Buddhist texts
Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts a ...
composed either in
classical 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 ...
, in a
register
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), th ...
that has been called "
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) is a modern linguistic category applied to the language used in a class of Indian Buddhist texts, such as the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. BHS is classified as a Middle Indo-Aryan language. It is sometimes called "Bu ...
" (also known as "Buddhistic Sanskrit" and "Mixed Sanskrit"), or a mixture of these two.Edgerton, Franklin (1953). ''Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary'', ''Volume 1,'' pp. 1-3. MOTILAL BANARSIDASS. .Winternitz (1972) pp. 226-227. Several non-
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 ...
Nikāyas appear to have kept their canons in Sanskrit, the most prominent being 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 ...
school.Prebish, Charles S. (2010) ''Buddhism: A Modern Perspective'', pp. 42-44. Penn State Press. Many Mahāyāna Sūtras and śāstras also survive in Buddhistic Sanskrit or in standard Sanskrit.
During the Indian Tantric Age (8th to the 14th century), numerous
Buddhist Tantras
The Buddhist Tantras are a varied group of Indian and Tibetan texts which outline unique views and practices of the Buddhist tantra religious systems.
Overview
Buddhist Tantric texts began appearing in the Gupta Empire period, though there are ...
were written in Sanskrit, sometimes interspersed with local languages like Apabhramśa, and often containing notable irregularities in grammar and meter.Davidson, Ronald M. (2004). ''Indian Esoteric Buddhism: Social History of the Tantric Movement'', pp. 267-277. Motilal Banarsidass Publ.Indian Buddhist authors also composed
treatises
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Treat ...
and other Sanskrit literary works on
Buddhist philosophy
Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in India following the parinirvana of The Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. The Buddhist path combi ...
jatakas
The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is ...
,
epic poetry
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
and other topics. Sanskrit Buddhist literature is therefore vast and varied, despite the loss of a significant amount of texts. While a large number of works survive only in
Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
and
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
translations, many Sanskrit
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
vyākaraṇa
''Vyākaraṇa'' (, ) refers to one of the six ancient Vedangas, ancillary science connected with the Vedas, which are scriptures in Hinduism.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Vyakarana" in ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism'', Vol. 2: N-Z, Rosen ...
), poetry (
kāvya
Kāvya (Devanagari: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá'') refers to the Sanskrit literary style used by Indian court poets flourishing between c.200 BCE and 1200 CE.
This literary style, which includes both poetry and prose, is characterised by ab ...
), and medicine (
Ayurveda
Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repo ...
Middle Indo-Aryan
The Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Middle Indic languages, sometimes conflated with the Prakrits, which are a stage of Middle Indic) are a historical group of languages of the Indo-Aryan family. They are the descendants of Old Indo-Aryan (OIA; ...
dialects called
Prakrits
The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usua ...
.Marcus Bingenheimer, Editor in Chief; Bhikkhu Anālayo and Roderick S. Bucknell, Co-Editors. ''The Madhyama Agama: Middle Length Discourses Vol I (Taishō Volume 1, Number 26).'' Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai America, Inc. 2013. BDK English Tripiṭaka Series, p. xviWayman, Alex. ''The Buddhism and the Sanskrit of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.'' Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 85, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1965), pp. 111-115 (5 pages). Various parallel passages in the Buddhist Vinayas state that when asked to put the sutras into ''chandasas'' the Buddha refused and instead said the teachings could be transmitted in ''sakāya niruttiyā'' (Skt. ''svakā niruktiḥ'').''''Levman, Bryan. ''Sakāya niruttiyā revisited.''
Bulletin des Études Indiennes
Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to:
Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals)
* Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper
* ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008)
** Bulletin Debate, ...
, 26-27 (2008-2009): 33-51 This passage was interpreted in different ways in India, China and in Western scholarship.'''' Various translations and passages in Indian Vinaya works interpret ''chandasas'' as referring to the
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
used by
Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
s, i.e.
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...
and ''sakāya niruttiyā'' as referring to local
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
languages or dialects.'''' This view has also been taken by various modern scholars like Franklin Edgerton.
However, 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 ...
Vinaya texts state that ''chandasas'' does not refer to Sanskrit itself, but to a specific Vedic intonation used to chant the
Vedas
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
.'''' Scholars like
Sylvain Lévi
Sylvain Lévi (March 28, 1863 – October 30, 1935) was an influential French orientalist and indologist who taught Sanskrit and Indian religion at the École pratique des hautes études.
Lévi's book ''Théâtre Indien'' is an important ...
have seen this as an attempt to suppress the Buddha's rejection of Sanskrit but other scholars support the reading of the term ''nirutti'' as meaning "intonation", "recitation" or "chant."''''
