[Footnote 3: Ibid p. 21.]
[Footnote 4: Ibid p. 177.]
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the truth preached by the S'ûnyavâdins, interested themselves in explaining the phenomena of consciousness by their theory of beginningless illusory root-ideas or instincts of the mind (vâsanâ).
As'vagho@sa (100 A.D.) seems to have been the greatest teacher of a new type of idealism (vijñânavâda) known as the Tathatâ philosophy. Trusting in Suzuki's identification of a quotation in As'vagho@sa's S'raddhotpâdas'âstra as being made from La@nkâvatârasûtra, we should think of the La@nkâvatârasûtra as being one of the early works of the Vijñânavâdins [Footnote ref 1]. The greatest later writer of the Vijñânavâda school was Asa@nga (400 A.D.), to whom are attributed the Saptadas'abhûmi sûtra, Mahâyâna sûtra, Upades'a, Mahâyânasamparigraha s'âstra, Yogâcârabhûmi s'âstra and Mahâyânasûtrâla@mkâra. None of these works excepting the last one is available to readers who have no access to the Chinese and Tibetan manuscripts, as the Sanskrit originals are in all probability lost. The Vijñânavâda school is known to Hindu writers by another name also, viz. Yogâcâra, and it does not seem an improbable supposition that Asa@nga's Yogâcârabhûmi s'âstra was responsible for the new name. Vasubandhu, a younger brother of Asa@nga, was, as Paramârtha (499-569) tells us, at first a liberal Sarvâstivâdin, but was converted to Vijñânavâda, late in his life, by Asa@nga. Thus Vasubandhu, who wrote in his early life the great standard work of the Sarvâstivâdins, Abhidharmakos'a, devoted himself in his later life to Vijñânavâda [Footnote ref 2]. He is said to have commented upon a number of Mahâyâna sûtras, such as Avata@msaka, Nirvâ@na, Saddharmapu@n@darîka, Prajñâpâramitâ, Vimalakîrtti and S'rîmâlâsi@mhanâda, and compiled some Mahâyâna sûtras, such as Vijñânamâtrasiddhi, Ratnatraya, etc. The school of Vijñânavâda continued for at least a century or two after Vasubandhu, but we are not in possession of any work of great fame of this school after him.
We have already noticed that the S'ûnyavâda formed the fundamental principle of all schools of Mahâyâna. The most powerful exponent of this doctrine was Nâgârjuna (1OO A.D.), a brief account of whose system will be given in its proper place. Nâgârjuna's kârikâs (verses) were commented upon by Âryyadeva, a disciple of his, Kumârajîva (383 A.D.). Buddhapâlita and Candrakîrtti (550 A.D.). Âryyadeva in addition to this commentary wrote at
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[Footnote 1: Dr S.C. Vidyâbhûshana thinks that Lankâvatâna belongs to about 300 A.D.]
[Footnote 2: Takakusu's "A study of the Paramârtha's life of Vasubandhu," J.R.A.S. 1905.]
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