Sambodhi 1998 Vol 22

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 24

Vol XXII, 1998
THE 'BAUDDHA-SANTĀNA
13
editing or interpreting his works Consequently, the three scholars have only briefly touched upon this Bauddha-santāna-dvātrimśıká in their discussions However, Vijayasuśīla-sūri, recently has attempted to comment on it in Sanskrit with the help of the notes left by his guru, Lāvanyavijaya-sūri?, casting as he did some light on the content and intent of this important composition I shall not attempt to translate the text Such an endeavour needs much deeper study and can involve considerable period of time, at fust in understanding Siddhasena and then projecting his perception and portrayal of the Buddhist concepts, and next initiating comparisons with those known from the Buddhist sources themselves, followed by a sensible and fluent rendenng in English of the total content and meaning with the help of the typical Buddhist terminology he uses I shall, therefore, broadly point out to the terms he employed in the Dvātrimikā concerned These terms indeed are a sufficiently clear indicator of how closely acquainted was he with the Buddhist philosophy The terms used in the present Dvātrimśıkā are clear enough, it is the phraseology which is often dense In the opening six verses Siddhasena alludes to nirvana (cessation of all activities), avidyā and vidyā (nescence and true knowledge), viveka (discretion), pudgala-skandha (the physical or materialaggregate), sūnyatā (void), mamatva (attachment or ego), bhāvanā (contemplation), and santāna or the wellknown concept of the interdependent coorigination or relational causation which included factors of momentary manifestation in the flux of existence Santāna's wellknown metaphorical association with the river-flow and the lighted lamp is expressed here as santānam bhāvanārtham vā sarit-prāta-pradīpavat (6) Further on, Siddhasena refers to the mahābhūtas (primary or elemental varieties of Nature), rūpa (material form and shape), viñana (discriminative consciousness), naya (standpoint), and how the vikalpa (mental discourse) comes into play (7) Then follow the verses in which the terms such as moha (delusion), trsnā (greed) smrti (memory), mana (mind), samkalpa (relatively determinative or discerning thought ?) cetana (consciousness), karma (deed-latency), and the upacara (convergence, convention, metaphorical transferance), all or most of which have typically Buddhist connotations At some places, his statements of course are as lucid as they are accurate and authentically Buddhist and their meaning at once becomes intelligible for instance when he writes 'cittavad rūpakāya-sya vailaksanyam ksane ksane (10')', referring to the character of the rūpakāya (set of forms) that changes at each