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THE VEDANTA-PHILOSOPHY
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X
and that it is irrefutable. This is how the Vedāntist establishes his prima facie argument.
As this deserves to be given an answer, the author of this treatise proceeds to make the following statement.
X Such are the contents of one of the earliest sources of information on the pre-Samkara Vedānta, 48 which must have come to be accepted by the Buddhists not long since as a full-fledged system of Indian philosophy. That a close affinity had already existed between the views of the Mādhyamikas on the one hand and the Vedāntists or the Upanișadists on the other has been placed beyond doubt on the pre-Bhavya testimony of Gaudapāda's Āgamaśāstra as well as the post-Bhavya testimony of Säntarakṣita's Tattvasamgraha.49 Bhavya's own detailed estimate of the Vedāntic position (which comes after the above pūrvapakşa) confirms the recognition of some common ground between the two idealistic trends of Indian philosophic thought. Bhavya is generous enough to acknowledge, that whatever is good in the Vedānta may be considered as taught by the Buddha himself. Before we close this presentation of his data, therefore, we may make a special note of the following stanzas appearing during the course of his controversy with the Hinayānists in Chapter IV of the Mhk: Srāvakatattvaniscayāvatāra: IV (7): na buddhoktir mahāyānam sūtrāntādāv asamgrahāt /
mārgāntaropadeśād vā yathā Vedāntadarśanam || (The Hinayānist, affirming his pūrvapakşa says:) The Mahāyāna cannot represent the teaching of the Buddha, either because it is not included among the Sūtrāntas etc. (including the Abhidharma and the Vinaya), or because it teaches the heretic paths of salvation, thus being similar to the Vedānta system. (T fol. 155a explains, that the Vedānta, which is known to be the concluding part of the Vedas, teaches bathing on the rivers, fasting and incantations as the methods of getting freedom from sin; and the Mahāyānists also follow the same methods for destroying sins' and increasing merits.)
And now Bhavya's reply to this argument is found to be the following: IV (56): Vedānte ca hi yat sūktam tat sarvam buddhabhāșitam /
dpstāntanyūnatā tasmāt samdigdham vā parīkşyatām // 48 See: Nakamura, "Upanisadic tradition etc.", HJAS, Vol 18 (cited above in note 4), p. 104. The nearest approach to this description of the Vedānta seems to have been made by Kálidāsa in the opening stanza of his Vikramorvasiyam: Vedānteşu yam āhur ekapuruşam .... etc. Cf. the opening stanza of Abhijñāna-śäkuntalam with the description of the eight Siddhis in T on 7. 49 See: stanza 330: teşām alpāparādhan tu.... etc.
