On a Hitherto Neglected Text Against Buddhist Personalism: Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra 18.92–103 and its Bhāṣya

Abstract

According to the Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang and Yijing, the Sāṃmitīya sect of Buddhism, an offshoot of the Vātsīputrīya sect, had become by far the most important among the non-Mahāyānist denominations of the northern half of India by the turn of the 7th century CE. Now, the Sāṃmitīyas were famous for professing a personalist doctrine (pudgalavāda) that singled them out as “heretics” and triggered off vehement criticism on the part of their “coreligionists.” Whereas only a few Sāṃmitīya works have survived down to us in Chinese translation, most of their opponents’ tracts have been preserved either in Sanskrit or in Tibetan translation, the most celebrated ones being those of Vasubandhu, Candrakīrti and Kamalaśīla. However, one of the earliest extant Yogācāra sources, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra(bhāṣya), dedicates a section of respectable length to the critique of Buddhist personalism. The present essay provides this neglected early testimony with an introduction, an annotated translation, and text-critical notes.