The British philologist K.R. Norman defines nirutti as "
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
" or "gloss". Bryan Levman notes that the term can also mean "explanation of words," "grammatical analysis," "etymology," "pronunciation," or "way of expression" according to the Pali English Dictionary. Levman argues that numerous usages of the term in the Pali canon support the idea that the term here means a description or "explanation, not necessarily etymological, of the meaning of a word or text." According to the Levman, the famous Vinaya passage on language can be seen as meaning that the Buddha did not approve of certain monks who were using their own terms, expressions and explanations instead of the special terminology developed by the Buddha to explain his teachings. When some monks told this to the Buddha, they recommended that the Buddha's word be put in ''chandasas'' (Vedic meters and chanting forms), but the Buddha refused and said the teaching should merely be transmitted using his "own terminology" (''sakāya niruttiyā).''
Middle Indic
The Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Middle Indic languages, sometimes conflated with the Prakrits, which are a stage of Middle Indic) are a historical group of languages of the Indo-Aryan family. They are the descendants of Old Indo-Aryan (OIA; ...
prakrit dialects. The
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
tradition eventually adopted one form of Middle Indic, called
Pāli
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
, as its canonical language and the
Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During th ...
was written down in this language in the 1st century BCE in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. However, in
North India
North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...
and
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, Buddhist texts were transmitted in other prakrits like Gandhari, Northern Buddhist texts were also often sanskritised in varying degrees and translated into other dialects and languages.
Furthermore, from the third century on, new Buddhist texts in India began to be composed in standard Sanskrit. Over time, Sanskrit became the main language of Buddhist scripture and scholasticism in North India. This was influenced by the rise of Sanskrit as a political and literary
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
, perhaps reflecting an increased need for elite patronage. Because of this, many
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
s from Northern Buddhist traditions are often in Sanskrit, either classical or a non-standard form, often called Buddhist Sanskrit or
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) is a modern linguistic category applied to the language used in a class of Indian Buddhist texts, such as the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. BHS is classified as a Middle Indo-Aryan language. It is sometimes called "Bu ...
(BHS). BHS is an intermediate or mixed language that contains elements of an unknown Middle Indic Prakrit and standard Sanskrit.
Edgerton notes that a striking feature of BHS is that "from the very beginning of its tradition as we know it (that is, according to the mss. we have), and increasingly as time went on, it was modified in the direction of standard Sanskrit, while still retaining evidences of its Middle Indic origin." Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit works vary in their extent of Sanskritization. Perhaps the earliest of these texts is the '' Mahavastu'' (c. 2nd century BCE), which contains only slight Sanskrit elements while later works (such as various Mahayana sutras) are more Sanskritized while also containing unique terminology not found in other standard Sanskrit works.Edgerton (1953) pp. 5-8.
Sukumar Sen Sukumar Sen may refer to:
*Sukumar Sen (civil servant)
Sukumar Sen (2 January 1898 – 13 May 1963) was an Indian civil servant who was the first Chief Election Commissioner of India, serving from 21 March 1950 to 19 December 1958. Under his le ...
disagreed with Edgerton's view that Buddhist Sanskrit is a "hybrid" language. Sen writes that "Buddhistic Sanskrit is not a hybrid language " and that its structure is that of:
an
Indo-Aryan language
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...
that was much akin to Sanskrit but unlike it was not rigidly controlled by the grammarians. It was a free kind of language that was used by ordinary men, not aspiring for Hindu scholarship or veneration. It was what may be called Spoken Sanskrit. By its nature it was an unstable literary or business language varying according to time and place. To call such a language 'hybrid' is not correct. Buddhistic Sanskrit was not an artificially made up language fashioned by fusing Sanskrit and the Prākṛits.
Whatever the case, Buddhist Sanskrit became the main religious language used by north Indian Buddhists for religious purposes and over time, these works adopted more standard Sanskrit forms.
The Sanskritization of Buddhist literature was particularly influenced by the north-western Indian Buddhists, especially 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 ...
tradition.Bronkhorst, Johannes. The spread of Sanskrit* (published in: ''From Turfan to Ajanta.'' Festschrift for Dieter Schlingloff on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday. Ed. Eli Franco and Monika Zin. Lumbini International Research Institute. 2010. Vol. 1. Pp. 117-139.)Winternitz (1972) p. 232. During the reign of the
Kushan
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...
(CE 30-375) emperor
Kanishka
Kanishka I (Sanskrit: कनिष्क, '; Greco-Bactrian: Κανηϸκε ''Kanēške''; Kharosthi: 𐨐𐨞𐨁𐨮𐨿𐨐 '; Brahmi: '), or Kanishka, was an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, under whose reign (c. 127–150 CE) the empire re ...
(128–151 CE), a major
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 ...
Buddhist council
Since the death of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, Buddhist monastic communities ("''sangha''") have periodically convened to settle doctrinal and disciplinary disputes and to revise and correct the contents of the sutras. These gatherin ...
seems to have been held, either 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 ...
or
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
. During this council, some work was done on the Sarvāstivāda canon, which by now was being transmitted in a form of Sanskrit. The main commentaries of the Sarvāstivāda-
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 ...
were also composed in Sanskrit. An influential and large Sanskrit commentary known as the ''Mahā-Vibhāshā'' ("Great Exegesis") was also composed around this time. According to Maurice Winternitz, numerous fragments of the Sarvāstivāda Sanskrit canon have survived, especially from
archeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
findings in
East Turkestan
East Turkestan ( ug, شەرقىي تۈركىستان, Sherqiy Türkistan, bold=no; zh, s=东突厥斯坦; also spelled East Turkistan), is a loosely-defined geographical and historical region in the western provinces of the People's Republic of ...
