evidence for mahāyāna buddhism and sukhāvatī cult in india in the middle period early fi fth to...

8/12/2019 Evidence for Mahyna Buddhism and Sukhvat cult in India in the middle period Early fi fth to late sixth century

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JIABSJournal of the International

Association of Buddhist Studies

Volume 31 Number 12 2008 (2010)


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TheJournal of the InternationalAssociation of Buddhist Studies (ISSN0193-600XX) is the organ of theInternational Association of BuddhistStudies, Inc. As a peer-reviewed journal,it welcomes scholarly contributions

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Copyright 2010 by the InternationalAssociation of Buddhist Studies, Inc.

Print: Ferdinand Berger & Shne

EDITORIAL BOARD

KELLNER BirgitKRASSER HelmutJoint Editors

BUSWELL RobertCHEN JinhuaCOLLINS StevenCOX ColletGMEZ Luis O.HARRISON PaulVON HINBER OskarJACKSON RogerJAINI Padmanabh S.KATSURA ShryKUO Li-yingLOPEZ, Jr. Donald S.MACDONALD AlexanderSCHERRER-SCHAUB CristinaSEYFORT RUEGG DavidSHARF RobertSTEINKELLNER ErnstTILLEMANS Tom


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JIABSJournal of the International

Association of Buddhist Studies

Volume 31 Number 12 2008 (2010)

Obituaries

Jonathan A. SILK

In memoriam, Erik Zrcher (13 Sept. 1928 7 Feb. 2008) . . . . . . 3

Articles

Diwakar ACHARYAEvidence for Mahyna Buddhism and Sukhvatcult in In-dia in the middle period Early fifth to late sixth centuryNepalese inscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Early Chinese Buddhist translations

Contributions to the International Symposium Early ChineseBuddhist Translations, Vienna 1821 April, 2007

Guest editor: Max Deeg

Max DEEGIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Max DEEGCreating religious terminology A comparativeapproach toearly Chinese Buddhisttranslations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Hubert DURT

Early Chinese Buddhist translations Quotations from theearly translations in anthologies of the sixth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Toru FUNAYAMAThe work of Paramrtha: An example of Sino-Indian cross-cultural exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141


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Contents2

Andrew GLASSGuabhadra, Boyn, and the Sayuktgama . . . . . . . . . . 185

Paul HARRISONExperimental core samples of Chinese translations of twoBuddhist Stras analysed in the light of recent Sanskrit man-uscript discoveries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Elsa I. LEGITTIMOReopening the Maitreya-files Two almost identical earlyMaitreya stra translations in the Chinese Canon: Wrong at-tributions and text-historical entanglements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Jan NATTIERWho produced the Da mingdu jing(T225)?A reas-sessment of the evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Jungnok PARK()

A new attribution of the authorship of T5 and T6 Mahpari-nirvastra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Jonathan A. SILKThe Jifayue sheku tuoluoni jing Translation, non-transla-tion, both or neither?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Stefano ZACCHETTI

The nature of the Da anban shouyi jingT 602reconsidered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

ZHUQingzhiOn some basic features of Buddhist Chinese . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Book review

Tsunehiko SUGIKIDavid B. Gray, The Cakrasamvara Tantra (The Discourse ofrHeruka): A Study and Annotated Translation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Notes on the contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543


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Evidence for Mahyna Buddhism and

Sukhvatcult inIndia inthemiddleperiod

Early fifth to late sixth centuryNepalese inscriptions*

Diwakar Acharya

During the last three decades, the perception of Indian Buddhismin the middle period has drastically changed. A few scholars havesignificantly contributed to bring about this change, and GregorySCHOPEN is the foremost of them. He has surveyed and analysedlarge bodies of textual and epigraphical data. He has singled outinscriptions significant for the history of Indian Buddhism in Indiain the period from the beginning of the Common Era to the fifth/sixth century, reflected upon them carefully, and matched the in-scriptional evidence with textual evidence. In this way, he has con-vincingly demonstrated that it is virtually impossible to character-ise Indian Buddhism in the middle period as in any meaningful

sense Mahyna (p. 12).1As he remarks, the Mahyna in India,

*An abridged version of this paper was presented as a special lec-ture under the title Mahyna Buddhism and SukhvatCult in AncientNepal at the 14th biennial conference of the International Association ofShin Buddhist Studies held at Ryokoku University, Kyoto, in June 2009.I am grateful to Paul HARRISON, Shoryu KATSURA, Werner KNOBL, JanNATTIER, Vincent TOURNIER, and Yuko YOKOCHIfor their comments andvaluable suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. I would like to thankArlo GRIFFITHSfor improving my English and making valuable remarkson the final draft.

1 If not specified otherwise, all references to Schopen are from his2005 collection Figments and Fragments of Mahyna Buddhism in

India.

Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies


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24 Diwakar Acharya

however, appears to have continued very much on the margins (p.11), and however mainstream the early Mahyna was in China,it was in India constituted of a number of differentially marginal-

ized minority groups (p. 17). This clearly suggests that we needto pay proper attention to the Buddhist communities living in themarginal areas, including Nepal, while dealing with the history ofIndian Buddhism of this period. However, Licchavi inscriptionsfrom Nepal, many of them Buddhist, have not been carefully stud-ied, though they have been published several times. SCHOPENhim-self refers to two undated Nepalese inscriptions from the seventh

century but misses other important ones.2So, in this article, I willpresent some inscriptions from the early fifth to the late sixth cen-tury that have not been rightly read and interpreted until now, andmake a few observations here and there, attempting to analyse thedata in the light of textual evidence.

The earliest inscription from India which clearly refers to Ami-tbha Buddha is the Govindnagar inscription from the time of

Huvika, dated 26 of the Kanika era (equivalent to 104 or 153 CE),inscribed on the pedestal of an image of Buddha Amitbha.3This

2After the publication of Dhanavajra VAJRACHARYAs Nepali book onLicchavi inscriptions, all books on the topic are unoriginal; they rely onhim for the reading and interpretation of inscriptions. REGMI(1983) who

published these inscriptions with an English translation and notes hasheavily relied on him. RICCARDI (1980) has tried in an article to studyall available Licchavi inscriptions which have to do with the history ofBuddhism but, materials being muddled, his study reveals very little andconfuses more. Recently LEWIS(2004) has published a study on traces ofthe Sukhvatcult in Newar society but, his starting point being SCHOPENsconclusions, the histori cal aspect of Sukhvathas remained beyond hisscope. In the same way, while writing the entry on Nepal in Encyclopediaof Buddhism, he has relied on earlier publications. 3Though published several times, this inscription was not edited andinterpreted properly before SCHOPEN. He reread and translated it in his1987 paper (now included in his 2005 collection, pp. 247277). In 1999,FUSSMANpublished his own reading of the inscription with a translationwhich is different in a few places. FUSSMANs understanding of the dateof the inscription is better than SCHOPENs; unlike the latter, he has not


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Mahyna Buddhism and Sukhvatcult inIndia 25

is the first indirect evidence to the early phase of the Mahyna,

ignored va before 2, in the first line, and has rightly interpreted it as anabbreviation for varmsa, the rainy season. Otherwise, I find SCHOPENsreading more accurate.

However, I am bothered with one thing in the second line of the inscrip-tion: the readingp[i]t[-x]()[-x] and its interpretation as an instrumentalsingular ofpit. As SCHOPENhas stated, the upper parts of the akaras arebroken, leaving only the consonants certain, but the vowel sign on top of

the first akarais still partially visible. So, SCHOPENhas conjectured thefirst akaraaspiand suggested to read the word aspit. He himself,however, has noted a negative point against his suggestion: pit inepigraphical sources has generally been interpreted as genitive plural(p. 252). FUSSMANhas tried to get rid of this negative point by suggestinganother reading,pitea, keeping the meaning unchanged.

On logical, contextual and palaeographical grounds, I see problems inaccepting either one of these conjectures. I find it less likely that the do-nor is first introduced as the father of his son, and then as the grandsonand son of his ancestors. We do not have any parallel for such a descrip-tion. Instead, what is logically likely is that he is intro duced as some-ones great-grandson, grandson and son successively. We have parallelsfor such a description even from one of the Kua inscriptions fromMathur (Lders 1961: 194195, 162). However, this parallel is notfrom an inscription in Buddhist Sanskrit but standard San skrit, and so, it

does not help us to conjecture the word we need. Nevertheless, I proposethat the donor is not the father of Sax-caka/Sacaka but a great-grandson.

If we look at the undamaged pi in line 3, we can see that the sign of istarts on the top of the frontal bar of pa, extends to the right, curves in,and rises up turning counterclockwise and making a shape resembling toa swans neck. Now if we look at the proposedpiin line 2, what we see isa stroke starting at the frontal bar ofpaand extending to the left withoutrising up. This sign is very close to the sign of o, so the akaraat issuemust bepo. I present here both of these akaras:

Altogether the word in the inscription seems to be potreawhich onlymeans grandson, but the proper term in the language of the inscriptionshould bepapotrea. I see two possibilities: either we have a case of hap-lography, I mean, the firstpais dropped, orpotra- itself is used here to


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26 Diwakar Acharya

which is not referred to by name in Indian inscriptions until the latefifth and early sixth centuries.4

According to SCHOPEN, the earliest known [inscriptional] refer-ence to Amitbha prior to the Govindnagar inscription occurredin a fragmentary slab inscription from Sc dated to the endof the seventh century (p. 247). This is not true. About a centurybefore the Scinscription, a Nepalese inscription refers not onlyto Amitbha in Sukhvat but also to his attendant Bodhi sattvasLokea and Mahsthmaprpta. Following the proper chronologi-cal order, I will deal with this inscription in detail as the last itemin this article.

