The ''Abhidharmakośabhāsya'' ( sa, अभिधर्मकोशभास्य, lit. Commentary on the Sheath of Abhidharma), ''Abhidharmakośa'' ( sa, अभिधर्मकोश) for short (or just ''Kośa'' or AKB), is a key text on the

Abhidharma The Abhidharma are ancient (third century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist ''sutras''. It also refers to the scholastic method itself as well as the f ...

written in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

by the Indian Buddhist scholar

Vasubandhu Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; floruit, fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential bhikkhu, Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who ...

in the 4th or 5th century CE. The ''Kośa'' summarizes the

Sarvāstivādin The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (Sanskrit and Pali: 𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤, ) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy ...

Abhidharma in eight chapters with a total of around 600 verses and then comments on (and often criticizes) it. This text was widely respected and used by schools of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

and

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

. Over time, the ''Abhidharmakośa'' became the main source of

and Sravakayana Buddhism for later

Mahāyāna ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhism, Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BC ...

Buddhists. In the ''Kośa'', Vasubandhu presents various views on the Abhidharma, mainly those of the

Sarvāstivāda The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (Sanskrit and Pali: 𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤, ) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy ...

Vaibhāṣika Sarvāstivāda-Vaibhāṣika ( sa, सर्वास्तिवाद-वैभाषिक) or simply Vaibhāṣika (), refers to an ancient Buddhist tradition of Abhidharma (scholastic Buddhist philosophy), which was very influential in north I ...

, which he often criticizes from a

Sautrāntika The Sautrāntika or Sutravadin ( sa, सौत्रान्तिक, Suttavāda in Pali; ; ja, 経量部, Kyou Ryou Bu) were an early Buddhist school generally believed to be descended from the Sthavira nikāya by way of their immediate pare ...

perspective. The ''Kośa'' includes an additional chapter in prose refuting the idea of the "person" (''pudgala'') favoured by some Buddhists of the

Pudgalavada The Pudgalavāda (Sanskrit; English: "Personalism"; Pali: Puggalavāda; ) was a Buddhist philosophical view and also refers to a group of Nikaya Buddhist schools (mainly known as Vātsīputrīyas) that arose from the Sthavira nikāya.Williams, P ...

school. The

master Samghabhadra considered that Vasubandhu had misrepresented numerous key points of

Abhidharma in the ''Kośa'', and saw Vasubandhu as a

(upholder of the

sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...

s). However, Vasubandhu often presents and defends the

Abhidharma position on certain topics (contra

). Because of this, Chinese commentators like Pu Guang do not see Vasubandhu as either a Vaibhāṣika nor as a Sautrāntika.de la Vallee Poussin and Sangpo (2012) (Volume I), p. 10.

Background

The ''Abhidharmakośabhāsya'' (AKB) is a work of

, a field of Buddhist

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

which mainly draws on the

Abhidharma tradition. This tradition includes various groupings or "schools", the two main ones being Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika.de la Vallee Poussin and Sangpo (2012) (Volume I), pp. 2-3. The main source for the Vaibhāṣika tradition (which was based in Kaśmīra) is the ''

Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra The ''Abhidharma Śāstra'' ( sa, अभिधर्म महाविभाष शास्त्र) is an ancient Buddhist text. It is thought to have been authored around 150 CE. It is an encyclopedic work on Abhidharma, scholastic Buddhist ...

.'' The other main tradition of Sarvāstivāda philosophy were those masters who were called "westerners" (Pāścāttya) or "outsiders" (Bāhyaka) and they were mainly based in

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

. These masters (later known as Sautrāntikas) did not fully accept the Vaibhāṣika philosophy and compiled their own Abhidharma texts, such as the ''Abhidharma-hṛdaya'' by Dharmaśrī'','' which was the first Abhidharma text to provide a series of verses with prose commentary (this is the style that the ''Kośa'' follows). This work was very influential on subsequent Abhidharma texts (which imitated its style) and various commentaries were written on it. The ''Abhidharmakośabhāsya'''s style and structure is based on these Sautrāntika Abhidharma works. According to

K.L. Dhammajoti K. L. Dhammajoti (born 29 May 1949) is a Buddhist monk from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was ordained according to the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. He is also one of the leading scholars on Sarvastivada Abhidharma. and is well known in the wo ...

