Buddhist Scriptural Studies

Abstract

The thesis focuses on the relationship between Sanskrit classical grammar, Abhidharma, and the debates between Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. In particular, it shows how the kāraka system, and the idea of lakṣaṇa, influence philosophical argumentation in the context of medieval Indian Buddhist thought. The kāraka system is the way in which classical Sanskrit grammarians discuss syntax, and in particular, actions and agency. Lakṣaṇa means a defining trait, or a definition, at once a scholastic tool and a fundamental way to identify existent entities.

There are five Chapters and two Appendices. Chapter One shows the close links between Sanskrit classical grammar and basic ideas in Buddhist thought, and isolates the kāraka system as being most relevant in this regard. It also show certain structural analogies between the kāraka system and certain important features of Buddhist philosophy. Chapter Two is mostly based on Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhāṣya and its sub-commentary; it highlights and reconstructs the discussions on lakṣaṇa and agency found therein. Chapter Three shows how Madhyamaka understands similar issues, and what is the proper context and significance of its refutation of lakṣaṇas. Chapter Four shifts the focus upon the Madhyamaka understanding of conventional truths, and the role of the lakṣaṇas of Abhidharma, as well as of the kāraka system, within saṁvti. Chapter Five compares the Yogācāra views on the very same topics.

Appendix 1 is a translation of Prajñākaramati’s commentary to Bodhicaryāvatāra 9.1-34, a work where many of the philosophical debates discussed throughout the thesis are well represented. Appendix 2 is a photographic reproduction of a manuscript, containing an anonymous commentary to Nāgārjuna’s Lokātītastava.

Table of Contents

Abstract 2

Table of Contents 3

Introduction 8

Acknowledgements 12
Chapter 1

Sanskrit Grammar and Buddhism 14


1.1 Language analysis: nirukti and vykaraa 17

1.2 Pini 20

1.3 Buddhist grammarians 21

1.4 Defining ‘grammar’ 24

1.4.1 abdnusana 25
1.4.2 Vykaraa 28
1.4.3 stra 29
1.4.4 Stra, yoga 32
1.4.5 Lak•aa 34
1.4.6 Grammar as Śabdavidyā, in the training
of a Bodhisattva 35


1.5 The Kraka system 39

1.5.1 Vibhakti and kraka 39
1.5.2 What a kāraka is 42
1.5.3 Primary kārakas 45
1.5.4 The autonomous agent 48
1.5.5 What the agent most wishes for: karman 53
1.5.6 Kik, and Jinendrabuddhi: tathyuktam cnpstitam 57
1.6 The primary kārakas and Buddhism 59
1.6.1The kāraka system and basic Buddhist thought:
selflessness 60
1.6.2 The kāraka system and the Mahāyāna:
the purification of the three spheres 62


1.7 Continued agency and dependent arising 63

1.7.1 The Abhidharmakośabhāṣya on pratītyasamutpāda 66
1.7.2 The debate in the prasannapadā 68
1.7.3 Mādhyamika authors: more on the same issue 69


1.8 Conclusion 72


Chapter 2
Abhidharma as a dictionary:
the world in Buddhist terms 74

2.1 Dharma: what upholds its own lak•aa 79
2.1.1 The four lak•aas of all compounded factors 80
2.1.2 The lakṣaṇas and sahabhūhetu 87
2.1.3 Sautrāntika criticism of the four lakṣaṇas 89
2.1.4 On definitions and characteristics:
beyond the four lak•aas 94

2.2 The seer and the knower: identifying the synchronic agent 101
2.2.1 Cak•u payati rpi 102
2.2.2 Kart• and kriy as analytical categories 108
2.2.3 A counter-position, on agency 113
2.2.4 Agents and conventional persons:
a passage from the pudgalavinicaya section 115

2.3 ‘Self’ as indirect reference 119
2.4 Conclusion 120
Chapter 3

Lakṣaṇas and the emptiness of lakṣaṇas 122


3.1 The Lokttastava and the Heart Stra:
emptiness as lack of characteristics 124

3.1.2 From the aggregates to their emptiness 125
3.1.3 The meaning of autonomy and the absence of God 129
3.1.4 Beyond the world, beyond characteristics 132

3.2 Candrakrti and lakṣaṇas 134
3.2.1 The basic status of lakṣaṇa and lakṣya 135
3.2.2 Applying the dialectic to a specific instance:
the four conditions (pratyayas) 138
3.2.3 The example of space 141

