Two Literary Conventions Of Classical India

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

Page 14

TWO LITERARY CONVENTIONS OF CLASSICAL INDIA 223
There can be no doubt that the ‘Kashmirians' here referred to are the Vaibhāsikas of Kashmir, for their opinion is found in the Mahāvibhāṣā, after which the Vaibhāsikas were named.23 Moreover, the ‘Kashmirians' are a few times explicitly connected with the Prakarana(-pāda), one of the canonical Abhidharma works of the Sarvāstivādins.24 And frequently the opinions ascribed to the ‘Kashmirians' can be found in the Mahāvibhāsā.25
A similar case is constituted by the Bhāsya on Abhidh-k 1.10c. This quarter verse states that smell is of four kinds (caturvidho gandhah). The Bhāsya explains the four kinds of smell: good and bad smell which can be excessive or non-excessive. 26 Then the Bhāsya continues: “But (smell is) threefold according to the Sāstra, which says) 'Smell is good, bad, or indifferent'.1:27 The quotation is from the Prakaranapada, 28 a canonical text of the Sarvāstivādins. Here again, therefore, verses and Bhāsya disagree as to what is the orthodox view of the Sarvāstivādins.
On one occasion the Bhāsya points at an insufficiency in a verse and rectifies it. This happens under verse 2.50, which reads:
Coexisting (causes) (sahabhū) have one another as effects, such as the elements (bhūta), thought and the accompaniments of thought, the characteristics and what they characterize.
This definition is not fully satisfactory, since the secondary characteristics (anulaksana, i.e. jātijāti etc.; see 2.46a) have as coexisting cause the dharma which they accompany, but not vice versa. The Bhāsya therefore completes the definition: “It must be added (upasaṁkhyātavyam) that even without mutuality a dharma is coexisting cause of its secondary characteristics, they not of it.”30
The references in the Bhāsya to the author of the verses do not allow us to draw any conclusions whatsoever. Sometimes these references use the first person. For example, the expression paścăd vaksyāmah 'we'll
23 See Abhidh-k (VP) II p. 3 n. 1. 24 Abhidh-k-bh (P) p. 84 1. 10-15 (on 2.51), p. 89 1. 7-13 (on 2.54). 25 See Abhidh-k (VP) I p. 76 n. 1, p. 89, p. 205, II p. 13 n. 3. 26 Abhidh-k-bh (P) p. 7 1. 6: sugandhadurgandhayoh samavisamagandharvāt. Yaśomitra
explains: anutkatotkatagandhatvād ity arthah. 27 Abhidh-k-bh (P) p. 71. 6-7: trividhas tu śāstre/ sugandho durgandhah samagandha iti/
See Abhidh-k (VP) I p. 18. Abhidh-k 2.50: sahabhūr ye mithahphalāh/bhūtavac cittacittanuvartilaksanalaksyavat// Abhidh-k-bh (P) p. 83 1. 23-24: vināpi canyonyaphalatvena dharmo 'nulaksanānām sahabhūhetur na tāni tasyety upasankhyātavyam.