, and also from quotations in other sources.
Other Indian Buddhist schools, like the
Mahāsāṃghika
The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha", ) was one of the early Buddhist schools. Interest in the origins of the Mahāsāṃghika school lies in the fact that their Vinaya recension appears in se ...
-
Lokottaravāda
The Lokottaravāda (Sanskrit, लोकोत्तरवाद; ) was one of the early Buddhist schools according to Mahayana doxological sources compiled by Bhāviveka, Vinitadeva and others, and was a subgroup which emerged from the Mahāsā ...
and Dharmaguptaka schools, also adopted Sanskrit or Sanskritized their scriptures to different degrees.
Reasons for the adoption of Sanskrit
A Sanskrit manuscript of the Lotus Sutra in South Turkestan Brahmi script
Scholars are unsure of what led to the widespread adoption of Sanskrit by Indian Buddhists, and various theories have been offered.''''
According to Johannes Bronkhorst, part of the reason for the Buddhist adoption of Sanskrit was due to the cultural and political influence of Brahmanas. Since Buddhists became reliant on the support of the royal and elite classes, "the adoption of Sanskrit became a matter of adjusting to the exigencies of the day." Bronkhorst argues that the use of Sanskrit would have eased the interactions between Buddhists and the Sanskrit speaking royal courts which the Buddhists relied on for material support.''''
Vincent Eltschinger writes that the few ancient sources which discuss the phenomenon of the Sanskritization of Buddhist texts "justify the recourse, if not directly to Sanskrit, at least to (Sanskrit) grammar, on the basis of the felt necessity to challenge the Brahmins' monopoly on conceptually and formally well-formed language and eloquence. In other words, what these Buddhists were up to might have been self-authorization, didactic skills and superiority in debate."Eltschinger, Vincent Why did the Buddhists adopt Sanskrit? Open Linguistics 2017; 3: 308–326 Degruyter. In this view, the prestige of Sanskrit was adopted by the Buddhists in order to legitimate their teachings as authoritative.''''
This view is supported by certain passages in the texts of the Northern Mahayana tradition. For example, the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'' (250-300?) states that "a bodhisattva studies the linguistic science in order to arouse confidence among those who are attached to the Sanskrit language by choosing well-formed phrases and syllables."'''' Also, Sthiramati's (6th century CE?) ''Sūtrālaṅkāravṛtti bhāṣya'' states:
A
bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.
In the Early Buddhist schools ...
studies the linguistic science (śabdavidyā) both in order to authorize himself among other experts on account of his wnskill in the Sanskrit language (saṃskṛtalapita) and in order to defeat the allodox teachers ( tīrthika) who boast of knowing the linguistic treatise(/science) (śabdaśāstra).''''
According to Eltschinger,
Yogacara
Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through t ...
sources like these "ascribe a threefold purpose to the study of (Sanskrit) grammar: authorizing a bodhisattva's speech so that he does not become the target of the sarcasms of pseudo-experts; allowing him to preach the Buddhist Law in a conceptually precise and formally irreproachable language; cause him to possess the eloquence that enables him to defeat his opponents in debate."'''' Another important use of knowing Sanskrit according to Eltschinger was that it allowed Buddhists to study the scriptures of non-Buddhists, with the goal of defeating them in debate.''''
Some scholars (such as
Heinrich Lüders
Heinrich Lüders (25 June 1869 in Lübeck – 7 May 1943 in Badenweiler) was a German Orientalist and Indologist known for his epigraphical analysis of the Sanskrit Turfan fragmentary manuscripts.
Biography
From 1888 to 1894, he studied a ...
) have also argued that adopting Sanskrit may have been a strategy to convert Brahmins to Buddhism.''''
Alex Wayman Alex Wayman (January 11, 1921 – September 22, 2004) was a Tibetologist and Indologist and worked as a professor of Sanskrit at Columbia University. He was of Jewish background.Amanda Porterfield, ''The Transformation of American Religion : The Sto ...
argues that many Buddhists ''were'' Brahmin converts who felt that Buddhism would be left behind if it did not adopt the prestigious Sanskrit language, but at the same time they wanted to retain some of the Middle Indic forms which they felt were expressions used by the Buddha. Due to this, mixed Sanskrit arose.
Furthermore,
Jean Filliozat
Jean Filliozat (4 November 1906 in Paris – 27 October 1982 in Paris) was a French writer. He studied medicine and was a physician between 1930 and 1947. He learned Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Tamil. He wrote some important works on the history ...
argued that Sanskrit was adopted because of the need for a
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
:
the more the prakrits evolved, the more they became differentiated and the more it became necessary to have recourse to a common language of to communicate in an increasingly vast Buddhist world as well as for active proselytism to many regions. Sanskrit alone was such a language. It was the best instrument of mutual understanding available to the monks of the various provinces who met at the various holy places.''''
