________________
V. V. GOKHALE
scription of the Absolute Reality as tattva (among Buddhist philosophers) seems to have come in vogue at least since the days of Harivarman's Tattvasiddhi - The restoration of this title as: Satyasiddhi by Ui and other scholars is hardly justified by its Chinese translation ( )-and it continused to be favoured by positivistic thinkers like Santarakṣita in his Tattvasamgraha. Bhavya himself likes to call it the tattvajñānāmsta (the Nectar of Truth) in various contexts in his present treatise, e.g., III.136 ... nirātmatām, vidyān vibhāvya bhāvānam tattvajñānāmstam pibet // ; V. 1 Anye pracakşate dhīrāḥ svanītāv abhimāninah / tattvāmstāvatāro hi Yogācāraḥ sudešitaḥ //; VIII.94 (= Tib. 86) Buddhānāṁ lokabandhūnām tattvāmstam idam param 1). Moreover, the title Tattvajñānāmrtāvatāra is authenticated in the colophon to Chapter III, so that there should be no doubt, that we have this small tractate of three chapters here incorporated within the larger treatise called Madhyamakahrdaya.
Out of the three Chapters of this Tattvajñānāmstāvatāra, the first two, as mentioned at the outset, deal with the ethical idealism of the Madhyamikas while the third deals with the Madhyamaka philosophy, set forth in the style of the Svātantrika logic, which appears to represent Bhavya's own contribution to Indian philosophy. In the present article, I propose to edit the Sanskrit text of the Second chapter. It contains only twelve stanzas and is (after Tib. versions) the smallest among all the chapters of the Madhyamakahrdaya except the very last one, which contains only three stanzas. While in the first chapter Bhavya speaks about the “Non-relinquishment of the Bodhicitta”, in the Second chapter he speaks in positive terms about the acceptance of the vow of an ascetic.. The text, corrected in the light of the Tibetan versions, runs as follows:
Chapter II: Munivratasamāśraya (Taking the Vow of an Ascetic)
Evam drdhamahābodhisamādāno jagad-dhite/ Pratirūpām pratipadam pratipanno virājate //
Having thus gone in for a resolute acceptance of the (vow, in respect of the) Great Wisdom for the sake of the good of the world, and having established himself in the Right Path (pratirūpå pratipad), he is covered with glory.
Sa maitryāl 'pratighātinyā kārunyena prasarpiņā / Saddharmādhigamätrpto dharmadāne vimatsarah //
1 The avagraha is missing in the Mc (= manuscript copy).
