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INTRODUCTION
lxiii
operating in midst of the mundane existence, in its entirety, the Supreme Deliverance of the Yogins, who know the phenomenality as phantom and illusion, the compassionate, venerable Maitreya wrote (this) more intelligible and significant verse-commentary (the Abhisamayalankara-prajñāpāramitopadeśa-Sastraṁ) in the Prajñapāramitā system.
"(And then), having a brilliant fame (prabhāsvarayaśāḥ), Ārya Asanga foremost among the talented ones, endowed as he was with the faculty of composing it, wrote a bhāṣya on tattva-viniścaya; and the exalted Acarya Vasubandhu, through the supposition of his sharp knowledge of the distinction between the ends of being and non-being, having acquired the authority in the expression of the import of the (Prajñāpāramitā) system (also wrote a commentary thereon).....
Similarly, Yasomitra in his AKV, a sub-commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharma-kośabhāṣya mentions Asanga as a "pūrvācārya" in the Yogacara tradition1.
Jñanaśrimitra of the eleventh century also gives him a place of honour and cites him as an authority and his predecessor in the field of Bauddha Nyāya along with Arya Maitreyanathapāda, Vasubandhu, Kumāranatha, Dinnaga, Dharmakirti and Prajñākāragupta2.
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1. पूर्वाचार्याः योगाचारा आर्यासङ्गप्रभृतयः ।, AKV, I (ed. N. N. Law), p. 34, ad AKB, III.15-c.
2. आर्यासङ्गमनङ्गजिन्नयवहो यद्रूपतीशोऽन्वशात्
आचार्यो वसुबन्धुरुद्धरमतिस्तस्याऽऽज्ञयादिद्युतत् ।
(contd. on p. lxiv)
