Some notes on the Tattvasamgraha

By Louis de la Vallee Poussin


The Indian Historical Quarterly


Vol.V, No.2, 1929.06


pp. 354-355.



p. 354 Due praise has been paid to the remarkable edition of the Tattva-samgraha by Embar Krishnamacharya, accompanied by an excellent Introduction, and to the Foreward where the General Editor of the Gaekwad's Series has given much useful information. My only aim is to give some references: 1. The karikas 222, 223, 285, 311, 328-9, 336 are quoted by Prajnakaramati in his commentary to Bodhicaryavatara, ix. 58. 2. The stanza (cited on p.129) drstidamstravabhedam ca bhramsam caveksya karmanam / dasayanti jina dharmam vyaghripota- paharavat // is quoted from Abhidharmakosa, chap.ix, translation, p.265. The author is Kumaralabha (or Kumaralata). The whole chapter on the Vatsiputriyas is closely related to the Kosa; for instance, the argument asti sattva upapadukah (p.129) is discussed on p.256 and bharahara is discussed on p.256. p. 355 3. The beautiful analysis of the nature of Bodhisattva, p.872, owes also much to Vasubandhu's Kosa. The sentence yatha Kecid upalabhyante 'titaram abhyastanairghrnya......is textually to be found in chap.iii, translation, p.191, 1. 18 (compare vii, p.84). 4. The karikas 3241-3242, tasmin dhyanasamapanne .....are quoted in the commentary to Bodicaryavatara, ix, 36 (with the addition uktam ca). [The quotation which follows is from Nagarjuna's Catustava]. This theory that the Buddha himself did not preach is an old one: the Vibhasa explains at lengh that men will not believe what men say, because men are liars. But they will have confidence in the word Of trees, because trees, not being "living beings" (sattva), do not lie. 5. The Isvarapariksa is to be compared with Kosa, chap.ii, p.311 and Bodhicaryavatara, ix, 119-126. 6. The text p.126, 1, 6, is Anguttaranikaya, i, p.22: ekapuggalo bhikkhave loke uppajjamo uppajjati bahujanahitaya...... katamo ekapuggalo? tathagato ....... Quoted in kosa, ix, transl. p.259. The Sammitiyanikayasastra, Nanjio 1272, Takakusu, vol.32, refers to that Agama. 7. As noted in the Foreword, p.lvi, the words and doctrines of the Traikalyapariksa, p.505, can be traced in the Vibhasa, in the Kosa,v, 25 and in Samghabhadra's commentary to the Kosa. The Tattvasamgraha gives us some technical terms which had not been correctly read through the Tibeto-Chinese translations, for instance anyathanyathika.