I

A lady wants to get rid of her female nature

In front of the Dhado caitya/Bhagavnthn in Chabahil (Kath-mandu), there lies an important inscription which contains someclues hinting at the nature of Buddhism practiced in Nepal at thevery beginning of the fifth century. This is the first half of an origi-nal inscription inscribed on the lotus base5pedestal of a lost imageof Mahmuni.6Unfortunately, the other half of the lotus is missing.

mean great-grandson, when its original meaning is conveyed by anotherequivalent term nttika.

4 Schopen 2005: 11. However, in a mixed Indian and Chinese contextsuch an inscriptional reference is found one century earlier (ibid. 13).

5 This inscribed base, which was placed earlier facing downward,serving as a support to a stone pillar used for offering lamps, in frontof the west face of the caitya, is now turned into the right position since2003, the time of renovation of the caitya. Now that the base was turnedinto the right position, it is possible to see part of a lotus rising above thebase which was under the ground before. See photo on p. 27.

6 Mahmuni is generally regarded as an epithet of the historical Buddha,but the situation might be different in our inscription, and it might havebeen used as an independent substantive, like kyamuni, referring to thehistorical Buddha. When some donation is made to a newly consecratedtemple and recorded in an inscription, the proper designation of the de-


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It contained the other half of the inscription with the second half ofeach line including the year of the religious gift as well as the nameof the then ruling king.7On palaeographical grounds, VAJRACHARYA

ity in that temple is used, not an adjective. So, there is a high chance thatthe image of the Buddha referred to in our inscription was worshipped asMahmuni. It is noteworthy that the secondBahubuddhastrafrom the

Mahvasturecords Mahmuni as one of the Buddhas (SENART1897: 230).Also in the versified core of theDaabhmikasection of theMahvastu,the name kyamuni is used in a similar way, where kyamuni is used

only once but Mahmuni 15 times. See also fn. 31. 7 VAJRACHARYArelates this inscription to the lime-washed white caityain front of which it is currently placed. However, the inscription itselfdoes not speak of any caitya/stpabut of an image of Mahmuni and acommunity of the nobles (ryasagha).

It appears clear to me that the lime- washed caityasurrounded by severalvotive cait yas and more than one Buddha image was in the south end of a

larger vihracomplex. The vihrain an inverted U-shape opening to thecaitya, which must have suffered damage and got repaired several timesin later periods, is now occupied by the Pashupati Mitra High School. Anarrow motorable road separates the caityaand present-day school. Theschool has built new buildings in place of the old ones on one side and re-built the old buildings with additional floors on the other sides. Hopefullythe original foundation is not yet completely destroyed. The complex alsosuffered loss to the east side by the construction of the Ring Road; at that


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28 Diwakar Acharya

makes this inscription the first inscription in his book of Licchaviinscriptions arranged in chronological order. And more, follow-ing late chronicles, he suggests that it can be dated to the time of

Mnadevas great grandfather Vadeva, who is described as sid-ing with Buddhism (sugatasanapakapt) in an eighth centuryinscription of King Jayadeva and late chronicles.

There are in fact some clues in the inscription itself which canhelp us to guess at its time. First, donative formulas in Licchaviinscriptions after King Mnadevas time never begin with theexpression asy

divasaprvy.8So, this can be taken as oneclue to assign it in or before the period of Mnadeva. Second, thisinscription refers to a Jovian year with the atypical expressionmghavare kle, but such a reference is not found again in anyother Licchavi inscription. This system was abandoned in NorthIndia earlier than in the rest of India, though it was still in use inthe south until the beginning of the sixth century.9References toJovian years appear in Gupta inscriptions only between 475528CE10where we find them in a standardised expression a monthname prefixed with mah- and compounded with savatsara. Twomore references appear also in Kadamba inscriptions of about themiddle of the fifth century, but there the expression is not stand-ardised.11 The expression in our inscription is still different butis closer to those found in Kadamba inscriptions. Therefore, it issave enough to place it before Mnadeva, but there is no proper

time, as local people recall, some votive caityas on the track of the roadwere pushed inside the caityacomplex and minor objects were destroyed.

8Even during Mnadevas time, it appears only twice, in inscriptionsdated to aka 419 (VAJRACHARYA1973: no. 15, p. 65) and 425 (VAJRACHARYA1973: no. 16, p. 67).

9 DIKSHIT1888: 316, fn. 16. 10See, FLEET1888, DIKSHIT1888.

11The expressionpauesavatsareoccurs in one of the Halsi grantsof Mgevaravarman dated in his third regnal year (line 8), and vaikhesavatsarein the other dated in his eighth regnal year (line 10). FLEET(1888: 334, fn. 9) relates the use of the prefix mah- to the heliacal-risingsystem and absence of it to the mean sign system.


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ground to say that this inscription really belonged to the time ofMnadevas great grandfather Vadeva (circa 410 CE) as VAJRA-CHARYAsuggested.12The first available inscription of Mnadeva is

dated aka 381 (459/460 CE) and it does not contain a reference toa Jovian year. Before this date, the Jovian year of Mgha fell inaka 371 (449/450 CE), 359 (437/438 CE), 347 (425/426 CE), and 335(413/414 CE).13 So, the image of Mahmuni with this inscriptionmust have been installed in one of these years.14

The inscription, except the last line, is composed in twelve Anu-ubh stanzas. The metre has helped me to determine the numberof missing akaras in each line.

(1) durddharair indriyaiktsnvhyate yair iyam praj dsavat tni sandhryya kpayparipya t[]15[1]

(1) dnala16

12

In the mediaeval period, the caityain front of which our inscriptionis found was called Dhado caitya. This has prompted some scholarsto relate the caityawith Mnadevas father King Dharmadeva. I thinkthis is a very weak argument in the light of the fact that any stpa/caityacan be named after dharma/dharmarja, and we have a few examples ofsuch names, like the Dhammekha stpa in Sarnath and the Dhrmarjikastpain Taxila. No doubt, Dhado can be imagined as a Newar render-ing of Dharmadeva, but it is much more likely that as a name of caitya itrefers to the Dharma-god, the Buddha.

13 My calculation of these years with the Jovian year of Mgha is basedon KETKARs table (1923: 195, table 20).

14 An allusion to the Buddhas identity as a Bodhisattva in our inscrip-tion can be considered as yet another clue for assigning it to a relativelyearly date. As Buddhologists and historians have noted, early Buddhistcult images are overwhelmingly referred to as Bodhisattva in their ac-

companying inscriptions, even when they iconographically representBuddhas. See SCHOPEN2005: 116.

15 VAJRACHARYAreads tand interprets that as a plural, obviously as-suming that the visargahas been dropped by irregularly observing san-dhibetween two verses.

16 The acts of the Buddha are described here incorporating the essentialcomponents of the Bodhisattva path: restraint of the senses, cultivation


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30 Diwakar Acharya

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +17[2]

(2) samprpynuttarajna

prajdukhtpramocit

pramocyasarvvadukhebhyo yo sau ntapadagata[3]

[ma] 18+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + [4]

(3) sakhidya suciraklam bhavanam bhavavicchida kinnarjtakkra19nncitravirjitam[5]

of compassion and the six perfections, attainment of the ultimate knowl-edge, release of all people from sorrow, and departure. The Mahvastudescribes it and says that these acts of the Buddha are purpose ful:kalpakoisahasri aprameyam acintiy | carito bhoti arthya sarvajodvipadottamo || dnalaca knti ca dhynni ca nisevit| prajaca caritprvamkalpakoiatbah|| (SENART1890: 296).

17The language of this inscription is colloquial and structurally loose.In the third stanza, when two successive actions are stated in two verse-halves, the first action stated with a finite verb form in the first half is nar-rated in concatenation in the other half with an absolutive form togetherwith its object. The writing style suggests that the same was true in thelost second half of the second stanza and the first half of the third. Thelatter, which has survived, states the second action released people fromthe sorrow narrating the previous action in absolutive having obtainedthe ultimate knowledge. Therefore, the last pdaof the second stanza

can be reconstructed as , on the basis ofthe narrating phrase in the next stanza.18 The 9th stanza below tells us that the Buddha image the lady donated

was named Mahmuni, and we can judge from the context that stanzas14 are dedicated to praise the inaugurated Buddha, the Mahmuni.Whether these opening verses were written in the form of veneration ofthe Buddha or blessing to the folks, the name of the god is expected here,most likely in the nominative case like in the first verse of MnadevasChgunryaa inscription (VAJRACHARYA 1973: inscription no.2).Another possibility is the dative case. In any case it is most likely that thename of Mahmuni appeared here.

19 Normally it should be kran. In Nepalese manuscripts and some-times even in Licchavi inscriptions a homorganic nasal before a sibilant iswritten as guttural , but guttural before nasal is a rarity. VAJRACHARYAmisses to record this irregularity.


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+20+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + ++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + [6]

(4) catvriat sapaceha yatra dhnyasya mnik vare vare tha jyante ketran tat tdan dadau[7]

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + [8]

(5) bhyasaghasya bhaktrtthapjrttha ca mahmune ketran dattan tayhy atra aviatimnik[9]

+ + + + + + + + + + +21+ + + + +

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + [10](6) vicitradeyadharmmam me krayitveha yac chubham strbhvahi virgyhapuruatvam avpya ca22[11]

okakmamayt pa23+ + + + + + + ++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + [12]

+ + + (7) mghavarse kle haudiva 10 224 asyn

divasaprvvym bharakamahrjar+ + + + + + + + + + + ++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +25

20 VAJRACHARYAreads rhere which I cannot see on the stone or photo.

21 The context asks for an expression meaning of paddy are producedevery year in the lost part, something close to dhnyasya vare varetha jyanteas in stanza 7.