Oskar von Hinüber
Oskar von Hinüber (born 18 February 1939 in Hanover) is a German Indologist. He joined the German Navy after leaving high school, and holds the rank of Commander as a reservist. From 1960 to 1966 he studied at University of Tübingen, University ...
meanwhile, argued that the Buddhists were just following "a general development within Indian culture" that was not restricted to Buddhism and which saw a process of Sanskritization throughout the subcontinent.''''
classical 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 ...
for Buddhist literary purposes possibly began with the poet
Aśvaghoṣa
, also transliterated Ashvaghosha, (, अश्वघोष; lit. "Having a Horse-Voice"; ; Chinese 馬鳴菩薩 pinyin: Mǎmíng púsà, litt.: 'Bodhisattva with a Horse-Voice') CE) was a Sarvāstivāda or Mahasanghika Buddhist philosopher, ...
(c. 100 CE), author of the ''
Buddhacarita
''Buddhacharita'' (; ) is an epic poem in the Sanskrit ''mahakavya'' style on the life of Gautama Buddha by of Sāketa (modern Ayodhya), composed in the early second century CE.
The author has prepared an account of the Buddha's life and teach ...
'' (a
mahakavya Mahākāvya (lit. great kāvya, court epic), also known as ''sargabandha'', is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit. The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of scenery, love, battles and so on — in short, eve ...
style epic poem) and one of the earliest Sanskrit dramatists. Aśvaghoṣa was a
brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
and may have had a classic brahminical education according to Winternitz. The poetic works of
Aśvaghoṣa
, also transliterated Ashvaghosha, (, अश्वघोष; lit. "Having a Horse-Voice"; ; Chinese 馬鳴菩薩 pinyin: Mǎmíng púsà, litt.: 'Bodhisattva with a Horse-Voice') CE) was a Sarvāstivāda or Mahasanghika Buddhist philosopher, ...
and other Sanskrit poets like Mātrceta and Āryaśūra were very popular in India and they were widely recited and memorized according to
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou ...
.
Sanskrit was also an important language for
Mahayana Buddhism
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...
. Many Mahāyāna sūtras were composed and transmitted in Sanskrit. Some of the earliest and most important Mahayana sutras are the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, many of which survive in Sanskrit manuscripts. Various scholars have argued that many of these Prajñāpāramitā sutras may have developed among the
Mahāsāṃghika
The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha", ) was one of the early Buddhist schools. Interest in the origins of the Mahāsāṃghika school lies in the fact that their Vinaya recension appears in se ...
South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
(circa 1st century BCE).Akira, Hirakawa (translated and edited by Paul Groner) (1993). ''A History of Indian Buddhism''. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass: pp. 253, 263, 268
The Indian Buddhist philosophers of the Vaibhasika, Sautrantika,
Madhyamaka
Mādhyamaka ("middle way" or "centrism"; ; Tibetan: དབུ་མ་པ ; ''dbu ma pa''), otherwise known as Śūnyavāda ("the emptiness doctrine") and Niḥsvabhāvavāda ("the no ''svabhāva'' doctrine"), refers to a tradition of Buddhist ...
and
Yogacara
Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through t ...
schools also mainly wrote in Sanskrit.Howladar, Mithun. ''Buddhist Sanskrit Literature : A Discussion.'' Research Guru: Online Journal of Multidisciplinary Subjects Volume-11, Issue-4, March-2018.
These include well known figures like Kumāralatā,
Nāgārjuna
Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...
,
Āryadeva
Āryadeva (fl. 3rd century CE) (; , Chinese: ''Tipo pusa'' 婆 菩薩 = Deva Bodhisattva, was a Mahayana Buddhist monk, a disciple of Nagarjuna and a Madhyamaka philosopher.Silk, Jonathan A. (ed.) (2019). ''Brill’s Encyclopedia of Budd ...
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 ...
, Yaśomitra,
Dignāga
Dignāga (a.k.a. ''Diṅnāga'', c. 480 – c. 540 CE) was an Indian Buddhist scholar and one of the Buddhist founders of Indian logic (''hetu vidyā''). Dignāga's work laid the groundwork for the development of deductive logic in India and cr ...
Dharmakīrti
Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: ''chos kyi grags pa''), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.Tom Tillemans (2011)Dharmakirti Stanfor ...
,
Bhāviveka
Bhāviveka, also called Bhāvaviveka (; ), and Bhavya was a sixth-century (c. 500 – c. 570) madhyamaka Buddhist philosopher.Qvarnström 1989 p. 14. Alternative names for this figure also include Bhavyaviveka, Bhāvin, Bhāviviveka, Bhagavadviv ...
,
Candrakīrti
Chandrakirti (; ; , meaning "glory of the moon" in Sanskrit) or "Chandra" was a Buddhist scholar of the madhyamaka school and a noted commentator on the works of Nagarjuna () and those of his main disciple, Aryadeva. He wrote two influential w ...
