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  • Max Walleser - The Life of Nagarjuna From Tibetan and Chinese

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    Max Walleser - The Life of Nagarjuna from Tibetan and Chinese

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    tibetan

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf
    92 views18 pages

    Max Walleser - The Life of Nagarjuna From Tibetan and Chinese

    Uploaded by

    Solitary Man
    tibetan

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf
    of 18
    iQ } ‘THE LIFE OF NAGARJUNA FROM TIBETAN AND CHINESE SOURCES I. Tibetan Sources ‘he systematic development of the thought of voidness laid dlown inthe Prajaaparamita Sivas is brought into junction with the name of a man of whom we cannot even positively say that hhe has realy existed, still less that he is the author of the works, ascribed to him: this name is NagSrjuna. Indeed, we do not lack news about him either in Tibetan oF in Chinese literature, Cor- respondingly-to.the extraordinary sigifieance which the "Méddle ‘Course Teaching” ascribed to his ingeniousness has gnined in the ‘countries of the so-ealled Northern Buddhism, the interest in his, person is uncommonly great. But this interest is displayed more by the invention of legendary traits than inthe resoarch of historical facts which are undoubtedly hidden behind the older accounts of the origin of the Mahayana ‘The respective roports of the Tibetan sources are specally detailed. Here Nigirjuna appears to us above all as the great sorceter, a figure into which he has been changed seemingly under the influenoe of the Tantra-schoal that became from the ninth century more and more influential. As a sorcerer he is glorified in the text Grubthob brgyad-ew-rtsa-bsihi rnan-thar® rendered recently into German by A. Grinwedel under the title “Die Ge- 7 See my “Prajidpdvemit, die Vollommenhet der Exhownnis" (Qullen der Reliiongethicte by autoorty of the rligostor, Cammsion of the Roy Scuity bf Sciences at Gatingen), 1914 S Pani vpyed (ction of Nar-thang), vol. 86 (4), £134. See Gra. wedeli tp. t3t;PeCorder, Cateloue da Pande itn dea Bb. Nat 20 partie Pcs, 2900, 3 ose 4 Watts sohichte der 84 Zauberor (Mahdsiddhas)"" and which refers back to ‘an uoknown Sanskrit original’, Tn the same sense and in similar ‘connection he is mentioned in the @Pag-Osam-fjon-bean of Swm-pa khan-po ye-ges dpal-hbyor p. x2r et seq, According to this, NAgar- juna who had sprung from a Brahmin caste is said to have reoeiv- fed the magic powers (siddhi) from the Tard during his stay at Kahora, a part of Kaiict (of to-day Conjeeveram) in Eastern India, thereupon to have gone away at a time of general distress, after having surrendered all his possessions in favour of the Brah- tins of Kahora and to have proceeded over the Sitavana (near Rajagrha) to Nalanda where he became a monk and attained the zenith of his knowledge in the five sciences. Hereupon, fom aversion to preaching he enchanted the Tard and bsheld her counten- ance. When also here accommodation and food became short, he returned to his native soil, went later again to Rajagrha where Ihe remained twelve years, then to mount Ghan{aéaila and here- from to the Sriparvata in the south where he spent the rest of his long life. Particulars are to be found in this connection on his rela- tions with Saiabhadra* transformed by him into a king from an Abhira (ba-glat-rdsi), If there be a confusion, as T presume, with the South-Indian king Satavahanat who is ‘often brought also in other accounts in connection with Nagar- juna, that much may perhaps be taken from the legendary report of the Geub-thob that this personality represents the founder of the Satavahana Dynasty and not one of his successors all ‘of whom have this name atleast as surname, As the life of Nagar juna has been, according to these legends, a chain of magical Tacs Arcie, Dirge snr Vélertunde, Vol. ts 4 (Llp, 1916) Pt. Pik the Pap Asamdondsang, ci by Sot Candfa Das (Cleats 968) it Tjs'gdanspay,hocasng top. rap thesamefxt Vajeeano wos th pital teacher of Raja Nayapa of Bengal under who reign Atta et the Vtkra sila monsstry in Magatite (142 A.D, a00 VeA. Smith, Bary History Tein xy 190,98), a ode wank In Tibet forth propagation ot atin, "strap cn the hoe tien} Dy me Joe! A ® Grinwedel, re, Rade te name by Satabnanda 4 Seo Huber, Battin de PEt fn Est

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