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INTRODUCTION
Samhitās also. As pointed out earlier, these Samhitas were regarded by him as the sources for discussions on these points. And it is not improbable that the Mahāyāna tradition too had much allegiance to the Ayurvedic tradition for an exposition of these topics in the light of the previous Buddhist thinking. The Garbhāvakrānti, the Pitsputrasamāgama', portions of the Ratnakūța, and SSS may be cited as a few Mahāyāna texts4 embodying the thinking of and based on the Ayurveda-tradition.
Thus, in his exposition of the quantity of nutrition, Asanga states that it is taken for maintenance, for satisfying the hunger, for favour of chasteness, for the extinction of past, older vedanās and for the betterment of life, gaining happiness and pleasure5. This is corroborated by the account of mātrāvad-āhāra as discussed in the Ayurvedic Samhitās. Caraka discusses this point in detail at several places@ and con
1. Quoted in SS, p. 131; BCAP, p. 238; Madhyamakāvatāra (Tib.
trans., Bibl. Budd.), p. 269. 2. Cf. fn. 3, Nanjio No. 23.12. 3. MSS, 1.100 sq. 4. Vasubandhu actually quotes from several sūtras without mention
ing their name (AKB, 1.35, p. 24). 5. स तथा संवृतेन्द्रियः प्रतिसंख्यायाहारमाहरति । न दर्थं, न मदार्थ, न मण्डनार्थं, न विभूषणार्थ, याददेवास्य कायस्य स्थितये यापनायै ब्रह्मचर्यानुग्रहाय इति । पौराणां वेदनां प्रहास्यामि नवांच नोत्पादयिष्यामि । यात्रा च मे भविष्यति । बलं च
He haya T, Fyzifagrar quand HGT 91750T I, ŚBh., pp.6-7. 6. 1.5.1; 11.6.21; 111.1.26, 27, 28; 2.2, 4-12, pp. 23, 118-20, 135-7,
164-5, 308 sq. and elsewhere.