22The usage of virgyahere is noteworthy. This peculiar form is at-tested in theDaabhmika, and other forms of the denominative verbalstem virgayare found also in other Mahyna stras.See EDGERTON, s.v.virgayati.

23 The ligature of tpa is rather clearly visible but VAJRACHARYAdoesnot read pa. I have completed the word by supplying . In the

Aashasrik, all those Bodhisattvas who reach the land of Abhirati are

said to have gone across the mire (uttrapak). For this passage, seebelow, pp. 6263.

24 VAJRACHARYAmisses the symbol of 2 and takes the day as the 10th.

25 If we wanted to guess at the lost part of this line, adapting to the for-mula found in the inscription of aka 425 mentioned before and using thepossible names of the King Vadeva and the donor Crumat, it wouldbe something closer to this: vadevasyasgravaraatasamj-


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32 Diwakar Acharya

Like a slave,26having restrained the hardly restrainable senses by which all these people are carried away [and] having close-ly embraced them, [i.e. the people,] with compassion, charity, good conduct, ; after obtaining the supreme knowledge, freed thepeople from sorrow; [and] after freeing them from all sorrows, heattained the place of peace. That Ma27[ll.12=vv.14]

Taking a lot of trouble28for quite a long time, [she built] the abodeof the destroyer of the worldly existence, [i.e. Mahmuni,] which

payatacrumatysthpito bhagavn mahmuni.

26 The comparison like a slave can logically be associated either withMahmuni or the senses, respectively the subject and object. I feel thatour inscription is alluding, here too, to a specific Buddhist concept like inv.11 below. Therefore, I am associating the comparison with the subject

following the description of one of the arthacarys in theBodhisattva-bhmi. There, a Bodhisattva, though he is abiding in the best and fore-most state of success, is said to be fulfilling the purpose of the beings,like a slave, with his mind lowered (in kindness), and his vanity, pride andego destroyed: punar bodhisattvapravarym agryym api sapadivartamno dsavat preyavad vayaputravac canaladrakavan ncacittonihatamadamnhakra (WOGIHARA 1936: 225 reads nihita= laidaside) sattvnm artham carati(DUTT1966: 154).

Following Arlo GRIFFITHS suggestion, I present the following alterna-tive translation of the first verse: Having restrained them the sensesby which all these people are carried away, and having squeezed these[people], as [one oppresses] a slave, [but] with compassion (rather thanstringency) .

The rootparipliterally means to squeeze properly from all sides ormore negatively to oppress in all ways. As I need something quite posi-

tive for the interpretation I favoured, I have taken it in its figurative sense,to embrace closely.

27 The statement might have concluded with something like thatMahmuni excels all or that Mahmuni may show us/you the way.

28 The literal meaning, being deeply depressed or having forcedproperly, does not work well here. So I take it figuratively with positiveimplications.


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is brilliant with many depictions illustrating [scenes] from theKinnarjtaka [l.3=vv.56]

Here [in the same locality] she donated such a piece of land whereevery year 45 Mniks of paddy are produced29 [l.4=vv.78]

Again, for the purpose of [providing] food for the Community andalso for the purpose of [financing the daily] worship of Mahmuni,another piece of land is donated by her where 28 Mniks [l.5=vv.910]

Whatsoever merit I have by making here this wonderful religious

gift (deyadharma), I may lose attachment to woman-hood and attain manhood, and this consistingof sorrow and longing, 30[l.6=vv.1112]

, the time of the year of Mgha, the bright half ofha, the 12th day. On this day the lord great king Illustrious [l.7]

The inscription mentions that the Kinnarjtakawas depicted on

the walls of the temple of Mahmuni. The likely candidate for thisreference is the Kinnarjtakaof theMahvastu. There is anotherversion of this narrative in theBhaiajyavastuof theMlasarvsti-vdavinaya, which seems to be followed later in theDivyvadna.But in that version, unlike in the Mahvastu, the narrative is notnamed Kinnarjtaka and the character of the Kinnar is nothighlighted.31

29 Since the next piece of land is allocated for sustenance of theCommunity and daily worship of Mahmuni, it can be said that this pieceof land with a larger amount of income was allocated for maintenanceand repair of the abode, and probably to finance the annual ceremony(varavardhana) which is known from many Licchavi inscriptions.

30Following the parallels from theMahvastuand theAashasrik,we can say that the next thing our lady donor is expected to wish is herrebirth in one of the bodhisattvabhmis, if not yet in the peaceful abodeof Mahmuni. See below, p. 34.

31 I am aware of the fact that the Mahvastu is a composite text andthe Kinnarjtaka might not have been part of it from the beginning.However, my supposition is that thisjtakawas already integrated in the

Mahvastuby the time of our inscription.


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34 Diwakar Acharya

It is interesting that this inscription praises the Buddha asMahmuni, alluding to the path of the Bodhisattva, and it is almostcertain that the inscription makes a reference to the sixpramits:

two of them appear in the beginning of a compound, and the metreeasily allows us to include the rest in the proper order in the samecompound. Again, the sixpramits are present in early Mahynatexts and also in theMahvastu.32

The lady donor of the image of Mahmuni with this inscriptionfirst wishes to lose her attachment to womanhood and become aman by the merit of this donation. A woman on the Bodhisattvapath is expected to change her gender and become a man at somepoint prior to the attainment of Buddhahood. Early Buddhist textsindeed hold a strict view on the spiritual limitations of women. Alsothe Mahvastu implies this in the Daabhmika section, thoughquite vaguely, when it states that those Dharma followers who arein any of the ten stages are all men, not born again as a woman.33This idea is found in many of the Mahyna stras including theAashasrik, where Sister Gagadev is predicted to becomea man and reach the land of Akobhya to undertake the Bodhi-

32 If, as I suggested in fn. 6 above, a cult which worshipped the kya-muni Buddha as Mahmuni had existed, that possibly had a link with theschool of Mahsghikas whose offshoot, the Lokottaravdins, preserve

theMahvastuin their Vinaya. Our inscription relates Mahmuni and theKinnarjtaka of theMahvastu. The name Mahmuni appears 27 timesin theMahvastu, more than in any other text (the Saddharmapuarkacomes second with 11 occurences).

It is worth mentioning here that the presence of the Mahsghikas inNepal in the subsequent period has been considered to follow from afragmentary inscription ascribed to the middle of the seventh century.This is a two line inscription damaged on the right side, first published byLvi (no. 17, plate 18). It reads the following preceded by an auspicioussign: (1) deyadharmoya rdhrmarjikmtya-su[pa] // (2) sghi-kabhikusaghasa// (LVIdoes not read pa.). Unfortunately, the prefixmah- is missing, which limits the importance of the inscription.

33 SENART1882: 103: atha khalu sarvsu daabhmiu purubhavantisarvgapratyagopetavikalendriy[]. (The edition omits visarga,probably because ofyacain the following.)


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sattva vow there, and become finally the Buddha Suvarapupa.34Even the wording in our inscription reminds us of the phrase in theAashasrik.35

II

It is known that Buddhists were present in Nepal before Mnadeva,i.e. the early fifth century CE, but how strong they were in the soci-ety is not known well. No Buddhist inscription has yet been discov-ered from the time of Mnadeva.36However, I would like to draw

34 This idea is found also in the nineteenth chapter of theAashasrik(WOGIHARA 1935: 745): seyam nanda gagadev bhagin strbhvavivartya puruabhvapratilabhya itacyutvakobhyasya tathgata-syrhata samyaksabuddhasya buddhaketre abhiraty lokadhtvupapatsyate.

35 The wording of the inscription,strbhvahivirgyhapuruatvamavpya ca, is very close to theAashasrikwording: strbhvavivar-tya(vivarjyain the Pacaviatishasrik)puruabhvapratilabhya.

Here are two more statements close to the expression in the inscription:Samdhirja32.157cd158ab: vivartayitvstrbhvasa bhaved dhar-mabhaka, na spuno pistrbhvamitapacd grahyati.Ratna-ketuparivarta (II.27: KURUMIYAp. 50): strbhvam antardhya purua-bhva savtto. Ratnaketuparivarta speaks also of transformation of

marks and organs of women into those of men in the same chapter. 36Because the major caityas of the Kathmandu valley have been reno-vated continuously, and since mediaeval times such renovations are doneby Tibetan monks or under their guidance, these caityas have taken newcomponents from time to time, reflecting ongoing changes in contempo-rary traditions. That is why we have to rely on personally donated im-ages or caityas of comparatively small size in order to have an idea ofBuddhism in the Licchavi period.

No excavation in the vicinity of the major caityas of Kathmandu val-ley have yet been carried out. It is not easy to excavate a main shrine orstpa as they are still places of active worship, but it is not impossible todo so in a courtyard. The Buddhist tradition was never discontinued inNepal. So, such excavations, I must say, would be of great help for theunderstanding of Buddhism in the middle period and its transformationin later times.


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36 Diwakar Acharya

attention to an interesting and exceptional case of the Buddhistdonative formula yad atra puya being blended in a aivainscription from Budhanilakantha (Kath mandu) inscribed on the

base of a ivaligaand dated in [aka] savat 398 (476/477 CE).37The related portion of the inscription runs this way:

npatipraato jagdatvatsthpanjanitam asti yad atra puyamtat sarvvalokasahitasya vivddhamlamdukhakayya bhagavan mama sarvathstu.

