretend to be representative of all schools, the works used are all of the highest interest. Among historical sources these are mainly the rGya^garchos^byuri by Täranätha (born in 1575) edited by A. Schiefner (St. Petersburg, 1868), the well-known Chos*’byun by Bu’ston (1290—1364) in the Žol edition reprinted by Lokesh Chandra (New Delhi, 1971) with page references also to E. Obermil IiEr ’s incomplete English translation (2 parts, Heidelberg, 1931—32), and the Deb’ther-snon-po by ’Gos‘gŽon*nu*dpal (1392—1481) in the Kun*bde‘glin edition reprinted by Lokesh Chandra (New Delhi, 1976) with page references also to G. N. Roerich ’s English translation (The Blue Annals, 2 volumes, Calcutta, 1949—53); hagiographies of several Madhyamaka masters are also to be found collected together in the ByarrchuVlam-gyiTinrpa’rbla-ma'brgyud’pa’i* rnam*par*tharpa by Ye*šesTgyal*mčhan (1713—93) reprinted by Ngawang Gelek Demo (New Delhi, 1970). From the rich mine of Tibetan exegetical and doctrinal literature reference has been made principally to the Legs’bSad'sniii'po (in the lHa*sa edition of the gSurr’bum) and the Lam*rim’chen*mo (in the old bKra*šis*- Preface IX The above-mentioned considerations of a philological, bibliographical and material nature will explain why the present work differs in certain respects from many of the other volumes appearing in the same series. Some attempt at a connected account treating this body of literature, however tentative, is clearly a desideratum at the present time. lhuirpo edition, reprinted by Ngawang Ge:lek Demo , New Delhi, 1977) by (3orrkha*pa (1357—1419); to the 8ToA‘thun*chen*mo (in the lHa*sa edition of the gSun*’bum) and the rGyud*sde*spyi*mam (in the edition by F. D. Lessing and A. Wayman , Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras, The Hague, 1968) by mKhas'grub’dGedegs-dpal-bzah (1385—1438); and to the invaluable doxographical works (Grub'mtha’) by ’Janrdbyans'bzad’pavNag’dbaivbrdon-’grus (1648—1722) reprinted by Ngawang Gelek Demo (New Delhi, 1973), and by lCan*skya*Rol*- pa’rrdo'rje (1717—86) reprinted by Lokesh Chandra (New Delhi, 1977). As for the extensive and important modern secondary literature from Japan, references have had to be limited mainly to one of the few generally available Japanese publications, the Indogaku bukkyogaku kenkyu (Journal of Indian and Buddhist studies, abbreviated IBK). Useful bibliographical surveys of this litera ture are to be found in the publications listed on p. 4 note 9.
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