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INTRODUCTION
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Asanga. Obviously this influence becomes distinctly explicit in the precise and synthetic elucidation of Yogācāra tenets in these texts.
The Mādhyamika declared the empirical existence of the phenomenal dharmas, devoid of any intrinsic nature, the pramāṇas having no independent existence and Sūnyatā as Paramārtha.satya or as the way leading to the acquisition or realisation of the Paramārthal.
The Yogācāra Idealism accepted these doctrines in spirit and declared all objective existence as ‘unreal' (asat) and propounded the theory of three grades of reality (svabhāvas) including the Paramārtha or Parinișpannalakṣaṇa. This may be regarded as an outcome of the Sautrāntika and Mādhyamika influence on the formulation of Yogācāra doctrines. But the Yogācāra Idealism propounded by Maitreyanātha and elucidated, analysed and illustrated by Asanga and Vasubandhuo incorporate, though it did, the spirit of the Mādhyamika thinking also, it cannot be said solely depending on this system for the formulation of its main tenets. Rather its independent view-point was developed in its own way by the teachers and exponents of this system which also gives a clue to the non-existent character of the phenomenal world.3.
1. On this point, vide our article, aleat izreaftara:, Sāraswati
Suşamā, vol. XXIII.2. 2. Vide, MVBT, pp. 3-4. 3. cp., fasfaTHATchefCHHATTI -Viņšikā, Vs. 1.a-b.