The king , bowed to [the god], said: Whathere is the merit produced from this action of founding you, [i.e.the ivaliga,] O lord, its roots properly grown, may that be forthe complete destruction of sorrow of me together with all [my]people.

This indicates that Buddhist ideas were already popular in Nepalby this period and were even adopted by other religious groups.

Furthermore, we know from Anuparamas Dvaipyanastotrainscription, installed before 540 CE, that the Buddhists had madegood advance by that time, and the orthodox Brahmanical sectionof society had got alarmed at that development.38The two inscrip-tions presented below are further evidence for their growing influ-ence.

There are not many inscriptions until the late fifth and early

sixth centuries in India which could even indirectly be related toMahyna. So, these inscriptions deserve attention and should beadded to the list of inscriptions related to Mahyna. First I presenta quite damaged inscription from the pedestal of a lost image ofAvalokitevara39which is dated in [aka] savat479 (558 CE):

(1)savat 479 dvityha yajva (2) bhagavadryy-

37 VAJRACHARYA1973: 4142, no. 7. The year of this inscription, firstread 396, has been corrected to 398 in PANT1986: 275276.

38 For an elaboration on this, see ACHARYA2007.

39 At present, this pedestal supports an image of Viu in a small tem-ple located in Brahma Tol, Kathmandu, but the inscription on it clearlysuggests that it once supported a Buddhist image.


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mnenrddha (3) sarvvajajn-vptaye bhavatu40

The [aka] year 479, the second ha yajva [animage of] the Blessed One, Ary half the sizeof (?) may that be for the obtaining of the knowledge of theOmniscient.

Though only a few words of this inscription are preserved, it stillcontains the last part of a variant of the Mahyna formula, sarva-jajnvptaye, and parts of the donors and the deitys names.

There is another similar inscription which has almost every-thing intact except the date in the beginning. The kings name isalso damaged partially, but GNOLIreads it Rmadeva (circa 547 CE).VAJRACHARYAreads only -deva, which is clearly visible; neverthe-less, he places it before the above inscription of 558 CEin his bookon Licchavi inscriptions, obviously following GNOLIs suggestion.However, as I can read the lower part of the ligature before deva

as gain the rubbing produced by Gnoli, I am of the opinion thatit should be Gagdeva (circa 567 CE). This will make the inscrip-tion ten years younger than the one cited above. The place of find-ing, nature and palaeography suggest that the two inscriptions aresomehow related. I present here my reading and translation of theinscription:

(1) o sva ++++++++++ bhattrakama[g]devasya sgravaraatasamj (2)sarvva-sattvahitasukhrtthya bhagavata ryyvalokitevarantha41 prati-hpita[SPACE]deyadharmmo yaparamopsakamaiguptasya(3) bhryyaymahendramaty saha yad attra puya tad bha[va]tu mtpitprvvagama ktv sarvvasattvn sarvvkrava-ropeta(4)+++++sarvvajajnvptaye42

40 I am unable at present to go and read this inscription on the spot.Therefore I simply reproduce VAJRACHARYAs reading. See VAJRACHARYA1973: 185, no. 43.

41 This sentence is grammatically incorrect. It needs to be either bha-gavnryyvalokitevaranthaor bhagavnryyvalokitevarantha-syavigraha.

42 VAJRACHARYA1973: 177, no. 40.


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38 Diwakar Acharya

Om, good when the lord great gdeva is ruling for hundred years and further, [an image of]the lord ryvalokitevara, the Blessed One, has been set up. This is

a charity of Paramopsaka Maigupta together with his wife Mahen-dramat. Whatever merit [is obtained through this action], may thatbe for all beings, first and foremost his mother and father, for theobtaining of the knowledge of the Omniscient endowed with allexcellent forms.

Both of these inscriptions are special as they contain the term sarva-jajna, which is attested in many Mahyna stras including

the Kyapaparivarta,Aashasrik, larger Sukhvatvyhaandalso in AsagasBodhisattvabhmi. Compared to sarvajajna,anuttarajnais poorly represented in the stras, although it seemsto be the predominant expression in inscriptions (SCHOPEN2005:241, fn. 14; 265).

From the second of the two inscriptions we can tell that sarva-jajna was the last member of a tripartite compound which

contained sarvkravaropeta as the first and another word offive akaras as the second member. Sarvkravaropeta appearsonce qualifying nyat in the Aashasrik (WOGIHARA 1935:750), and once in theLalitavistaraqualifying supariodhitajna(VAIDYA1958: 309). In the Daabhmika (KONDO1936: 61), sar-vkravaropetasarvajajnais found as a compound without anyintervening element, and in the Pacaviatishasrik (KIMURA

2006: 166), we find sarvkravaropetacompounded with sarv-krajat. In a seventh century Nepalese inscription, anuttara iscombined with sarvajajnain a similar donative formula,43andthis combination is also attested in the Gaavyha. However, inour inscription just anuttarais not possible, because we have spacefor five akaras, and -ta- at the end of the first word is intact, whichwould not have been so if the following akarahad begun with a

vowel. I therefore guess that the damaged word was sarvnuttara(supremest) which is attested as an adjective to samyaksabodhiin the Kyapaparivarta.44

43 SCHOPEN2005: 256 and fn. 15.

44 Following STAL-HOLSTEIN (1926: 8), VOROBYOVA-DESYATOVSKAYA


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III

The inscription on a caturvyhacaityafrom Tyagal

As I mentioned earlier, a Nepalese inscription that mentions thetriad of Amitbha and his Buddha world Sukhvatcomes secondchronologically only to the Govindnagar inscription and is to beplaced before the Scslab inscription. This inscrip tion is signifi-cant in many respects. It is inscribed on four sides of one of the twostone caityas in a courtyard of Tyagal Tol in Patan district of Kath-

mandu valley.45It is not dated but on palaeographical grounds it isplaced about the time of Auvarman, i.e. the late sixth or earlyseventh century, by VAJRACHARYA.

Each side of the square base of the caitya, like the one seen inthe photo on the next page, contains a verse, inscribed in two lines,which praises the Tathgata worshipped on that side together withhis two Bodhisattvas. The odd and even pdas of each verse are

separated by the niche of each Ta thgata lying in the middle of thewall. In the following pages, as I have placed the photos of the twosides on top of each other, the aand cpdas precede band d inthese photos.

This inscription was published for the first time by the Sa-odhana Maala team in the fifth issue of their Nepali journal

et al (2002: 56) introduce a wrong word division and read y casatv[n] paripcayati tn sarvn uttarasy() samyaksabodh[au].Since anuttarasy samyaksabodhau is attested dozens of times inMahyna stras, I suggest to read sarvnuttarasyas a compound.

One more expression found in our inscription, sarvasattvahitasukha-, ap-pears in several Mahyna stras including the Pacaviatishasrikand the larger Sukhvatvyha.

45 I am grateful to Nepali historian and writer Devichandra SHRESTHAfor his help in locating the caitya. I am also grateful to two researchers,Nirajan KAFLE and Rajit Bahadur SHRESTHA, and photographer YogeshBUDHATHOKI, all from the Nepal Research Centre, for their help in prepar-ing photographs of the caityaand the inscription. As the inscribed part ofthe caityawas covered with lime and other substances, the photo qualityis not so good. I regret the resulting inconvenience involved.


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40 Diwakar Acharya

Prim, and ithas been includedin VAJRACHARYAs

book.46But the valu-able informationcontained in thisinscription has yetto be revealed, soit is necessary toread and interpret it

again. It consists offour verses in threemetres: the first inUpajti, the secondin ikhari, andthe third and fourthin Vasantatilaka.

The first and secondverses are in firstperson singular andthe other two are insecond person plu-ral. This inscriptiondoes not say any-

thing about the donor of the caityaor the context of the donation.Let me now present my reading of the inscription, which in-

cludes five improvements as compared to VAJRACHARYAs edition,and translate it.

East side:

1) [siddham]47akobhyam akobhyaitgramrtin

tathgatastaumy abhito bhiratym

46 VAJRACHARYA1973: inscription no. 98, 387388. He has misjudged thedirections of the Buddhas and placed Akobhya in the north, kyamuniin the west, Samantakusuma in the south and Amitbha in the east.

47 VAJRACHARYA(1973: 387) reads o.


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2) samantabhadram bhuvi bhadracrian tathaiva sannirmalakrtimlinam

bhiratym] bhiramyamV; bhadracrian] bhadrakrianV

South side:

1) mahprajlokakatabhavamahmohatimira sukhvatyvande satatam amitbha jinaravim

2) salokealokodbhavabhayaharam pakajadharam

mahsthmapr[]psnigdhamana[sam]


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42 Diwakar Acharya

West side:

1) saddharmaratnakusumastavakcitgambuddhasamantakusuman namatbjavatym

2) majuriyam paramadharmavidakumrannitya ca susthitamatikaruaikatnam

North side:

1) [yo va]m m

bhaktydya tan namata kyamunim mu[na]48

2) maitryhya guhydhipavimalavajradharasah[ym]

yo va]yvaV; maitryhya] maitryrddhaV; sahym] sahbjamV

48Mu[nndra] is another possibility.


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[East side:] From the front, I praise Akobhya Tathgata [residing] inthe world of Abhirati, who is the embodiment of the imperturbableand sharp-pointed [nature].49 [I praise] Samantabhra [Bodhisattva],

who performs good [deeds] on earth, and in the same way, San nir-malakrtimlin [Bodhisattva].