, in the AKB'','' Vasubandhu often favors the opinion of the

school against the Sarvāstivāda Vaibhāṣikas (when there is a dispute). For example, he criticizes the doctrine of the existence of the three times (past, present, future), a central

doctrine. However, this is not always the case and he seems to have sometimes also favored certain Vaibhāṣika doctrines (contra Sautrāntika), including the reality of certain mental factors (caittas), the notion of the conjunction () of mind () and mental factors and also the Sarvāstivāda doctrine of simultaneous causation (') which was rejected by Sautrantika masters like Śrīlāta.Poussin, Louis de La Vallee (fr. trans.); Sangpo, Gelong Lodro (eng. trans.) (2012) ''Abhidharmakośa-Bhāṣya of Vasubandhu Vol. II''. pp. 1191-1192. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi. ISBN 978-81-208-3609-9

Content Overview

The text is divided into the following chapters.

1: The Exposition on the Elements ('' dhātu-nirdeśa'')

2: The Exposition on the Faculties (''
indriya ''Indriya'' (literally "belonging to or agreeable to Indra") is the Sanskrit and Pali term for physical strength or ability in general, and for the senses more specifically. The term literally means "belonging to Indra," chief deity in the Rig Veda ...
-nirdeśa'')

3: The Exposition on the World (''loka-nirdeśa'')

4: The Exposition on Karma (''karma-nirdeśa'')

Chapter four of the Kośa is devoted to a study of karma, and chapters two and five contain formulation as to the mechanism of fruition and retribution.

5: The Exposition on the Underlying Tendencies (''anuśaya-nirdeśa'')

6: The Exposition on Paths and Persons (''mārgapudgala-nirdeśa'')

7: The Exposition on Wisdom (''jñāna-nirdeśa'')

8: The Exposition on Meditative Attainment (''samāpatti-nirdeśa'')

9: The Refutation of the View of a Self (''atmavāda-pratiṣedha'')

The Text and its Translations

The Sanskrit original of the ''Abhidharmakośabhāṣya'' was lost for centuries, and was known to scholarship only through Chinese and Tibetan translations. The work was of such importance to the history of Indian thought that in the 1930s, the great scholar Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana (1893–1963) even re-translated the verses into Sanskrit, from Tibetan, and wrote his own Sanskrit commentary on them. However, during a subsequent visit to Tibet, Sāṅkṛtyāyana discovered an ancient palm-leaf manuscript of 367 leaves that contained not only Vasubandhu's verses, but his lost commentary. In 1967 and then in a revised edition of 1975, Prof. P. Pradhan of

Utkal University Utkal University (UU) is a Public university in Bhubaneswar, Khordha district, Khordha, Odisha, and is the oldest university in Odisha, the state, and the 17th-oldest university in India. It is a teaching-cum-affiliating university. The pre ...

finally published the original Sanskrit text of the ''Abhidharmakośabhāṣya'', Vasubandhu's great work summarizing earlier traditions of the Vibhāṣā school of Buddhist philosophy. The ''Abhidharmakośa-kārikā'' (the verses) and the ''Abhidharmakośa-bhāsya'' (the auto-commentary) were translated into Chinese in the 6th-century by Paramārtha (T1559). They were translated again in the 7th-century by

Xuanzang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

(T1560 & T1558). Other translations and commentaries exist in Tibetan, Chinese,

Classical Mongolian Classical Mongolian was the literary language of Mongolian which was first introduced shortly after 1600, when Ligdan Khan set his clergy the task of translating the whole of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, consisting of the Kanjur and Tanjur, into M ...

and

Old Uyghur Old Uyghur () was a Turkic language which was spoken in Qocho from the 9th–14th centuries and in Gansu. History The Old Uyghur language evolved from Old Turkic after the Uyghur Khaganate broke up and remnants of it migrated to Turfan, Qomu ...

