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The Previous Buddhist Thinking and the works of Asanga cxliii it was also taken to suggest the recognition of the nonexistence of a permanent'soul', 'self' or being. It has also been suggested that the Buddha and the Buddhists started a new tradition called 'the' Sanatama-tradition' as opposed to the ‘ātma-tradition of the Upanișads which attaches much importance and allegiance to the doctrine of a permanent, enduring soul (Atman, (which migrates and transmigrates).1 The Buddha and his followers negated the existence of this Ātman and started a new tradition in the realm of Indian thinking which may be termed as sanātmatradition' or non-substance view-point."
But it is also worth-considering that though the teachings of the Buddha, which are the base of the early Buddbist speculation, diverted into another direction and did not attach any importance to any permanent entity, its nairātmyavāda was much centred round the repudiation of the 'identified self' or the notion of egoity. The Buddha and his followers repudiated or negated the identification of 'self? with the 'ego.consciousness' and satkāyaděşti.4 His sole aim was the negation of ātma and ātmīya in the form of nāmarūpa and ātma-dtsști or aham-dsști."
The Mahāyāna Sūtras give a detailed elucidation to this doctrine of nairātmyavada and clearly state that nirātma or anātma means the negation of this ātma-dụşti, and not the total annihilation of the consciousness in our individuality. 1. Vide, Buddhist Logic, I. 4.7; V. Bhattacharya in C. H. I., III.
259; Basic Conception of Buddhism, p. 70. 95; Th. F. Stcherbatsky, 'The Soul Theory of Buddhists; T. R. V. Murti CPB, Ch. I-II. CPB., p. 16-20 sq. Vide, supra, fn. 6, Ananda K. Coomarswamy. Hinduism and
Buddhism, Gautama the Buddha, Introduction. 4. cf. SS, p. 130 (extract from the Tathāgataguhyaka). K. N. (S.)
cf. KN. (Sn) I. 386 (dvayatãoupassanasutta); M. K. XVIII. 1-5. 6. Vide, LV, XIII. 106, 110, 117.
