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THE SECOND CHAPTER OF BHAVYA'S
MADHYAMAKAHṚDAYA*
(Taking the Vow of an Ascetic)
by
V. V. GOKHALE
Poona
It has not yet been generally recognised that the Madhyamikas, who are known to have a strong predilection for the logic of language and a metaphysics of transcendence, and who accept the traditional analysis of mind and matter current among the Vaibhāṣikas, also possess a strong streak of asceticism and a passion for ethics oriented towards the Bodhisattva idealism. Coming later in the Madhyamika tradition Santideva's Bodhicaryavatāra is an outstanding example of this ethical trend, but even before him Acārya Bhāvaviveka (or Bhavya, as we call him here), the commentator of Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka and presumably a younger rival of Buddhapalita, is seen to give prominence to this aspect of the Madhyamika view of life by placing in the forefront of his independent treatise, called the Madhyamakahṛdaya (The Heart of the Madhyamaka Philosophy) two chapters, called: I. Bodhicittäparityāga (Not surrendering the Spirit of the Highest Wisdom) and II. Munivratasamāśraya (Taking the Vow of an Ascetic) before explaining at length his own special method of forming syllogisms that should lead to the conviction regarding the absolute Reality in Chapter III, called Tattvajñānaiṣaṇā (Quest for Truth).
In an article on "The Vedanta-Philosophy described by Bhavya in his Madhyamakahṛdaya" published in the Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. II (1958), Nr. 3, pp. 165-190 (jointly with Prof. Hajime Nakamura, Tokyo). I have already briefly indicated in footnote 1 the general nature of this work of Bhavya as gathered from a hasty handcopy of a palm-leaf manuscript made by Pandit Rāhula Samkṛtyāyana at the Zha.lu monastery in Tibet. There it will be seen, that after the third chapter, viz., Tattvajñānaiṣaṇā, Bhavya is occupied with a critical examination of non-Madhyamika schools, firstly among the Buddhists themselves, viz.,
* Paper read at the 28th International Congress of Orientalists, Canberra, on 7.1.1971, slightly enlarged and revised on 3.2.1971.
