________________
Mahāyānism
125
Mahāyānism. It is difficult to say precisely at what time Mahāyānism took its rise. But there is reason to think that as the Mahāsanghikas separated themselves from the Theravādins probably some time in 400 B.C. and split themselves up into eight different schools, those elements of thoughts and ideas which in later days came to be labelled as Mahāyāna were gradually on the way to taking their first inception. We hear in about 100 A.D. of a number of works which are regarded as various Mahāyāna sūtras, some of which are probably as old as at least 100 B.C. (if not earlier) and others as late as 300 or 400 A.D.'. These Mahāyānasūtras, also called the Vaipulyasūtras, are generally all in the form of instructions given by the Buddha. Nothing is known about their authors or compilers, but they are all written in some form of Sanskrit and were probably written by those who seceded from the Theravāda school.
The word Hinayāna refers to the schools of Theravāda, and as such it is contrasted with Mahāyāna. The words are generally translated as small vehicle (hina=small, yāna =vehicle) and great vehicle (mahā=great, yāna=vehicle). But this translation by no means expresses what is meant by Mahāyāna and Hinayāna? Asanga (480 A.D.) in his Mahāyānastītrālainkāra gives
propounded the same sort of doctrines as those preached by Nāgārjuna. None of his works are available in Sanskrit and I have never come across any allusion to his name by Sanskrit writers.
i Quotations and references to many of these sutras are found in Candrakirtti's commentary on the Mädhyamika kārikās of Nāgārjuna; some of these are the following: Astasähasrikāprajñāpāramita (translated into Chinese 164 A.D.-167 A.D.), Šatasähasrikāprajñāpāramitā, Gaganaganja, Samadhisätra, Tathāgataguhyasūtra, DrąhādhyaSayasañcodanăsutra, Dhyāyitamustisūtra, Pitāputrasamāgamasutra, Mahāyānasútra, Māradamanasūtra, Ratnaküțasūtra, Ratnacīdāpariprcchāsutra, Ratnameghasūtra, Ratnarāfisūtra, Ratnakarasutra, Rastrapālapariprcchâsūtra, Lankavatārasutra, Lalitavistarasutra, Vajracchedikāsūtra, Vimalakirttinirdesasútra, śālistambhasūtra, Samadhirajasūtra, Sukhāvativyūha, Suvarnaprabhāsasutra, Saddharmapundarika (translated into Chinese A.D. 255), Amitäyurdhyānasūtra, Hastikākhyasūtra, etc.
2 The word Yāna is generally translated as vehicle, but a consideration of numerous contexts in which the word occurs seems to suggest that it means career or course or way, rather than vehicle (Lalitavistara, pp. 25, 38; Prajñāpāramitā, pp. 24, 319; Samadhirajasūtra, p. 1; Karunāpundarika, p. 67; Lankavatārasūtra, pp. 68, 108, 132). The word Yana is as old as the Upanisads wliere we read of Devayāna and Pitryāna. There is no reason why this word should be taken in a different sense. We hear in Lankavatāra of Srāvakayāna (career of the Srāvakas or the Theravādin Buddhists), Pratyekabuddhayāna (the career of saints before the coming of the Buddha), Buddha yāna (career of the Buddhas), Ekayāna (one career), Devayāna (career of the gods),