. The verses and the commentary were first translated into a European language by

Louis de La Vallée-Poussin Louis Étienne Joseph Marie de La Vallée-Poussin (1 January 1869 – 18 February 1938) was a Belgian Indologist and scholar of Buddhist Studies. Biography La Vallée-Poussin was born in Liège, where he received his early education. He studie ...

, published in 1923–1931 in French, which is primarily based on Xuanzang's Chinese translation but also references the Sanskrit text, Paramārtha's Chinese translation, and the Tibetan. Currently, three complete English translations exist. The first by Leo M. Pruden in 1988 and the second by Gelong Lodrö Sangpo in 2012 are both based on La Vallée-Poussin's French translation. The third by Masahiro Shōgaito in 2014 is a translation of the Uighur translation of Xuanzang's Chinese translation. * * * *

Commentaries

There are many commentaries written on this text.

Indian Commentaries

Indian Buddhist commentaries include:de La Vallee Poussin & Sangpo (2012), p. 92 * Samghabhadra (5th century CE), ''Abhidharmakośa-śāstra-kārikā-bhāṣya'' (Tibetan: '). This is a brief summary of the ''Abhidharmakośa''. * Samghabhadra (5th century CE), ''Nyāyānusāra''. This text critiques Vasubandhu's exposition on numerous points and defends the Vaibhasika orthodox views against Vasubandhu and other Sautrāntikas such as the elder Śrīlāta and his pupil Rāma. It only survives in a Chinese translation by

. * Yashomitra (6th c. CE), ''Abhidharmakośa-ṭīkā'' or ''Abhidharmakośa-sphuṭārthā'' (''chos mngon pa'i mdzod kyi 'grel bshad (don gsal ba)'' *

Sthiramati Sthiramati (Sanskrit; Chinese:安慧; Tibetan: ''blo gros brtan pa'') or Sāramati was a 6th-century Indian Buddhist scholar-monk. Sthiramati was a contemporary of Dharmapala based primarily in Valābhi university (present-day Gujarat), althoug ...

(6th c. CE), ''Abhidharmakoṣa-bhāṣya-ṭīkā-tattvārtha'' (''chos mngon pa mdzod kyi bshad pa'i rgya cher 'grel pa, don gyi de kho na nyid'') * Dignaga (6th c. CE), ''Abhidharmakośa-vṛtti-marmapradīpa'' (''chos mngon pa'i mdzod kyi 'grel pa gnad kyi sgron ma'') *Purnavardhana, ''Abhidharmakośa-ṭīkā-lakṣaṇānusāriṇī'' (''chos mngon pa mdzod kyi 'grel bshad mtshan nyid kyi rjes su 'brang ba''). Purnavardhana was a student of Sthiramati. * Purnavardhana, ''Abhidharmakośa-ṭīkā-lakṣaṇānusāriṇī'' (2nd commentary, but with same name as the first) * Śamathadeva (date unknown), ''Abhidharmakośa-ṭīkopayikā'' (''chos mngon pa'i mdzod kyi 'grel bshad nye bar mkho ba,'' Derge no. 4094 / Peking no. 5595), a handbook of the ''Kośa'' that quotes passages from the

Mūlasarvāstivāda The Mūlasarvāstivāda (Sanskrit: मूलसर्वास्तिवाद; ) was one of the early Buddhist schools of India. The origins of the Mūlasarvāstivāda and their relationship to the Sarvāstivāda sect still remain largely unk ...

Tripitaka. * Unknown author, ''Sārasamuccaya-nāma-abhidharmāvatāra-ṭīkā'' (''chos mngon pa la 'jug pa rgya cher 'grel pa snying po kun las btus'')

Chinese Commentaries

According to

Paul Demiéville Paul Demiéville (13 September 1894 – 23 March 1979) was a Swiss-French sinologist and Orientalist known for his studies of the Dunhuang manuscripts and Buddhism and his translations of Chinese poetry, as well as for his 30-year tenure as ...

