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XXIV
FOREWORD
is reduced by his arguments to a theory which is also an accepted fact in Buddhism. In cases of this kind he refers his opponent to a party which is directly opposed to a theory of this type.
The genius of S'antarakṣita will be at once apparent if we consider the fact that, with the obvious object of offering his obeisance to Lord Buddha, the first promulgator of the doctrine of Dependent Origination by means of six tiny stanzas, he lays down the whole foundation of his work, which covers very nearly four thousand verses, and anticipates all the twenty-six examinations on various subjects in the stanzas mentioned, where almost each word suggests a new examination.
One noteworthy fact about S'ântarakṣita's style of writing is that he seldom named the authors whose views he either quoted or explained in stating the position of his antagonists before criticising them. Why he did so is difficult to explain. It was certainly not his motive, as some may be inclined to think, to pass off these quotations as his own composition, because in that case he would not have quoted Kumârila extensively without naming him in all instances. Kumârila must have been very famous in his time, and our author would not have attempted to pass the compositions of the former off as his own. His omission to mention the names of a large number of authors while stating their views and quoting their opinions is due most probably to his over-estimation of the popularity of the respective doctrines stated by him, or because he was conscious that these names will be supplied by his favourite and erudite disciple, Kamalasîla, in his promised commentary. The way in which Kamalasila confidently refers these verses and opinions to their respective originators makes it probable that Kamalasila must have taken lessons directly from his Guru, S'ântarakṣita, before he began composing his monumental commentary which comprises no less than fifteen thousand granthas.
In order to understand more clearly the manner in which S'ântarakṣita proceeds to refute the arguments of his opponents we shall take from his work a confutation of the Lokayatas, a sect of materialist philosophers, which seems to have been very