,
Śāntideva
Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; ; ; mn, Шантидэва гэгээн; vi, Tịch Thiên) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka phil ...
and
Śāntarakṣita
(Sanskrit; , 725–788),stanford.eduŚāntarakṣita (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)/ref> whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particul ...
.
The
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gol ...
(4th–6th centuries) and Pāla Empire (8th–12th centuries) eras saw the growth of large Buddhist educational institutions like
Nālandā
Nalanda (, ) was a renowned ''mahavihara'' (Buddhist monastic university) in ancient Magadha (modern-day Bihar), India.Vikramashila
Vikramashila (Sanskrit: विक्रमशिला, IAST: , Bengali:- বিক্রমশিলা, Romanisation:- Bikrômôśilā ) was one of the three most important Buddhist monasteries in India during the Pala Empire, along with N ...
. Maurice Winternitz writes that these large Buddhist universities studied Buddhist philosopher along with "all branches of secular knowledge" for hundreds of years. Chinese pilgrims to India like
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou ...
also described how, in these universities, the study of Buddhist philosophy was preceded by extensive study of Sanskrit language and grammar.
Great Buddhist philosophers like Dignaga and
Dharmakirti
Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: ''chos kyi grags pa''), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.Tom Tillemans (2011)Dharmakirti Stanford ...
taught Buddhist philosophy in these universities in the Sanskrit language.Warder, A.K. ''Indian Buddhism''. 2000. p. 442. These universities also drew foreign students from as far away as China. One of the most famous of these was the 7th century Chinese pilgrim
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 ...
, who studied Buddhism in Sanskrit at Nalanda and took over 600 Sanskrit manuscripts back to China for his translation project.
The writing of Buddhist Sanskrit has relied on various
Indic scripts
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...
throughout its history. Early Buddhist Sanskrit works were mainly written in the
Brahmi script
Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' o ...
and also in the
Kharosthi
The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and ...
script (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 ...
). Later on, Buddhist Sanskrit works were written using other Indic scripts which developed out of the Brahmi script, mainly the
Gupta script
The Gupta script (sometimes referred to as Gupta Brahmi script or Late Brahmi script)Sharma, Ram. '' 'Brahmi Script' ''. Delhi: BR Publishing Corp, 2002 was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of the Indian subcon ...
and Siddhaṃ (used circa 600 to 1200). Nepalese Buddhist manuscripts tend to use the
Ranjana script
The Rañjanā script (Lantsa) is an abugida writing system which developed in the 11th centuryJwajalapa
or the Prachalit (Newar).
Some Sanskrit works which were written by Buddhists also cover secular topics, such as grammar (
vyākaraṇa
''Vyākaraṇa'' (, ) refers to one of the six ancient Vedangas, ancillary science connected with the Vedas, which are scriptures in Hinduism.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Vyakarana" in ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism'', Vol. 2: N-Z, Rosen ...
), lexicography (koṣa), poetry (
kāvya
Kāvya (Devanagari: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá'') refers to the Sanskrit literary style used by Indian court poets flourishing between c.200 BCE and 1200 CE.
This literary style, which includes both poetry and prose, is characterised by ab ...
), poetics (alaṁkāra), and medicine (
Ayurveda
Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repo ...
).
During the Indian Tantric Age (8th to the 14th century), numerous
Buddhist Tantras
The Buddhist Tantras are a varied group of Indian and Tibetan texts which outline unique views and practices of the Buddhist tantra religious systems.
Overview
Buddhist Tantric texts began appearing in the Gupta Empire period, though there are ...
and other esoteric literature was written in Sanskrit. Esoteric Buddhist works are unique in that they often contain non-standard (non- Paninian) Sanskrit, prakritic elements and also influences from regional languages like apabhramśa and Old Bengali.Newman, John. "Buddhist Sanskrit in the Kālacakra Tantra." 1988, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. This tantric Sanskrit is not the same as
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) is a modern linguistic category applied to the language used in a class of Indian Buddhist texts, such as the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. BHS is classified as a Middle Indo-Aryan language. It is sometimes called "Bu ...
, but a form unique to Buddhist tantric texts which contains few Middle Indic words. These vernacular forms are often in verses ( dohas) which may be found within esoteric Sanskrit texts. Examples of such non-standard esoteric Sanskrit texts include the ''Kṛṣṇayamāri'', '' Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa'' and ''Saṃvarodaya'' Tantras.
Outside of India
East Asia
The
Silk road transmission of Buddhism
Buddhism entered Han China via the Silk Road, beginning in the 1st or 2nd century CE. The first documented translation efforts by Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE via the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory bordering the ...
during the
first millennium
File:1st millennium montage.png, From top left, clockwise: Depiction of Jesus, the central figure in Christianity; The Colosseum, a landmark of the once-mighty Roman Empire; Kaaba, the Great Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site of Islam; Chess, ...
saw a widespread exchange of Sanskrit Buddhist literature, with Asians traveling to India to obtain Sanskrit manuscripts and Indians traveling to China and to Central Asia to spread Buddhism. The influence of Buddhist Sanskrit culture was widespread over a large region during this period. The details of this cultural exchange within Asia can be found in classic texts like Faxian's ''A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms'' (4th century) and (6th century), and Xuanzang's ''Record of the Western Regions'' (7th century).
