Buston On Languages Used By Indian Buddhists At Schismatic Period

Author(s): Akira Yuyama
Publisher: Akira Yuyama

Page 1

Bu-ston on the Languages Used by Indian Buddhists
at the Schismatic Period
By AKIRA YUYAMA
1.1. In treating an event in the history of Indian Buddhism it is always interesting, and in some cases important, to see if any information in this connection is given by Bu-ston (1290–1364 A. D.) in his work Bde-bar gśegs-pa'i bstan-pa'i gsal-byed chos-kyi 'byun-gnas gsun-rab rin-po-che'i mdzod, or (Bu-ston) Chos-'byun in short, which is believed to have been written when he was thirty-three in the year of Chu-phokhyi, “Water-male-dog", i.e. 1322 A. D.).
1.2. Among the so-called Chos-'byun literature Bu-ston seems to be the only original author who has told us in detail of the languages used by Indian Buddhists at the time of their schism ). The story starts in the section devoted to the controversial Third Council for the first instance. In the sections on the previous councils no mention is made in regard to the languages).
1) For this literature see among others A. I. Vostrikov, Tibetskaja istoričeskaja literatura, Moskva 1962 (Bibliotheca Buddhica 32), pp. 91f., 257-261 (notes), also its English version: Tibetan Historical Literature, translated by H. C. Gupta, Calcutta 1970 (Soviet Indology Series 4), pp. 140-145. The date of composition is given as such in the colophon of Bu-ston's work itself: cf. Vostrikov n. 405 on p. 257 (Russian edition), p. 141 (English ed.). Cf. otherwise D. S. Ruegg, The Life of Bu ston Rin po che, Rome 1966 (Serie Orientale Roma 34), p. VIII (under Buch).
2) Padma dkar-po (1527-92 A.D.) may well have borrowed Bu-ston's description in his work Chos-'byun bstan-pa'i padma rgyas-pa'i ñin-byed, or 'Brug-pa'i Chos-'byun in short (1575 A.D.). Some passages correspond almost verbatim to the Bu-ston Chos-'byun, without reference to it or to the works quoted by Bu-ston. This rare book has been published in facsimiles: Tibetan Chronicle of Padmadkar-po, edited by Lokesh Chandra, with a foreword by E. Gene Smith, New Delhi 1968 (Satapitaka Series 75), 8 colums (Smith), 310 folios in facsimile, numbered 1-619.
3) Incidentally, Gzon-nu dpal (1392-1481 A.D.) has also described the schisms in detail in his well-known work Bod-kyi yul-du chos dan chos-smra-ba ji-ltar byun-ba'i rim-pa deb-ther snon-po, or Deb-ther snon-po in short (1476-78 A.D.), but has made no mention of the languages in question: cf. The Blue Annals completed in A.D. 1478 by Hgos-lotsawa Gzhon-nu-dpal (1392-1481), reproduced by Lokesh Chandra from the Collection of Raghu Vira, New Delhi 1971 (Satapitaka Series 212), esp. folios 29.2-32.7 (= Kun-bde-glin Monastery edition, folios 15 a 2-16b7); George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, Part I, Calcutta 1949 (Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal Monograph Series 7), pp. 27-31 = Ju. N. Rerix, Izbrannye Trudy, Moskva 1967, pp. 304-308. For this literature see Vostrikov, op.cit. pp. 92–94 (Russian ed.), pp. 146–148 (English ed.).