[South Side:] I always venerate Amitbha, the Sun-like Jina, in theworld of Sukhvat, who has destroyed the darkness of the great illu-sion of existence with the light of great wisdom; Mahsthmaprpta,whose mind is affectionately disposed due to compas-sion, and Lokea,50who holds a lotus and wards off the dangers of

arising in the world.[West Side:] [O people,] you must bow to the Buddha Samantakusumain the world of Abjavat, whose limbs are covered with bunches of theprecious flowers of the True Dharma, to Majur[Bodhisattva], theprince who knows the Dharma best, and to Susthitamati [Bodhisattva],whose mind is fixed on compassion eternally.51

[North Side:] [O people,] you must bow now devotedly to kyamuni,

the lord of ascetics, who , to the one who is rich in benevolence(maitryhya) , [and] to the lord of Guhyas who holds the stainlessVajra, [i.e. Vajrapi]; [all] in the Sahworld.

In this caitya, the four Tathgatas are placed on four sides of thesquare lower level, and the eight Bodhisattvas at the higher levelbefore the dome begins. Even though the inscribed verses place

49The original meaning of ita is sharpened, and this meaning fitswell here, but VAJRACHARYA (1973: 387) has taken it as blue. Thoughthis wrong interpretation is a result of phonetic confusion of and s, onecan find its roots in Akobhyas visualisations from Tantric texts whichattribute to him a bluish/blackish complex ion. Besides, one could alsosplit a compound like ours where akobhyaand itaappear together intoakobhyand aita, and thus, get closer to black (asita). Something like

this could be lying behind the attributed complexion of Akobhya. 50 The inscription reads salokea, which means together with Loke-a. If we translate it faithfully, the next words in thepda, which in factdescribe Lokea, will be adjectives to Amitbha. So I have translatedsalokeaas and Lokea following the demand of the context.

51 As an alternative, one can probably take nityaadverbially with theimperative namatha.


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44 Diwakar Acharya

Tathgatas and Bodhisattvas side by side in their respective worlds,the lower level houses four niches and the higher level eight.52Thisclearly suggests that, in this caitya, the Tathgatas are placed in thelower level and the Bodhisattvas in the higher.53In the lower level,though bodily shapes are still visible in the images of four Tathga-tas, they are damaged beyond recognition; and there is no certainty

that these are remains of the original images. The same is true with

52 As one Bodhisattva is exactly above the Tathgata, the secondBodhisattva is a little bit to the side. Probably this was not the originalway that the Bodhisattvas were placed. If the block of Bodhisattvas isrotated just a little, two Bodhisattvas come in the center of each side. Itis possible that at a time of renovation people forgot to fix the upper partrightly. 53This appears a bit odd, but it is also true that in early images theBuddha is depicted in human/ascetic form, while the attending Bodhi-sattvas are depicted in godly or rather royal forms. Anyway, the fact thatsometimes Bodhisattvas seem to supplant the Buddha in importance andstature is not new. To some extent, SCHOPEN (2005: 278279) has dealtwith this problem while identifying a Mahyna scene painted at Aja.


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the niches in the higher level, but four of them now contain lateimages of the Buddha, Majur, Padmapi, and probably Tr,which are already damaged to some extent, and the other four are

either empty or contain pieces of defaced stones (see photo on p.44).54So, we do not know how these Tathgatas and Bodhisattvaswere originally represented. The original top structure above thedome has been lost, and at present, a rather late and unmatchingstructure covered with painted metal plates is superimposed on topof the dome (see photo on p. 40).

Four image cults fitted in the caitya

Apart from the evidence it provides for a rather unique form ofMahyna practiced in Nepal in the late sixth century, this lastinscription provides evidence for early efforts in fitting variousTathgatas and Bodhisattvas in four directions, and thus producinga cult object acceptable to the followers of specific books, or rather

different Mahyna models. The set of four triads found here is notfound anywhere else.

The cult of Akobhya

The beginning of the inscription on the east side of the caitya isindicated by an auspicious symbol, and here is housed Akobhya

Tathgata together with Samantabhadra and Sannirmalakrtimlinin the Abhirati world. We know Akobhyas Abhirati world inthe east from several Mahyna and Vajrayna sources, but theBodhisattvas associated with him in Vajrayna texts are generallyMaitreya and Kitigarbha. This triad is unique in itself and pro-vides evidence of an archaic cult of Akobhya or the eastern/earli-est pure land.

We know from theAkobhyavyha, one of the early Mahynatexts translated into Chinese, which is also made part of theMah-

54 As ALSOP has argued, the Licchavi stone caityas were originallybuilt with empty niches. It is highly probable that this was the case withour caitya, and whatever we see now under the niches, defaced stones orrecognisable images, are unoriginal.


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46 Diwakar Acharya

ratnakacollection,55and the portions of theAashasrikregard-ed as additions (but made before the second century CE)56that thecult of Akobhya predated the cult of Amitbha,57though we do not

have epigraphical evidence for it. Akobhya appears in theMah-vastu as one of the irreversible (avaivartika) Bodhisattvas in theninth bhmi.58The Akobhyavyhadescribes how a Bodhisattvaattained Buddhahood to become the Buddha Akobhya; however,in added portions of the Aashasrik, he is already the Buddhaof the east in Abhirati.

The Bodhisattva Samantabhadra is generally associated withSkyamuni in mediaeval Mahyna sources. However, he is said tobe coming from the east, the direction of Akobhya, in the Saman-tabhadrotshanachapter of the Saddharmapuarka.59This way,there is at least one scriptural indication for Samantabhadras asso-ciation with the east, but except for our inscription we do not haveany other scriptural or epigraphical evidence for his direct associa-tion with Akobhya. He is already associated with Vairocana in theGaavyha,60 and finally depicted as the primordial Buddha inlater Tantric traditions.

The name of the other Bodhisattva, Sannirmalakrtimlin, isnot attested anywhere as a Bodhisattva, if we are to take the nameas it features in the verse. We could consider that the real name ofthis Bodhisattva is Vimalakrti, who narrates Dharma to Majur,

55 The Bajaur manuscripts in Kharosthi script and Gandhari languagealso include a large portion of an early Mahyna stra related with the

Akobhyavyha, see STRAUCH2007: 4760.

56For identification of these portions, see CONZE1967: 172173.

57 NATTIER2000: 101102.

58 SENART1882: 139.59 Saddharmapuarka 26: atha khalu samantabhadro bodhisat-

tvo mahsattva prvasy dii gaansamatikrntair bodhisattvairmahsattvaisrdhaparivta

60For example, SUZUKI& IDZUMI1934: 425:yathceha sahyloka-dhtau bhagavato vairocanasya pdamlagata samantabhadro bo-dhisattvo dakia pi prasrya sudhanasya mrdhni pratihpa-

ymsa, tathsarvalokadhtuu


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riputra and others in the Vimalakrtinirdea, and that the namein our verse is a descriptive term, as it is almost parallel in meaningwith the original name.61We in fact have a secure case of an exten-

sion of a Bodhisattvas name with an extra adjective, Vimalavajra-dhara for Vajradhara, in one of the verses from our inscription.However, the ragamasamdhihints at a greater possibility ofthis Bodhisattvas name being a bit longer than Vimalakrti, some-thing very close to the term in our inscription. This stramentionsthe Bodhisattva *Matyabhimukha who visits kyamuni from theBuddha Akobhyas world of Abhirati, and is predicted to become

the Buddha *Vimalaprabhkrtirja in a future aeon.62As indicatedby the application of asterisks, both of these names are reconstruct-ed into Sanskrit from Chinese by LAMOTTE. If we consider chancesof error in such reconstructions, we can presume that the originalshape of the name reconstructed as *Vimalaprabhkrtirja was notfar from the name in our inscription.63The substitution of vimala-with sannirmala- can be metri causa; the former does not fit any-

where in the verse. I would say, vimalaprabhkrti- (fame of stain-less brilliance) of the reconstruction is not so logical or suitable toSanskrit word order, but if we correct it to vimalakrtiprabh- (bril-

61 I do not think that Vimalakrti s identity as a layman poses problemto his inclusion in the triad of Akobhya as an object of devotion. It is not

necessary that both of the Bodhisattvas included in a triad are of equalstatus. In fact in all four triads from our inscription, the first Bodhisattvais superior to the second in the same set (see p. 70).

Because in the VimalakrtinirdeaVimalakrti is made to narrate Dharmaeven to Majur, a celestial Bodhisattva with the role of a saviour, onecan imagine how much importance is attached to him in certain tradi-tions: he is regarded virtually superior in knowledge and its transmissioneven though he is a layman. However, it is true that he is dropped offin

later traditions (with a few exceptions). 62 LAMOTTE1998: 7879.

63 Here I remind the reader that when Khotanese fragments of the r-agamasamdhiwere discovered, EMMERICKwas able to correct threeBodhisattva names reconstructed by LAMOTTE: Meruikharadhara toMeruikharakarja, Vimalacandragarbha to aivimalagarbha, Sarva-ratnaracitto Sarvaratnapratyupta. See, LAMOTTE1998: xv.


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48 Diwakar Acharya

liance of stainless fame), it becomes natural and also equivalentto the metaphorical expression sannirmalakrtiml. As the lastcomponent of the reconstructed name, -rjameans nothing more

than the -insuffix. Thus, this much can be said that Vimalakrti or*Vimalaprabhkrtirja64is the closest match for Sannirmalakrti-mlin of our inscription.

