INDIAN MAHAYANA* Proem As a Continuation of His Monumental
ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF THE (EARLIER) INDIAN MAHAYANA* D. SEYFORT RUEGG Il est aussi facile dans l’Inde de constater des prolongements que malaisé d’assister à des ruptures. (L. Renou, Études védiques et pa∞inéennes, tome VI [Paris, 1960], p. 11) Proem As a continuation of his monumental Histoire du bouddhisme indien, published in 1958, Étienne Lamotte once envisaged writing a second volume to be devoted to the Indian Mahayana. This second part was, however, never to appear, although Lamotte had already published in 1954 a preliminary study entitled ‘Sur la formation du Mahayana’.1 He did, however, complete several major, and very extensive, publications on the Mahayana, such as his richly annotated translations of Sastras like Asanga’s Mahayanasaµgraha, Vasubandhu’s Karmasiddhiprakara∞a, and the Ta- chih-tu-lun (*Mahaprajñaparamitopadesa) ascribed to (a) Nagarjuna,2 as * This paper had its origin in an outline of some important topics and problems in the history of Mahayana which was prepared for a conference on early Mahayana Buddhism in 2001. This will explain the necessarily minimalist, and somewhat aphoristic, treatment of certain topics in this paper. A full and complete study would of course fill volumes and constitute a comprehensive history of the subject. Needless to say, then, this paper claims to be neither an exhaustive account of the topics touched on nor a comprehensive survey of all research relevant to them. The purpose of these lines is also not to propound final — much less ready-made or theory-determined — solutions but, rather, to point up topics and problems in the history of Mahayana, and to indicate possible approaches to their study taking account of historical, philological, and theoretical issues.
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