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The Previous Buddhist Thinking and the Works of Asanga cxxi
In these texts the last meaning of the word seems to predominate according to which several categories of pudgalas have also been mentioned.
In the Mahāyānic texts, gotra occurs in the original sense of the nature or lineage of a person. The Mvy. mentions (ff. L.) the gotrabhumi as the second of the seven śrāvaka-stages. Tibetan tradition also seems to follow the same procedure. The Mahāyāna Sūtras use the word gotra in the sense of family, mine or root-cause of gems, origin and the kind, class or category of a person or thing. 8
These texts mention five kinds of abhisamaya-gotra according to the nature and capacity of ordained persons who are inclined towards the attainment of Bodhi and the acquisition of Nirvāṇa. *
Maitreyanātha, following the older Mahāyānic texts, regards the gotra as the main factor which enables a pudgala to produce the Bodhi-citta.5 The dharma-dhätu is called gotra as it produces the various ‘guņas' through which originates the Bodhicitta of which it is the base or
1. CP. AKB, pp. 13.19-20: cittacaittānam tarhi jātivācako, yam
dhātuśabda ityapare)...... 2. See, AKB with AKV, VI, 19, 23, 57, 58, AKV, pp. 593-94. 3. Such as śrävakagotra, pratyekabuddhagotra, buddha-gotra ete.,
vide, MSAB, III. 2. 4. See, Bauddha Sadhapā kā Vikāsa, (Vārāṇaseya Sanskrit University
Souvenir,, Yoga Sammelana, February, 1971).
See, BHSD, S. V. gorra for references. 6. These are : Śrāvakayāpābhisamayagotra, Pratyekabuddhayānā),
Tatbāgata", Aniyatagotrah, Agotrah, Mvy., LXI; cp., LS, pp. 27. 18-20 sq. (only gotras are mentioned, not pudgalas); v.de, MVBT, p. 141. Tatrādau gotrasāmarthyāt kopābi japrabodhataḥ| Prayogāśayasampattyā bodhicittaparigrahah||
AAA, p. 283; cp. also, pp. 309-10.
7.