Vimalakrti appears also in the first two chapters of the TantricMajurmlakalpa(Sstr1920: 8, 40), and in the second occur-rence he is made one of sixteen Mahbodhisattvas. It is noteworthythat the Vimalakrtinirdea contains a passage which proves hisassociation with Akobhya. When asked by riputra, Vimalakrtitells that he comes from Abhirati, the world of Akobhya Tathgata,and Skyamuni confirms his statement. Vima lakrti further clari-fies that he has come to an impure world from a pure world for thesake of purification of all beings.65What is more, upon a request ofthe assembly, he brings the Abhirati world into the Sahworld, i.e.our world.66

This way, we can prove an earlier association of Vimalakrti aswell as Samantabhadra with the Buddha Akobhya on the basis ofthese hints from the Vimalakrtinirdeaand Saddharmapuarka.However, neither of the stras can be the source for the triad ofAkobhya mentioned in our inscription, because both stras men-tion only one of the two Bodhisattvas and lack the other.

The Akobhyavyha and Aashasrik, the earliest straswhich are related to Akobhya, do not even mention either ofthe two Bodhisattvas from our inscription. However, both ofthese stras relate the Bodhisattva Gandhahasti with the BuddhaAkobhya, as the one whose future Buddhahood is predicted atthe time of Akobhyas departure. If observed properly, it is pos-sible to see that the same motif lies behind the names Gandha-

64 On the identification of *Vimalaprabhkrtirja with Vimalakrti,see LAMOTTE, 1998: 170, fn. 181.

65 The concept that the land of Akobhya is pure lies behind this state-ment. It seems that by the time of the composition of the Vimalakrtinirdeaa general concept of pure land was already at work.

66 Vimalakrtinirdea 11.24.


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hasti and Samantabhadra. Gandhahasti literally means fragrantelephant, which is a descriptive adjective to an elephant of the besttype.Bhadrais the best of elephant types,67and Samantabhadras

association with elephants is suggested in iconography by plac-ing him on a seat with elephants on all sides (samantabhadra). Inthis way, both of these names mean almost the same thing. Thissuggests that Samantabhadra is a metamorphosis of Gandhahasti,which took place after the Akobhyavyha and the additions totheAashasrik,68and before the longer SukhvatvyhawhereSamantabhadra appears. It appears that there existed a tradition

that connected Samantabhadra to Akobhya slightly posterier tothe additions to theAashasrik.

As for the triad of Akobhya, it must have been formed alreadyalong with other triads by the time of composition of the longerSukhvatvyhawhich mentions Amitbhas triad, and the Paca-viatishasrik which mentions in passing Samantakusumastriad in a world-system far away (see below).

The cult of Amitbha

Moving to the south in the path of circumambulation, we find themost famous triad of Amitbha Tathgata and his two Bodhisat-tvas, Avalokitevara (here spelt Lokea possibly for metres sake)and Mahsthmaprpta. This set is found in two stras of Pure

Land Buddhism: the longer version of the Sukhvatvyha andthe Contemplation Sutra.69The first strasays that, in the west in

67The three types of elephants are bhadra, mandraand mga. Threesubtypes, bhadramandra, bhadramgaand mgamandra are also men-tioned in theRmyaa(I.6.22).

68 Apart from these two texts, Gandhahasti appears also in theVimalakrtinirdea and the shorter Sukhvatvyha as a member ofthe assembly of kyamuni, when the Samdhirja makes him visitkyamuni from the world of Akobhya. Samantabhadra does not appearin these texts. Both of these names are used only in the relatively lateKarupuarkaandMajurmlakalpa.

69The other stra, the shorter version of the Sukhvatvyha, spells thename of the Tathgata Amityus instead of Amitbha, and does not men-


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50 Diwakar Acharya

Sukhvat Lokadhtu is Amitbha Tathgata, the Arhat; he hastwo Bodhisattvas: the first of them is Avalokitevara, and Mah-sthmaprpta is the other.70 The second stra states in the same

way, for example, in one place, when these words were spoken,Amityus appeared in the air above, attended on his left and rightby the two Mahsattvas, Avalokitevara and Mahsthmaprpta.So brilliant was their radiance that it was impossible to see them indetail (INAGAKI1995: 328).

This triad is well known and widespread. It arrived in Chinain the early phase of transmission of Buddhism and is worshippedtoday in East Asian countries, but in the Indian context our inscrip-tion is the first incontrovertible evidence71for the existence of theSukhvatcult proper.

The cult of Samantakusuma

Moving to the west, we find Samantakusuma Tathgata with

Majurand Susthitamati. In the Pacaviatishasrikat the endof the introductory section, exactly this triad of the Buddha Saman-takusuma is mentioned. As the stradescribes, ten Bodhisattvasfrom the Buddha worlds of the ten directions visit kyamuni inSah, and worship him with jewel lotuses of golden colour as hedelivers his sermons. At the end flowers are scattered all around,and he is covered with them and so is his world. It is now com-

tion Avalokitevara and Mahsthmaprpta even among the assembledBodhisattvas. For the two alternative names Amitbha and Amityus, seeNATTIER2007.

70pacimydii sukhvatylokadhtv amitbho nma tath-gato rhan (ASIKAGA1965: 26); ekas tayor nanda avalokitevaro bo-dhisattvo mahsattvadvityo mahsthmaprpto nma (ASIKAGA1965:49). VAIDYAs edition of the text hasMahsthmaprptoinstead of Sth-maprpto.

71 The celebrated Mohammad Nari stele of uncertain date (third orfourth century CEor even later?) could serve as such evidence but it has be-come quite controversial regarding the date and identification. However,its identification as a depiction of Sukhvatis rejected by many scholarsbut accepted by some (e.g. HUNTINGTON1980, QUAGLIOTTIet al1996).


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posed of jewels and precious stones, and filled with flowers andfruits just like the world system Padmvat, the Buddha-field ofthe Tathgata Samantakusuma, where Majurthe Crown Prince

resides, and the Bodhisattva Susthitamati, and other very powerfulBodhisattvas.72

Though a Buddha of this name does not appear in theAas-hasrik, an almost synonymous term, Avakrakusuma, ScatteredFlowers, appears there as the name given to a large group of futureBuddhas. In the same stra, we find yet another Buddha calledSuvarapupa who is named after a similar concept and describedin a similar way. The name Samantakusuma means Flowers AllAround and Suvarapupa means Golden Flowers. While theBuddha Samantakusuma is described in our inscription as hav-ing his limbs covered with bunches of flowers of True Dharma,73Suvarapupa is also described as a future Buddha in a similarfashion in the Aashasrik: Skyamuni shines a golden smilewhen Sister Gagadev appears in his assembly. When nanda

asks why he is smiling, he tells that Sister Gagadevwill becomethe Buddha Suvarapupa in the future, and relates the name of thefuture Buddha with the ladys brahmacaryavow under the BuddhaDpakara, and her act of covering the latter with golden flowers.74

72 CONZE 1975: 44; Sanskrit text (DUTT 1934: 17): tadyathpi nma

padmvatlokadhtusamantakusumasya tathgatasya buddhaketrayatra majurkumrabhtaprativasati susthitamatica bodhisattvaanye ca mahaujaskbodhisattv.

The world of Samantakusuma is named Abjavat in our inscription forthe sake of metre. The world of Padmvatis rarely attested. Beyond thePacaviatishasrikandAjitasenavykaraa (see fn. 80 below), it ap-pears once in the Gaavyha(SUZUKI& IDZUMI1949: 82) but is speltPadmavatand the Buddha there is also different.

73 Ratnakusumasapupitagtra, a name almost identical in meaningto this attribute of Samantakusuma, appears as the name of one of theTathgatas in the Smaller Sukhvatvyha. In both places the key wordratnakusumais common. Besides, in the Gaavyha(VAIDYAp. 66), wefind a Bodhisattva situated in the southwest whose long name incorpo-rates the phrase samantakusuma.

74 SeeAashasrik19 (WOGIHARA1935: 747).


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52 Diwakar Acharya

TheAkobhyavyha, however, mentions the same Buddha underthe name Golden Lotus (as rendered into English from Chinese).The topos is basically the same (though it adds the theme of the

preceding Buddhas parinirva) but the characters involved aredifferent: on the day of his parinirva, the Buddha Akobhyawill predict Bodhisattva Fragrant Elephants attainment ofBuddhahood, saying, After my parinirva, you will become aBuddha, named Tathgata Golden Lotus. At that time, the godsand humans will all scatter over the Buddha garlands of flowers,many kinds of incense, and clothing. The scattered fragrant flowers

will pile up around the Buddha to a height of one league (CHANG1983: 331).

The Buddha figure behind these different names, it appears tome, is the Buddha on the seat of enlightenment (bodhimaa).75Letus read the following two representative76passages from theMah-vastu, a small portion of a long description of the veneration of theBuddha by the deities:

75 The bodhimaawas once the most important symbol of Buddhism.It had a status comparable to the caitya; or rather, it was the bodhimaawhich used to make the caityaworthy of veneration. I cite here a pas-sage from theAashasrik, as quoted by SCHOPENin one of his articles,which highlights the importance of the bodhimaa:

Just Kauika, as those men and ghosts who have gone to the terrace ofenlightenment, or its circumference, or its interior or to the foot of thetree of enlightenment, cannot be hurt by men, or ghosts, or be injured bythem, or taken possession of, even with the help of evil animal beings,except as a punishment for former deeds. (CONZEs translation quotedin SCHOPEN2005: 29)

Once Buddha images were introduced, they took the place of thebodhimaa and also of other aniconic symbols. It appears to me thatsome of the early Buddha figures were held to be connected with certainaniconic symbols which indicated the Buddhas presence when his imag-es were not yet introduced. So, perhaps, Akobhya and Samantakusumahave to be connected with the seat of enlightenment, kyamuni with theBodhi tree, and Amitbha with the wheel of Dharma.