Buddhist Sanskrit exerted a strong influence on the
Chinese language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...
. For example, the Chinese lexicographical practice called '' fǎnqiè'' (反切) was influenced by Buddhist Sanskrit. Chinese literary forms and metaphors were also drawn from Sanskrit Buddhist works. Fuwei Chen estimates that around 30,000 Sanskrit words were introduced into Chinese from Sanskrit Buddhist sources. Chinese Buddhists also produced Sanskrit Chinese lexicons, like the ''Fānfànyǔ'' (''The Translation of Sanskrit'', 翻梵語, T. 2130, c. 517), which contains numerous Sanskrit
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s into Chinese. Some of the most important sources on this cultural exchange come from border regions like
Dunhuang
Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...
and the
Mogao Caves
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
Buddhism flourished and its texts and scholarship was mainly conducted in Sanskrit. When Vajrayana spread to the Himalayan regions of
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, ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
and
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...
, Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts and scholars also entered these regions. Medieval
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, ...
was an important center for the study and translation of Sanskrit Buddhist works, as well as for the study of Indian Sanskrit grammars (such as the ''Sārasvatavyākaraṇa''), poetry and works on poetics (like the ''
Kāvyādarśa The Kavyadarsha ( sa, काव्यादर्श, ) by Dandin is the earliest surviving systematic treatment of poetics in Sanskrit.
Contents
This work is divided into 3 ''pariccheda''s (chapters) in most of the printed editions, except one, ...
''), drama (nāṭaka) and other Indian sciences (vidyāsthānas). These Sanskrit sources had a significant impact on Tibetan intellectual culture. According to
Matthew Kapstein
Matthew T. Kapstein is a scholar of Tibetan religions, Buddhism, and the cultural effects of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He is Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and Director of Tibetan ...
"during the first centuries of the 2nd millennium Tibetan translators continued to refine their art, producing precise, thorough, and nuanced translations of works of considerable sophistication and difficulty, many of which stand as outstanding achievements of the translator's art even today."
The translation effort was often a collaborative one which involved Indian pandits and Tibetan scholars and the support of Tibetan kings like Thri Songdetsen (742–c.797). This process led to the creation of a new Tibetan literary language, a "dharma language" (chos skad) strongly influenced by Sanskrit, and created for the specific purpose of translating Sanskrit Buddhist texts.Gold, Jonathan C. (2007). ''The Dharma's Gatekeepers, Sakya Pandita on Buddhist Scholarship in Tibet'', pp. 4-7. State University of New York Press. It also produced the ''Mahavyutpatti'', the great Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary, with a commentary, the ''Two-Volume Lexicon.''
The Tibetan Buddhist scholar
Sakya Pandita
Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་པཎ་ཌི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན, ) (1182 – 28 November 1251) was a Tibetan spiritual leader and Buddhist scholar and the fourth of the Five S ...
(1182-1251) was a well known scholar of Sanskrit grammar and literature, and promoted the study of these disciplines among Tibetan scholars during the New translation era.Gold, Jonathan C. (2007). ''The Dharma's Gatekeepers, Sakya Pandita on Buddhist Scholarship in Tibet'', pp. 8-9. State University of New York Press. He had studied Sanskrit grammar, poetics, kavya, lexicography, and drama with Indian pandits like Sakyasribhadra (who traveled to Tibet and taught numerous Tibetan students). According to Jonathan Gold, Sakya Pandita held that Tibetan scholars needed to form an elite guard to protect the Buddha's Dharma from corruption. Sakya Pandita saw their main intellectual tools as "the great Indian traditions of grammar, literature, and philosophy." Sakya Pandita wrote various works in order to remedy what he saw as a lack of knowledge of classical Indian sciences by Tibetans, such as his ''Gateway to Learning''. Other important Tibetan Sanskritists of the new translation period who also studied Sanskrit with Indian pandits were Chak Lotsawa and Thropu Lotsawa.
Under Sakya Pandita's leadership, Sakya monastery became a major center of Sanskrit and Buddhist learning in Tibet. Sakya Pandita's tradition also promoted the study of the "five sciences" taught at Indian universities as a necessary part of the bodhisattva path. These are: "linguistic science (sabdavidya), logical science (hetuvidya), medical science (cikitsavidya), science of fine arts and crafts (silpakarmasthanavidya), and the spiritual sciences (adhyatmavidya) of the dharma." Sakya Pandita argued that without having some basic knowledge of Sanskrit (or at least without being aware of common Tibetan translation strategies and important Sanskrit terms), Tibetan scholars would make numerous mistakes in interpreting scriptures translated into Tibetan. Thus, for him, the ideal Buddhist scholar had at least some basic knowledge of Sanskrit.
