Atisa and Bha Vy a As Prasangikas
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SVATANTRIKA AND PRASANGIKA IN LATE MADHYAMAKA: ATISA AND BHAVY A AS PRASANGIKAS* Jundo NAGASHIMA 1. Introduction: Distinction between Sviitantrika and Priisaligika In the long history of Indian Madhyamaka, differing views developed and doctrinal bifurcations took place. Of these bifurcations, we know of the distinction between Svatantrika and Prasailgika from Tibetan accounts. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear whether these terms were used by Indian Madhyamikas themselves, 1 or even whether this distinction existed in India.z Bhaviveka3 (ca. 500-570 CE), in the Prajfiiipradfpa, criticised Buddhapalita (ca. 470-540 CE) for not employing syllogistic inference to explicate Nagarjuna's teaching. In response to this, Candrakirti (ca. 600-650 CE), in the Prasannapadii, raised an objection to Bhaviveka in support of Buddhapalita. This is considered to be the origin of the dispute between the Svatantrika and the Prasailgika positions. It is, however, not known if this controversy over the use of inferential reasoning led to the development of opposed positions in India later * My thanks are due to Dr. Somadeva Vasudeva, Dr. Peter Ebbatson and Miss Dechen Rochard for carefully reading my draft and offering valuable suggestions. 1 To the best of my knowledge, the earliest text that mentions the term rang rgyud pa, which can be a translation of sviitantrika, is the Madhyamakiivatiiratikii (D. ra 281b6, ra 282a3, P. ra 337a8, ra 337b6) of Jayananda. See Ogawa [1984]. Yonezawa [1999] also mentions the use of a term svatantrasii[dha]naviidin in the *Lah;m:zatikii, which is probably written in the twelfth century CE. Because the *Lah;m:zatikii was written by a Tibetan Dharmaklrti in Sanskrit but with the dBu med script, and the Madhyamakiivatiiratikii was written outside India, they may not be regarded as Indian accounts in a strict sense.
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