76 Other passages of interest from the Mahvastu are: SENART 1890:303, 309, 352353, 1897: 277278.


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For seven days while he sat on his solitary seat thousands of koisof devas paid him honour. Over that seat they scattered powder ofsandal-wood tree and flowers of the coral tree. Above it celestial mu-

sical instruments struck up and played. Then devas from above scat-tered down powder of the celestial sandal-wood tree; of the celestialaloe-wood, of the celestial keara, of celestial tamla. They showereddown flowers of the celestial coral tree, of the celestial great coraltree, of the karkrava, of the great karkrava, of the rocamna, ofthe bhma, of the samantagandha, of the great samantagandha, ofthe majaka, of the great majaka, celestial flowers of thepri-

jtaka, flowers of gold, of silver, of all precious jewels. There appeared

in the sky thirty thousand celestial and bejewelled sunshades shadingthe Conquerors body, which was like a rock overlaid with preciousstones, like a tope of gold, blessed with the root of virtue acquired inseveral kois of kalpas (JONES1952: 269270).77

Again, monks, when the Tathgata had awakened to the unsurpassedperfect enlightenment, for a full seven-days he sat alone cross-leg-ged. Then devas of earth, devas of sky, and the Akaniha devas,

for a full seven-days honoured, revered, worshipped, and adored theTathgata on his noble bodhi throne. And for a full seven-days thewhole universe of three thousand worlds became one vision of splen-dour.

On that occasion the Exalted One uttered these verses:

For a full seven-days the perfect Buddha, the monument of thewhole world, after awakening to the supreme enlightenment did

77 SENART1890: 286287: sapthaeksane devakosahasri pja-yensu. tasmi sane divya candanacra okirensu pupehi camndravehi okirensudivyni tryi upari aghaitni pravdyensutad dev ca divyni candanacrni uparito prakirensu divyni caagurucrni divyni ca kealacrni divyni tamlapatracrni

divyni mndravi pupi pravarensu mahmndravi pu-pi karkravi mahkarkravni rocamnni mahrocamnnibhmi mahbhmi samantagandhni mahsamantagandhnimajakni mahmajakni prijtakapupi divyni suvaapu-

pi rupyapupi sarvaratanmayni pupi pravarensu divynitriac-chatasahasri divyni ratnamayni antarkasmi pr-durbhtni cchdayensujinakyaailaratnmayastpavsu-varamayanaikakalpakoikualamlasamanvgata.


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54 Diwakar Acharya

not rise from his seat.

Thousands of kois of devas assembled in the sky, and for a fullseven-nights poured down a shower of blossoms. Blue lotuses, redlotuses, campaka, and white lotuses, lovely thousand-petalled andbrilliant, did the devas pour down(JONES1952: 317318).78

TheBuddhacaritabriefly describes this episode in the second halfof the fourteenth canto, while theLalitavistaraelaborates it in fourchapters, 1923, and even beyond in the twenty-fourth. There, dif-ferent classes of deities and beings are made to venerate the Buddha

with various materials: incenses, lights,fl

owers, jewels and so on.Both theBuddhacarita(15.5) andLalitavistara(the last paragraphof the prose opening of the twenty-fourth chapter) mention thename Samantakusuma at the end of this episode, though not as theBuddha but as a god who approaches kyamuni after the lattersweek-long uninterrupted meditation on the seat of enlightenment.

It seems that the name Samantakusuma can be assigned to the

entire episode, or one of the significant figures involved there, par-ticularly to the Buddha being worshipped or the deities worship-ping him. Indeed, we have two sets of information, one from theBuddhacaritaandLalitavistara, where this name is given to a rep-resentative deity, and the other from our inscription and the Paca-viatishasrik (subsequent Prajpramit stras included),where the name is assigned to the Buddha. In this way, we can see

78 SENART1890: 348349:punar aparabhik tathgato anuttarsamyaksabodhim abhisabodhitvsapthapraekaparyakena ati-nmesi. atha khalu bhmyavacardevantarkecardevcaturmah-rjik ca dev yva akanih ca dev sapthapra tathgatabodhimaavaragatasatkaronti gurukaronti mnayanti pjayanti sar-vvatca trishasramahshasrlokadhtusapthapraeklakr

abhi. atha khalu bhagavtye velye imgthm abhi sapthaprasabuddho bodhibuddhitva uttam|santo na utthesi sarvalokasya cetiyo ||

devakosahasri gagaasmisamgat|pupavarapravarensu saptartram annaka||

utpalpadumcamppuarkmanoram|sahasrapatrrucirtatra devpravariu ||


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how this name was coined, and realise its antecedents.79Anyway,it seems that different names were tried for this Buddha presidingthe Padmvatworld covered with flowers/jewel-flowers/jewels. In

theAjitasenavykaraa, Padmvatis retained as the name of oneof the cities of the Tathgatas but the Tathgata there is namedRatnaikhin.80

Majur is the best-known Bodhisattva. He begins to appearalready in earliest Mahyna stras and his images are widelyproduced.81 However, his association with the Buddha Samanta-kusuma is not known from any other source than the passagefrom the Pacaviatishasrik cited earlier. Fortunately, hisassociation with Susthitamati, the other Bodhisattva of our triad,is known from one more source. In the Susthitamatidevaputra-paripcch,82which makes part of the Mahratnakacollection,Majurteaches Susthitamati the perfection of wisdom. Susthita-mati as a devaputrais also pre sent in the Buddhas assembly in theRraplaparipcch. It is also noteworthy that Susthitamati ap-

pears as a devaputra/-kanyin Khotanese materials.83Susthitamatilater disappears from the scene but Majurrises to prominence.

79An association of flowers with the attainment of Buddhahood seemsso strong that theAashasrikmakes kyamuni worship the BuddhaDpakara with five lotuses in his previous life, so that the latter pre-dicts that he will become the kyamuni Buddha. SeeAashasrik19:WOGIHARA1935: 747.

80 DUTT1984: 111112.

81See HARRISON2000. 82This text surviving in Chinese translation is rendered into Englishin CHANG1983, pp. 4172, under the title How to Kill with the Sword ofWisdom.

83 A reconstruction of the name of this devaputra/-kanyfrom TibetanBlo-rab-brtan into Sanskrit in both THOMAS(1935: 94, 179) and EMMERICK(1967: 9) is Susthiramati, which is very close to the original.


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56 Diwakar Acharya

The cult of kyamuni

Moving now to the north, we find kyamuni Tathgata with

Vajradhara, the king of the Guhyakas, and possibly Maitreya theone who is richly endowed with maitr.84 It is well-known fromearly textual sources that Vajradhara/Vajrapi is associated withkyamuni. Unfortunately the name of the other Bodhisattva hasnot survived, but since he is said to be connected with maitr, it islogical to identify him as Maitreya. He is known as the Buddhascompanion or even as the future Buddha from the Pali sources,

and in several Mahyna stras he appears in the assembly of theBuddha asking questions to the Buddha himself or other fellowBodhisattvas in the assembly.

TheMahvastumentions Indra as Vajravaradhara, the holder ofa choice Vajra, with kyamuni, depicting him as the latters protec-ter.85 However, the Aashasrik states that Vajrapi, the greatYaka, is the constant companion of the irreversible Bodhisattva.86

Though identified in this way variously as Indra or a Yaka, there isno doubt that the holder of the Vajra is associated with kyamunias his protector. I am not aware of any text which brings Maitreyaand Vajradhara together as the attendants of kyamuni or any

84 The names ending in -eya are in principle metronymic, but one

should not forget that there are so many words ending in -eyawhich donot have metronymic connotations (see Wackernagel 1987: 505511). Allof them, however, can be interpreted as having some specific, mainlycausal, relation with the word they are derived from. But still, being richin X is not one of the meanings attested and should be taken as an inter-pretation.

85 SENART1882: 157: agrato vajravaradharo tridaagurbaddhama-co | indro sahasranayano gacchati purato naravarasya ||

86Aashasrik 17 (WOGIHARA 1935: 683): punar apara subhteavinivartanyasya bodhisattvasya mahsattvasya vajrapir mahyakonitynubaddho bhavati | sa durdharo bhavati, anatikramayaca bha-vati manuyair vamanuyair v, dursadasarvasattvn. ebhirapi subhte krair ebhir ligair ebhir nimittai samanvgato bodhi-sattvo mahsattvo vinivartanyo nuttarysamyaksabodher dhra-

yitavya.TheDaabhmikaechoes the same idea.


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other Buddha, or as one of the interlocutors of Dharma. Since thereare no relevant textual sources, they are not identified even in therare cases that they appear in early images. Vajrapi is rather the

default identification of the first Bodhisattva, but Maitreya alwaysremains unidentified, if he is not misidentified either as Brahmorsome other Bodhisattva.87As kyamuni disappears or is renamedin the scheme of pacajinamaala, this triad of kyamuni,Maitreya and Vajradhara has further special value.

The directions of the Buddhas

It is quite striking that Amitbha is placed in the south in thisinscription, while the Pure Land stras, and some other Mahynastras too, locate him in the west in Sukhvat together with histwo Bodhisattvas. This compels me to investigate further the issueof the assignment of the Buddhas in various directions.

