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Śrāvakabhūmi but we nowhere come across the enumeration of the seventeen Yogācārabhūmis in any other Mahāyānic text. We are informed that before Asanga, several other attempts were made to present, analyse and interpret the various Yogācārabhūmis. Yogācärabhūmi of Samgharakṣa, Dharmatrāta, Buddhasena and Buddhabhadra' are also preserved in the Chinese versions which gives clue to the existence of the Yogācārabhūmi-tradition in Indian Buddhism from which Asanga might have drawn inspiration. We also come across a 'Yogācārabhumyaśubhabhāvanāsūtra which clearly indicates that the various Yogācāra-stages were conceived, analysed and elucidated in the Buddhist tradition.
It is also significant to note that the Bodhisattvabhūmi, the sopādhikā and the Nirupādhikā bhūmis being the last stages of the Yogācāra-career, the Srāvakabhumi and other stages were regarded as the preliminary stages in the acquisition of Bodhi and thereby of Nirvāṇa by way of the practice of dhyāna, cessation of akušala dharmas and contemplation of kušala dharmas.
1.
See, E. Lamotte, Historie du Buddhisme Indien, p. 772.
