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Taranatha's HISTORY of BUDDHISM in INDIA

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Taranatha's HISTORY of BUDDHISM in INDIA Taranatha's HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN INDIA Translated from Tibetan by LAMA .CHIMPA ALAKA .CHATTOPADHYAYA . Edited by DEBIPRASAD CHATTOPADHYAYA MOTILAL BANARSIDASS PU BLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED CD DELHI First Edition: Simla, 1970 Reprinted: Delhi, 1990 © MOTILAL Bfu'\ARSIDASS PUBLISHERS PVT. LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ISB~: 81-208-0696-4 Also available at: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi 110 007 Chowk, Varanasi 221 001 Ashok Rajpath, Patna 800004 24 Race Course Road, Bangalore 560001 120 Royapettah High Road, Mylapore. Madras 60000-+ PRINTED IN INDIA BY lAINENDRA PRAKASH lAIN AT SHRI JAINENDRA PRESS, A-45 NARAINA INDUSTRIAL AREA, PHASE I, NEW DELHI 110028 AND PUBLISHED BY NARENDRA PRAKASH JAIN FOR MOTlLAL BANARSIDASS PUBLISHERS PVT. LTD. BUNGALOW ROAD, JAWAHAR NAGAR, DELHI 11O~7 111 memory of the pioneers V. P. VASIL'EV and A. SCHIEFNER FRONTISPIECE It was part of the original plan of this publication to add at the end of the book the entire xylograph of the Tibetan text (Potala 1946 edition, which is mainly follow­ ed in the present translation) in photo­ offset reproduction. Unfortunately, the trial reproduction of the xylograph from the micro-film copy in possession of the editor proved a failure and the idea of reproducing the entire xylograph had to be abandoned. As the frontispiece of the book, however, are reproduced from half-tone blocks only the beginning and end of the xylograph, These include the title~page and Folios 1, 139B and 140A-the last containing the colophon spe­ cially added to the Potala edition of the text. Top: Title page of the work (Potala edition). Bottom: Folio 1 of the same. On the reverse side: Folios 139B & 140A, the latter containing the co~ophon of the Potaia edition. FOREWORD When I walk on snow-laden paths of hills my each footprint appears clear, deep and distinct through which I can trace my path back without effort. But after a while due to wind and fresh snowfall all traces of my footsteps are wiped out in the snow. The residue is what sticks to my imagination. It is the same with the study of history. Every episode in it howsoever realistic, does , fade with the sweep of time and occurrences of new events. Surviving evidences largely depend on interpretati<?n of the historian whose reason emanates from intellect and as such has the glaring weakness of limitations of one's mind which are conditioned by the present environment. The general attitudes and outward expressions of men of our time cannot be similar to those of the primitive society or even of the preceding generations. Thus, the logic{ of today recalling the events of the past times with indecisive evidences must surely be inaccurate in many ways. The line of demarcation between history and legend is too thin to observe while writing; the two overlap e::tch other uncon­ sciously and unknowingly. Faith and reason overpower each other throughout one's life, which results in contradiction, but the conflict never ceases in any sphere. As such, it is difficult to say if the author of a book of history is free from the influence of his faith in analysing the past. I know many such persons who do not accept in their writings many episodes as historical in order to exhibit their rational mind and modern scholarship. But in the core of their hearts they believe the episodes in toto and do respect them. Such proclivities in authors are nothing short of dishonesty. As we focus our vision on the historical perspective of our time interspersed with strong socio-economic bias of the historian for recording past events to suit their political ideologies, we can sense the real flaw in the cross currents of historical literature and that takes us into a land of phantasy. In this situation I cannot claim Lama Taraniitha to be free from all those conditions which make me ponder, but I can un­ hesitatingly say that his rationality and honesty to his own xii Taranatha findings are beyond cavil, a thing which held him high in the assessment of his contemporaries. I entirely agree with V.P. Vasil'ev that the history of Taranatha is not history as such but history in the sense of a document that calls for further research in history. Straightway, this notion of an acute historiographer claims for specialisation in the field of an independent discipline. We should not be oblivious of the fact that Taranatha's work does not aim at revealing the past in the strict sense of a modern history, his work vouchsafes better and more clear understanding of the lineages and developments of the