From the 15th century on, Tibetan Buddhists were pioneers in the
woodblock printing
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...
of Sanskrit works. According to Kaptstein, the Tibetans were the first to use printing technology to copy Sanskrit texts. Tibetans also had a developed tradition of Sanskrit
calligraphy
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
using numerous scripts. Many manuscripts of Sanskrit Buddhist texts have survived in
Tibetan Buddhist
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
monastic libraries. Another influential Tibetan Sanskritist was the
Fifth Dalai Lama
Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (; ; 1617–1682) was the 5th Dalai Lama and the first Dalai Lama to wield effective temporal and spiritual power over all Tibet. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being a key religious and temporal leader ...
Desi Sangye Gyatso
Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653–1705) was the sixth regent (''desi'') of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682) in the Ganden Phodrang government. He founded the School of Medicine and Astrology called Men-Tsee-Khang on Chagpori (Iron Mountain) in 1694 an ...
(1653–1705), also continued to promote the study of Sanskrit texts on the "secular sciences" (vidyāsthāna) such as texts on poetics, grammar, astral calculation and medicine. His efforts included ensuring that the Zhol Printing House at the
Potala Palace
The Potala Palace is a ''dzong'' fortress in Lhasa, Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and a World Heritage Site since 1994.
The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythica ...
printed editions of the necessary Indian texts.
Theravada
Even though Sanskrit was not their canonical language, the
Theravāda
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
tradition also relied on
Sanskrit grammar
The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminating ...
, poetics and
lexicography
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretica ...
. Post-canonical Pali commentaries, sub-commentaries and treatises often quote from Sanskrit grammars, and occasionally reproduce Sanskrit verses.
Pali literature
Pali literature is concerned mainly with Theravada Buddhism, of which Pali is the traditional language. The earliest and most important Pali literature constitutes the Pāli Canon, the authoritative scriptures of Theravada school.
Pali literat ...
in Sri Lankan Buddhism also went through a process of increasing Sanskritization which began during what is called "the reform era" of 1157-1270. During this period, Buddhist monastics began to write new forms of literate Sanskritized Pali poetry as well as other texts influenced by Sanskrit literature, such as new grammars. One example is Moggallana's Pali Grammar which is influenced by Sanskrit grammatical works. Medieval Theravadins also studied Sanskrit Buddhist texts from the sub-continent and their works show that they were familiar with Indian Mahayana Sanskrit literature.
The use of Sanskrit was also widespread in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
(including being used in inscriptions and rituals) during the period before the rise to prominence of
Theravada Buddhism
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
which mostly replaced Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism in Southeast Asia. The
Indianization of Southeast Asia
Dating back to the first century, Indian culture started making its way into the region of Southeast Asia. The expansion of Indian culture into these areas was given the term ''Indianization''. The term was coined by French archaeologist, George ...
and the influence of Southeast Asian Brahmins also led to a broader influence of Sanskrit on South-East Asian cultures which also had an impact on Southeast Asian Buddhism. Sanskrit works like the
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
and the Dharmasastras influenced the literature and culture of these regions and this eventually influenced Buddhism as well.
Buddhist Sanskrit in the modern era
The
decline of Buddhism in India
Buddhism, which originated in India, gradually dwindled and was replaced by approximately the 12th century. According to Lars Fogelin, this was "not a singular event, with a singular cause; it was a centuries-long process."
The decline of Budd ...
saw the loss of a large number of Sanskrit Buddhist texts. In the modern era, Sanskrit Buddhist texts were discovered in numerous regions, including
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
,
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, ...
,
Gilgit
Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a h ...
(
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
),
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
etc. Many Sanskrit Buddhist Manuscripts are still in temples, monasteries and private collections and have not been published.
The use of Sanskrit as a sacred language survives in the
Newar Buddhism
Newar Buddhism is the form of Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It has developed unique socio-religious elements, which include a non-monastic Buddhist society based on the Newar caste system and ...
of
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
, and arguably the vast majority of Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts have been preserved by this tradition. The Newar tradition most prominently employs Sanskrit for all ritual and study purposes, and as such is the only living Buddhist Sanskrit tradition. It has also produced a number of respected Sanskritists. Nepalese pandits and monastic scholars have contributed to the production and propagation of Sanskrit Buddhist texts and many complete and reliable Sanskrit copies of important Mahayana texts have been found in Nepal. This was mainly due to the Newar Buddhist tradition which has copied and transmitted these scriptures up until the present day. Nepalese institutions, such as the National Archives and Asha Archives in
and the Rare Sanskrit Buddhist Manuscript Preservation Project in Lalitpur, are at the forefront of the
preservation
Preservation may refer to:
Heritage and conservation
* Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible
* ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...
,
cataloguing
In library and information science, cataloging ( US) or cataloguing ( UK) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as auth ...
and
digitization
DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a Digital data, digital (i ...
of Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts.
