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The Mīmāmsā Chapter of Bhavya's
Madhyamaka-hydaya-kārikā —Text and Translation
(1) Pūrva-paksa
Shinjo KAWASAKI
For a study of the theories and practices of the Brahmanical, as well as the non-Brahmanical, religious schools in India around the fifth century, the Madhyamaka-hrdaya-kārikā (hereinafter referred to as MHK) of Bhavya or Bhāvaviveka (490–570 ca.) and his auto-commentary Tarkajvālā (abridged as T]) provide much valuable information. In the following, the Mimāņsaka ideas quoted and refuted in Chapter IX: Mimāmsā-tattva-nirnaya-avatāra of MHK will be discussed on the basis of the Sanskrit text in collation with the Tibetan version and with reference to the Tibetan Tarkajvālā.
The Sanskrit text of the chapter in question was offered to me by Prof. V. V. Gokhale of Poona". It is a copy by Prof. Gokhale's own hand-writing from what Rev. Rāhula Sāmkstyāyana copied at șha-lu monastery in Tibet. As to the state of matters when Rāhula made the copy, he described as follows: “From the 5th August to 15th August (1936) we were busy with taking photographs of the important Sanskrit Mss. in $ha-lu-ri-phug. ... In the meantime, I and Mr. Abhaya Singh were engaged in copying Manorathanandin's commentary (of Pramāņa-vārttika). I also wanted to copy the Tarkajvālā, Vigraha-vyāvartani and Kşaņa-bhangadhyāya. I needed more photographic materials for which I sent many letters and telegrams, but I was not sure about their arrival. It was already the middle of August and after one month winter was to begin, so I could not calmly wait. I was very thankful to the custodians of Șha-lu and specially to my friend Ri-sur-lama, who permitted me to take all the four manuscripts with me to Gyan-tse.
Șha-lu monastery is a little more than one mile away from the road Shi-gar
1) This study is based on the Sanskrit text of the Madhyamaka-hrdaya-kärikā offered by Prof. V. V. Gokhale. The present writer remains thankful to Prof. Gokhale's kind guidance at Poona, Oct. 1969-May 1970, at Tokyo, Nov. 1971-Mar. 1972, and to his generous permission for the use and publication of this material.
2) The Sanskrit text that Rāhula mentioned here under the title "Tarkajvālā" is apparently the basic verses of the Madhyamaka-hrdaya-kärikā, and not the commentary generally known as Tarkajvälā. So far as is known, there is no extant Sanskrit text of the commentary Tarkajväla. From the Tibetan translation, it is known to be in prose and quite big in amount (about 340 leaves in Tibetan).
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