, some of the major extant Chinese commentaries to the ''Abhidharmakośa include'': * Shen-t'ai, ''Chü-she lun shu'', originally in twenty Chinese volumes, today only volumes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 17 are extant. * P'u-kuang, ''Chü-she lun chi'' (in thirty-volumes, 7th century), which quotes Shen-t'ai. P'u-kuang also wrote a small treatise on the Kosa. * Fa-pao, ''Chü-she lun shu'', which quotes Shen-t'ai and P'u-kuang. * Yuan-hui, ''Chü-she tun sung shu.'' According to Demiéville, this work was "commented upon several times in China and widely used in Japan; it is from this work that the Mahayanists generally draw their knowledge of the ''Kośa''. But from the point of view of Indology, it does not offer the same interest as the three preceding commentaries." Two other disciples of

, Huai-su and K'uei-chi, wrote commentaries on the ''Kośa'' which are lost.de La Vallee Poussin & Sangpo (2012), p. 93.

Tibetan Commentaries

* Chim Lozang Drakpa (1299-1375), ''An Ocean of Excellent Explanations Clarifying the Abhidharma Kośa'' (') *Chim Jampé Yang (13th century), ''Ornament of Abhidharma'' ('), Chim Jampé Yang was a student of Chim Lozang Drakpa. * Rongtön Sheja Kunrig (1367-1449), ''Thoroughly Illuminating What Can be Known'' ('). Rongtön was a great scholar of the

Sakya The ''Sakya'' (, 'pale earth') school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug. It is one of the Red Hat Orders along with the Nyingma and Kagyu. Origins Virūpa, 16th century. It depict ...

school. * Gendün Drup, First Dalai Lama (1391–1474) ''Illuminating the Path to Liberation'' (') * The Ninth Karmapa

Wangchuk Dorje Wangchuk Dorje (1556–1603) was the ninth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Wangchuk Dorje was born in Treshod, Kham. According to legend, he said after being born: "I am Karmapa." Other sources say that soon after hi ...

(1556–1603), ''An Explanation of the Treasury of Abhidharma called the Essence of the Ocean of Abhidharma, The Words of Those who Know and Love, Explaining Youthful Play, Opening the Eyes of Dharma, the Chariot of Easy Practice'' (') * Mipham Rinpoche (1846–1912), (') * Jamyang Loter Wangpo (1847-1914), ''A Lamp Illuminating Vasubandhu's Intention'' (') *

Khenpo Shenga Khenpo Shenga Rinpoche, also Shenpen Chökyi Nangwa (1871–1927) was a Tibetan scholar in the Nyingma and Sakya traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Life Khenpo Shenga he undertook religious study at a relatively young age under the tutelage of Önpo ...

(1871–1927), ''A Mirror for What Can be Known'' (')

Notes

References

Sources

Printed sources

* * * Vallée Poussin, Louis de la, trad. (1923-1931). ''L’Abhidharmakosa de Vasubandhu'', Paris: Paul Geuthner
Vol. 1Vol. 2Vol. 3Vol. 4Vol. 5Vol. 6
* Pruden, Leo M. (1991), Abhidharmakosabhasyam, translated from the French translation by

Louis de la Vallée Poussin Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...

, Asian Humanities Press, Berkeley. *de La Vallee Poussin, Louis (fr. trans.); Sangpo, Gelong Lodro (eng. trans.) (2012) Abhidharmakośa-Bhāṣya of Vasubandhu Volume I. Motilal Banarsidass Pubs. ISBN 978-81-208-3608-2

Web-sources

External links

Multilingual edition of the Abhidharmakośa in the Bibliotheca Polyglotta
Web archiv
Multilingual edition of the Abhidharmakośa in the Bibliotheca Polyglotta

* ttp://n2t.net/ark:/13960/t4km61j45 Sanskrit text of the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya edited by P. Pradhān and published (2ed) in 1975 {{DEFAULTSORT:Abhidharmakosa-bhasya Abhidharma Mahayana texts Early Buddhism Buddhism in the Heian period Buddhism in the Nara period