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VERSES RELATING TO SVABHĀVAVĀDA :
A COLLECTION
RAMKRISHNA BHATTACHARYA
FOREWORD The doctrine of svabhāva (lit. inherent nature) has been aptly called one of the "lost philosophies" of ancient India. Prior to the systematization of several mutually exclusive philosophical schools, having sūtra-works and commentatorial traditions of their own, some rudimentary speculations concerning the origin of the world and of life had emerged by the time of the Svetāśvatara Upanisad (c. sixth century BCE). There we read :
kālah svabhāvo niyatir yadệcchā bhūtāni yoniḥ puruşa iti cintyam 2 (1.2) Whether Time, or inherent nature, or destiny, or accident, or the
elements, or God is the (first) cause is to be considered. The word, svabhāva, occurs first in this Upanişad : no other major Upanişad (excepting the Maitri, 5.1) – not to speak of the samhita-s, Brāmaņa-s and Aranyaka-s-contains it. Right from the Sve. Up. the doctrine came to be mentioned by name (but very seldom expounded) and continued to be noted and rejected through the Mahābhārata, Aśvaghosa's Buddhacarita (first century CE) down to the seventeenth century commentaries on the Samksepa-Śārīraka by Sarvajñātmā Muni (eleventh century CE).
It is curious that not a single exponent of this doctrine is known, not a single sūtra or an authentic statement is to be found in the whole corpus of Sanskrit philosophical literature. All we have are a handful of verses, all anonyinous, found scattered in brāhminical, Jain and Buddhist works of various kinds. There is no way to ascertain whether any verse has come down to us from some authentic svabhāvavādin source. A few verses, particularly the
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