TheAkobhyavyhacentres on Akobhya who presides over the

world of Abhirati in the east. The stra, however, mentions threeother Buddhas: kyamuni as the narrator of the stra, *Suvar-apupa/-padma as the successor of Buddha Akobhya, and Bud-dha *Vilanetra88under whose guidance the would-be Akobhyaadopted the path of Bodhisattva in the past; but the stradoes notspeak of their directions.

The Aashasrikmentions that there are innumerable Bud-dha-fields with many Buddhas presiding over them in all ten direc-tions but does not name them. However, in the nineteenth chap-ter, the straimplies a set of four Tathgatas in a successive row:Akobhya in the world of Abhirati, Dpakara in the city of D-pavatin the distant past (but it is unclear if it was in the Sahworlditself or somewhere else), and Suvarapupa andkyamuni in their

87 The figures of the Ramnagar stele, which dates from the year 32(equivalent to 110 or 159 CE) and is preserved at the National Museum, NewDelhi, can be identified as kyamuni with Maitreya and Vajradhara. Seethe figure numbered 13 in MYER1986. For representations of Maitreyaand his attributes in different periods, see BHATTACHARYA1980.

88 For the name of this Buddha, see NATTIER2000: 85, fn. 45.


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58 Diwakar Acharya

Buddha worlds unspecified as regards their name and location ina given direction. Amitbha and his Bodhisattvas, Avalokitevaraand Mahsthmaprpta, do not appear in this stra. Maitreya ap-

pears here as a Bodhisattva, but Vajrapi is merely ayaka; andthe lord of Sahis still Brahm, not kyamuni.

In the Pacaviatishasrik, one Buddha with one Bodhi-sattva is placed in each of the ten directions, but their names arenew and arbitrarily created, following an imaginary scheme. Forexample, the Buddha in the south is Aokar, his Buddha world isnamed Sarvaokpagata, and the Bodhisattva there is named Viga-taoka. Apart from this list, the stranow and again mentions fourBuddhas in their respective worlds, with which its redactor appearsto be intimately acquainted: Akobhya in Abhirati, Skyamuni inSah, Dpakara in Dpavat (though only a city, not a Buddhaworld),89 and Samantakusuma in Padmvatwith his two Bodhi-sattva attendants. Amitbha does not appear in this stra thoughAvalokitevara and Mahsthmaprpta show up in the assembly.90

All these stras look to the east as the direction of Akobhya andbelieve the world of Skyamuni to be located in the west. Anotherone of the earliest stras which could be grouped together with theabove stras is the ragamasamdhi, which makes a devaputranamed *Matyabhimukha come to the assembly of kyamuni fromthe world of Abhirati in the east; otherwise the Buddhas are notassigned to specific directions in this text.

The longer Sukhvatvyhaplaces Amitbha in the west with thetwo Bodhisattvas, and is not concerned with the direction of otherBuddhas. There kyamuni is also mentioned, located in Sah, butAkobhya has been completely ignored; he does not feature evenin the long list of arbitrary names of Tathgatas. But, as SCHOPENhas informed us, this straexplicitly refers to a samantabhadra-cary, suggesting some kind of linkage between theBhadracar-praidhnaand the cult of Amitbha (p. 179). Amitbhas locationisfixed also in the Pratyutpannabuddhasammukhvasthitasamdhi

89It seems permissible to speculate that the concept of a Buddha cityprecedes the concept of a Buddha world.

90See DUTT1934: 5.


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a relatively early text that mentions Amitbha even though it is notconcerned with his cult proper. The other stras of the Sukhvatcult follow suit. The Bhaiajyagurustra, which promotes a new

cult of the Buddha Bhaiajyaguru and shows its affiliation with thecult of Amitbha, assigns the two in the east and the west respec-tively.

Even after the introduction of the Buddha Amitbha, however,many stras are reluctant to fix him in the west. The Samdhirjagroups innumerable Buddhas in four directions,91 but does notname them. More than once the stramentions Akobhya, Ami-tbha, kyasiha/-muni, and Dpakara, but locates only Ako-bhya in the east.92 If we compare these with the four Buddhasknown to the redactor of the Pacaviatishasrik, we can seethat the Buddha Samantakusuma of the world of Padmvat hasbeen dropped here in order to accomodate the Buddha Amitbhaof the world of Sukhvat. Similarly, the Vimalakrtinirdea in-cludes kyamuni, Amitbha, Akobhaya and Prabhtaratna in a

list of thirteen Tathgatas without specifying their directions.The Mahyna stras of the subsequent period present a series

of new Tathgatas and locate them in six, eight, or ten directions.The shorter Sukhvatvyha, like other Mahyna stras, firstmentions that innumerable Tathgatas exist in ten directions butnames only a few of them, and only from six directions. Unlikethe longer version, it does not drop Akobhya but places him inthe east. The Saddharmapuarkaplaces sixteen princes of theBuddha Mahbhijjnbhibhin pairs in eight directions, whereAkobhya and Amitbha appear in their usual directions. In theMuktaka chapter of the Gaavyha (SUZUKI & IDZUMI 1949:

91 Samdhirja28.82f:prvasydii aprameyn asakhyeyn bud-dhn bhagavatapayati. eva dakiasy pacimym uttarasydii aprameyn asakhyeyn buddhn bhagavatapayati. so virahitobhavati buddhadaranena.

92 Samdhirja14.6869:gandhahastipurimdigato kobhyaketradii lokaviruta | bodhisattvanayutai puraskta kyasihu dvipa-dendru pcchan || sukhvatya varalokadhtuto mahsthmaprptaavalokitevara|

bodhisattvanayutaipurasktakyasihu dvipaden-

dru pcchan||


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60 Diwakar Acharya

8182), Merchant Muktaka first says that he sees ten Tathgatasin their Buddha worlds (the names of both Tathgatas and theirlands sound arbitrary and long), and once again (ibid. 82) says that

whenever he wants he can see Amitbha in Sukhvat, Vajrbhain Candanavat, Ratnbha in Gandhavat, Ratnapadmbha inPadmavat, ntbha in Kanakavat, Akobhya in Abhirati, Sihain Supratih, Candrabuddhi in daramaalanirbhs, andVairocana in Ratnarhasacitr. This time the number is nine,the order is unusual, and directions are not specified.93

Several mediaeval Mahyna stras composed subsequentlymention Amitbha in the world of Sukhvatwithout specifyingthe direction. The Ratnaketuparivarta mentions kyamuni andAmityus without assigning them to specific directions. Instead,it states a promise of Amityus that he would be doing this andthat in the future (pacime kle); a reference to time instead ofspace. The Rraplaparipcch, however, mentions only threeBuddhas: Amityus, Akobhya, and Siddhrthabuddhi (probably

an allusion to kyamuni) in passing without specifying their di-rections. TheLakvatramentions Amitbhas Sukhvatas thesource of everything including Jinas and Bodhisattvas. Similarly,the Sarvatathgatdhihna shows its afiliation with the cult ofAmitbha by mentioning him alone and depicting an access to hisSukhvatas the final reward.94

Now we have a more or less clear picture: the Prajpramitand affiliated stras invariably assign Akobhya in the east; thestras of the Sukhvatcult and those stras which are under theinfluence of this cult assign Amitbha in the west (and Akobhya

93 It is noteworthy that the list of Tathgatas in this passage of theGaavyha begins with Amitbha and it is even possible that he isplaced in the east in that scheme. In the same way, kyamunis world,Sah, is positioned in the west in the Larger Prajpramitstra. 94 The Suvaraprabhsa, which is regarded as comparatively late,gives what appears to be a scheme of a caturvyhacaitya and namesAkobhya as the Tathgata of the east, Amitbha of the west, Ratnaketuof the south, and Dundubhisvara of the north. See the stra1.4: ako-bhyarjaprvasmin dakine ratnaketun| pacimym amitbha uttaredundubhisvara||


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in the east if they mention him). However, most of the stras whichcombine both of these traditions are reluctant in fixing the direc-tions of Amitbha and other Buddhas, though they generally pin-

point the direction of Akobhya.

Implications and outcomes

In the light of the above observations, another important issue canbe better explained: the process of inclusion of the cult of Ami-tbha in a unified cult and identification of access to Sukhvatas

the ultimate religious goal. Once this process is properly explained,it will help us to understand the formation of our caturvyhacaityain a better way, and it can also shed new light on the chronology ofa few early Mahyna stras.

According to SCHOPEN, who identified Sukhvatas a general-ised religious goal, the fact that rebirth in Sukhvatis promisedas a reward in conjuction with the cult of the book, or the cult

of a specific book clearly indicates that Sukhvathere[, in theSamdhirjaand subsequent stras,] must have been conceived ofas a generalised religious goal in no way attached specifically tothe cult of Amitbha (p. 166). However, SCHOPENwas unable todetermine the degree to which this process of generalisation anddisassociation effected a decline and weakening of the specific cultof Amitbha as a separate entity (p. 183), and expressed the hope

that future studies would shed light on this issue.He was looking at the issue, I would say, from only one side.

His starting point was Sukhvats attestation in the Bhaiajya-guru, Samdhirja and subsequent mediaeval Mahyna strasas a generalised religious goal. He did not inquire into the pre-vailing situation at the time the cult of Amitbha came into exist-ence. Consequently, he was unable to realise the important pointthat Amitbhas Sukhvatarose only after Akobhyas Abhirati assuch a goal.95There was a stage when Akobhyas world of Abhirati

95 He was, however, aware of the need for defining the relation ofAkobhya with early stras. This need has by now been served, to certaine

evidence for mahāyāna buddhism and sukhāvatī cult in india in the middle period early fi fth to...

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