virtuous Buddhists with a view to strengthening the faith (sraddhii) in lineage of teachers as well as distinguishing the right lineages from the fake ones. We may thus assume the work to be a part or outcome of his own spiritual practices. A reader of Tiiranatha's work should bear in mind that he is reading a Buddhist treatise composed by a great devotee of Buddha who earnestly wishes to intensify faith in the lineage. But at the same tirile a reader may find init useful material for historical purpos~s also. With this approach one may succeed jn evaluating the work of TaramHha in right perspective. It is also noteworthy that Taraniitha made an attempt to keep the episodes at con­ ventional level. Tiiraniitha disavowed many well known legends specially with regard to the extraordinary length of the life-span" of many personages and saw that the sequence of the lineages did not distort the chronology. But in one thing he remained an avowed Tibetan as he did not ignore or refute miracles (riddhi). He admitted the power of riddhi not as something supernatural but as perfectly natural. Such view is possible for a person who himself had possessed direct experience of it. Lama Taranatha was the most suitable person of his age to write an account of the development of Buddhist teachings in India due to following reasons: 1) He was vitally interested in writing accounts of the past and the lives of personages of lineages. 2) He had mastery over Sanskrit and also knew some of the Indian dialects prevalent at that time. 3) He had moreover access to the authentic works of Pandits, viz. K~emendrabhadra, Indradatta and Bhataghati. For modern scholarship it would have been much better if Foreword xiii Taranatha had translated all the source materials into Tibetan language instead of writing his account based on them. Besides, Taranatha has also not thrown any light on the lives of the Pandits from whose works he has freely drawn. So, neither can we trace the lives and works of those Pandits who are mentioned by him nor have we any access to their works. In his autobiography called The Secret Biography Lama Taranatha records that without any formal instructions from any teacher he effortlessly acquired proficiency in various Indian languages. When he was just four years old, he overheard the conversation of Venerable Tenzin Ngawang with an Indian Zoki (Yogi) and he could understand the substance of it. He fUrther says that because of his many previous births in India he had vivid recollection of geography and topography of the country and knowledge of various Indian languages since his childhood. At 16, he was prophesied by his personal deity (i~tadel'a) that if h,e chose to go to Zanskar in Ladakh and Gar-Sha (presently in Himachal Pradesh) before he was twenty years old, he would accumulate merit to do immense service to the sentient . beings. But since the prophecy remained unimplemented he thought his life work could not be so prolific. Further he tells that while in his twenties he once fell sick with constant. bleeding through his nostrils for about three months. At that time in a dream he saw two Indian yogis. One of them named JvaIanatha gave him the name Taranatha. "Taramltha" is purely an Indian name. It does not correspond to his original Tibetan name. It appears that in Taranatha's time Indian pilgrims and other visitors used to trail the passes to reach the land of snow, although by that time very few Buddhi£t scholars were left in India. Most of the travellers who visited Tibet were not the followers of Buddhism. This is clear from Taranatha's autobiography in which he refers to two ,Pandits, Purnananda and Paramananda who stayed with him for about ten days. He talks of their great erudition in various subjects. He learnt the episodes of the Riimiiyal)a and M ahiibhiirata from them. Being persuaded by them' to worship Hanuman, Taranatha did not accede to their desire. The only likelihood of meeting with a Buddhist Yogi from Telangana (India) occurs in an allusion to such an ascetic Pandit Changasri whQ stayed for only two days with Taranathabut who was in a hurry to go back to India. Changasri was consi- xiv Tiiraniitha dered as a Mahayana Buddhist scholar by Taranatha. Although he did not visit India during his life time, yet it seems that he was known to many Indian scholars and rulers. Taranatha tells in his Autobiography that he got a letter from Raja ,Balabhadra of Badua of the Vindhya Hills which was written in Sanskrit in the Gaudi script. The content of the letter is as follows: "I hear that you are the only person in Himavat (snowland) who has preserved the tradition of Siddha Santigupta. I have also known from the Siddhas that you have had close relation­ ship with me in other births.
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