The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

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 Tripiṭaka Research Institute (Tōkyō-Kyōto, 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 comprehensive 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 Mādhyamikas; 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. Because 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 impossible. 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 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 Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍakhādya the twelfth-century Vedantin Śrīharṣa—who admits the vitaṇḍā procedure (see § 168; cf. §§ 14—16)—has throughout regularly employed a method of reasoning based on what he terms khaṇḍanayukti, which is very close to the Mādhyamika's form of argument in the prasaṅga-type of reasoning. At a much earlier period of the Vedanta also the links between the Gauḍapādīya- or Māṇḍūkya-Kārikās (c. 500 ?) and Buddhist thought are well-known. Moreover, the continuous debates carried on between Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain thinkers led not only to a sharpening 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]

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. (Ruegg, preface, vii-ix)

Notes

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 gar chos 'byuń by Tāranātha (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. OBERMILLLER'S incomplete English translation (2 parts, Heidelberg, 1931–32), and the Deb ther sṅon po by 'Gos gŽon nu dpal (1392–1481) in the Kun bde gliṅ 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 Byaṅ chub lam gyi rim pa'i bla ma brgyud pa'i rnam par thar pa by Ye šes rgyal mchan (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 bšad sñiṅ po (in the lHa sa edition of the gSuṅ 'bum) and the Lam rim chen mo (in the old bKra šis lhun po edition, reprinted by NGAWANG GELEK DEMO, New Delhi, 1977) by Ćoṅ kha pa (1357–1419); to the sToṅ thun chen mo (in the lHa sa edition of the gSuṅ 'bum) and the rGyud sde spyi rnam (in the edition by F. D. LESSING and A. WAYMAN, Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras, The Hague, 1968) by mKhas grub dGe legs dpal bzaṅ (1385—1438); and to the invaluable doxographical works (Grub mtha') by 'Jam dbyaṅs bžad pa Ṅag dbaṅ brćon 'grus (1648–1722) reprinted by NGAWANG GELEK DEMO (New Delhi, 1973), and by lCaṅ skya Rol pa'i rdo 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 bukkyōgaku kenkyū (Journal of Indian and Buddhist studies, abbreviated IBK). Useful bibliographical surveys of this literature are to be found in the publications listed on p. 4 note 9.

Citation

Ruegg, David Seyfort. The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India. History of Indian Literature 7, fasc. 1. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1981.

People Mentioned

Buddhapālita

Bhāvaviveka

Śrīgupta

Jñānagarbha

Candrakīrti

Śāntideva

Kamalaśīla

Śāntarakṣita

Bodhibhadra

Dharmakīrti

Atiśa

Jayānanda

Abhayākaragupta

Ratnakaraśānti

Table of contents

Introduction1

The early period: the formation of the Madhyamaka school4
- Nāgārjuna4
- Commentaries on Nāgārjuna's works47
- Āryadeva50
- Rāhulabhadra54
- 'Nāga'56

The middle period: the systematization of the Madhyamaka school58
- Buddhapālita60
- Bhāvaviveka61
- Later Svātantrikas67
- Śrīgupta67
- Jñānagarbha68
- Candrakīrti71
- Śāntideva82

The Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis87
- Śāntarakṣita88
- Kamalaśīla93
- Later Yogācāra-Mādhyamikas99

The Madhyamaka-Prajñāpāramitā synthesis101

Madhyamaka and Vajrayāna104

The last period of the Indian Madhyamaka school109
- Bodhibhadra, Dharmakīrti and Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna109
- Jayānanda113
- Abhayākaragupta114
- Other later Madhyamikas115

Appendix I: Works on practice ascribed to Aśvaghoṣa, Ārya-Śūra, Dharma Subhūti(ghoṣa), and Mātṛceta119

Appendix II: Ratnākaraśānti's 'Vijñapti-Madhyamaka' 122

Modern editions of the Sanskrit texts of the Madhyamaka school125

Modern editions of the Tibetan versions of works of the Madhyamaka school129

Abbreviations132

Indices
I. Titles133
- II. Names139
- III. Sanskrit key-words141
- IV. Tibetan terms146

Interconnections

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