3.3 Candrakrti and the Vaibh•ika-Sautrntika divide:
instants and the emptiness of lak•aas 144

3.3.1 Madhyamaka versus the lakṣaṇas
of all compounded factors 146
3.3.2 Does disappearance exist? 147
3.3.3 Candrakīrti and momentariness 150
3.3.4 Candrakīrti’s conventions: Vaibhāṣika or Sautrāntika? 151



Chapter 4
Conventions, the world, and Madhyamaka 156

4.1 Samv•ti and Paramrtha: Candrakrti and Prajkaramati 158

4.2 Identity and difference between Mdhyamikas and cowherds:
Abhidharma and Vykaraa 164

4.2.1 Candrakrti on the svalak•aa
and Prajkaramati on svasamvedan 168
4.2.2 Are Mdhyamikas ‘satisfied with no analysis’ ? 175
4.2.3 More on Candrakrti and krakas 181

4.3 Identity and difference between Mdhyamikas
and Crvks. Paraloka, karman, and the origin of vijna
The meaning of pratipatt•bheda 185

4.4 A system of graded saṁvṛtisatya 189
4.4.1 Candrakrti and graded conventions 191
4.4.2 Three levels of teachings 191
4.4.3 Analysing space into emptiness: atoms 198
4.4.4 ntideva and Prajkaramati:
conventions and momentariness 199

4.5 Conclusions 210


Chapter 5
Comparisons with the Yogācāra 211

5.1 Twenty Verses: vijñaptimātratā as an Abhidharmic argument 212
5.1.1 The main thesis of Verse 1 212
5.1.2 An alternative translation 217
5.1.3 The proper locus of dependent arising 220
5.1.4 Real referents of a metaphor:
a comparison with the Thirty Verses 223

5.2 The importance of lakṣaṇas 227
5.2.1 The first Chapter of the Madhyāntavibhāga 228
5.2.2 What has lakṣaṇas,
and what has the lakṣaṇa of no-lakṣaṇa 230


5.3 Kārakas and the irriducibility of consciousness 231
5.3.1 Consciousness as an action without agent or object 232
5.3.2 A passage from Asaṅga, on action and agents 235
5.3.3 A note on Śāntarakṣita’s position 237

5.4 The role of momentariness in Yogācāra 239
5.5 Conclusion 242

Conclusion 244

Appendix 1 | Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, 9.1-34
with Prajñākaramati’s Pañjikā: English Translation 251
Note on the Translation 252
The importance of Prajñākaramati’s commentary 256


Appendix 2 | Reproduction of a Devanāgarī manuscript
containing Nāgārjuna’s Lokātītastava,
together with an anonymous commentary 336


Bibliography 341

The first Chapter of Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā offers a critique of causation that includes the Abhidharmic category of the 'four conditions'. Following the South-Asian commentarial tradition, this article discusses the precise relationship between Madhyamaka philosophy and its fundamental Abhidharmic background. What comes to light is a more precise assessment of Madhyamaka ideas about viable conventions, understood as the process of dependent arising. Since this is primarily in the sense of conceptual dependence, it involves sentiency as a necessary causal element, and the relationship between sentiency and conceptuality is highlighted by Na¯ga¯rjuna and his commentators. Viable conventions exclude the possibility of a non-contingent core, and the systems and categories that revolve around such non-contingent element (ātman) are discarded by the Madhyamaka even at a conventional level.

Over the years, I have consistently adopted features of traditional instruction during classes on Buddhist Studies. I shall here focus on a very specific method, i.e. group chanting, discussing its benefits for the academic study of Buddhism.

The thesis focuses on the relationship between Sanskrit classical grammar, Ahludharma, and the debates between Madhyamaka and Yogacara. In particular, it shows how the karaka system, and the idea of laksana, influence philosophical argumentation in the context of medieval Indian Buddhist thought. The karaka system is the way in which classical Sanskrit grammarians discuss syntax, and in particular, actions and agency. Laksana means a defining trait, or a definition, at once a scholastic tool and a fundamental way to identify existent entities. There are five Chapters and two Appendices. Chapter One shows the close links between Sanskrit classical grammar and basic ideas in Buddhist thought, and isolates the karaka system as being most relevant in this regard. It also shows certain structural analogies between the karaka system and certain important features of Buddhist philosophy. Chapter Two is mostly based on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasya and its sub-commentary; it highlig...

Dipartimento di Studi Eurasiatici, Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia. (www.vais.it) È vietato riprodurre articoli, recensioni, informazioni e immagini, completamente o in parte, senza indicarne la fonte. Gli autori sono responsabili del contenuto degli articoli, recensioni e altri contributi. Stampa LCM Selecta -Milano ISBN 88-7543-083-7