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CHAPTER II
'no-substance' or substancelessness) which is in diametrical opposition to the atmavāda (substance-view or identity-view) of the Upanisads and the other schools', and runs through all schools of Buddhism'-from the Abhidharmika (Vaibhāṣika) stage to that of Yogacara (Vijñānavāda)-their internal differences notwithstanding. The quintessence of the nairatmya" attitude consists in the denial of the satkāyadṛṣṭi
41
1. See the following f.n.
2. Except the school of Vatsiputriyas (or Sammatiyas) whose view has already been referred to, see supra, p. 19 f., f.n. 1.
Yasomitra cites a line which claims the unique right to Buddha for the teaching of nairatmyavada: anyaḥ śāstā jagati ca yato nāsti nairatmyavādāt. Yaśomitra's Abhidhammakosavyākhyā (ed. Unrai Wogihara, Tokyo, 1932-1936), Pt. II, p. 697. Deriding Vardhamana, Kapila and others who, like the Upanişadic thinkers, are held "in the clutches of the crocodile of the false doctrine of the 'soul' (or substance)" Sāntarakṣita says:
idam ca vardhamānādernairātmyajñānamīdṛśam /
na samastyatmadṛṣṭau hi vinaṣṭaḥ sarvatirthikāḥ //
TSS, kā. 3325. We notice, in the second line, that the heretical philosophers (tirthikäḥ) are said to be 'lost' (vinaṣṭaḥ) in the heresy of a soul (atmadṛṣṭau). La Vallee Poussin points out, in this connection, an interesting distinction between 'a heresy' or drşţi and a sin in his The Way to Nirvana, p. 46, f.n. 1. This is the central point in which Buddhism differs from many other schools which believe in the substance of a soul. This is why Udayana significantly entitles his refutation of Buddhism as Atmatattvaviveka (an inquiry into the reality of the self).
3. Literally the word means 'the state of being devoid of Atman' Vidushekhara Bhattacharya has drawn our attention to the meaning of 'atman' as svabhava or nature which never under goes any change'. He also refers to the two-fold distinction of nairatmya, viz., pudgalnairatmya and dharmanairatmya. Vide, The Basic Conception of Buddhism, Vidushekhara Bhattacharya, University of Calcutta, 1934, p. 73.
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4. For the various derivations of Satkāyadṛṣṭi (Pali-Sakkayaditthi) see ibid., p. 77 f., f.n. 30.
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