Brian Houghton Hodgson
Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1800 or more likely 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Himala ...
was the first Western scholar to bring the Nepalese Buddhist Sanskrit tradition to scholarly attention. Important Sanskrit sutras were published in the 19th century using Nepalese manuscripts, such as the ''Kāraṇḍavyūha'' (1873), '' Lalitavistara'' (1877) and '' Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā'' (1888). Many of these Nepalese editions were republished by Parashuram Lakshman Vaidya.
Many Sanskrit Buddhist works have also been unearthed in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
. One major find was at
Gilgit
Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a h ...
in 1931, and most of these are in the National Archives at
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
. Another major find was from Eastern Turkestan (1902, 1904, 1905, and 1913) and was found by the German
Turfan
Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015).
Geonyms
The original name of the cit ...
Expedition. They are kept in the
Academy of Sciences
An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unite ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. A private collection known as the
Schøyen collection
__NOTOC__
The Schøyen Collection is one of the largest private manuscript collections in the world, mostly located in Oslo and London. Formed in the 20th century by Martin Schøyen, it comprises manuscripts of global provenance, spanning 5,000 y ...
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. Another group of Sanskrit texts were discovered by Russian scholars like
Sergey Oldenburg
Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg (russian: Серге́й Фёдорович Ольденбу́рг; 26 September 1863, in Byankino, Transbaikal Oblast – 28 February 1934, in Leningrad) was a Russian orientalist who specialized in Buddhist stud ...
and are held by the Russian Academy of Sciences in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
mantra
A mantra (Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ma ...
s and dhāranīs are still recited in Sanskrit. Indeed, numerous Buddhist texts in the Taishō Tripitaka contain Siddhaṃ script, such as the ''Womb Matrix Sanskrit Mantra'' (T. 854 胎藏梵字真言). Some East Asian Buddhist traditions, like the Japanese
Shingon
file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya
is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...
and
Tendai
, also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...
schools, are also known for their study of Sanskrit. This is closely connected to the importance of Sanskrit mantras and the influence of the Siddhaṃ script in East Asian Esoteric Buddhism.
The Tibetan Buddhist tradition also retains numerous Sanskrit manuscripts and a tradition of Sanskrit study. Many Sanskrit manuscripts were kept in Tibetan monasteries and in the
Potala Palace
The Potala Palace is a ''dzong'' fortress in Lhasa, Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and a World Heritage Site since 1994.
The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythica ...
. Some of these were photographed and catalogued by Rahula Sankrityayan in the 1930s and others are being studied and published by the China Tibetology Research Center in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
together with the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Buddhist Sanskrit texts are also widely studied in modern academic
Buddhist studies
Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the nature of the Budd ...
programs, both in the
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
and in
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
. Many of these works are important sources for understanding the development of Mahayana Buddhism and its spread throughout Asia. The standard writing system for most academic publications on Sanskrit Buddhist texts is the
International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...
(IAST).
A major milestone in the study of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Literature was
Franklin Edgerton
Franklin Edgerton (July 24, 1885 – December 7, 1963) was an American linguistic scholar. He was Salisbury Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Yale University (1926) and visiting professor at Benares Hindu University (1953–4 ...
's publication of a BHS Dictionary and Grammar, along with a Reader, in 1953.
In 2003, the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon (DSBC) project was initiated by the
University of the West
University of the West (UWest) is a private, non-sectarian, Buddhist-affiliated university in Rosemead, California. It was founded in 1990 by Hsing Yun, founder of the Taiwan-based Buddhist order Fo Guang Shan and Hsi Lai Temple, the North Amer ...
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
Lewis Lancaster
Lewis R. Lancaster (born 27 October 1932) is Emeritus Professor of the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and has served as President, Adjunct Professor, and Chair of the dissertation committee at Un ...
and Min Bahadur Shakya) seeks to collect, digitize and electronically publish Sanskrit Buddhist texts. Part of the project also includes the creation of a reconstructed Sanskrit Buddhist Canon through the compiling of all extant Sanskrit Buddhist Texts. The collection comprising around 545 titles is currently available a Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon - Home
Partial list of extant Sanskrit Buddhist texts
This list follows the structure of the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon (DSBC) project which divides the collection into a Sutrapiṭaka, Vinayapiṭaka and Śāstrapiṭaka.''Towards a Comprehensive Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon'', PNC 2008 Annual Conference and Joint Meetings with ECAI and JVGC Hanoi, Vietnam December 4–6, 2008 http://www.pnclink.org/pnc2008/english/slide/06_PP_Urban%20Development_1000.pdf
Sutrapiṭaka
This includes numerous categories of Buddhist texts that are considered to fall under the class of "
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 ...
While there is no Sanskrit manuscript of any single complete Agama collection, many individual texts and fragments have been found, especially in the
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...
and the city of
Turfan
Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015).
Geonyms
The original name of the cit ...
.
Extant Sanskrit texts which were part of the Sanskrit Sutrapiṭaka include:
* MulasarvāstivādaDīrgha Āgama (a nearly complete manuscript has been found).Marcus Bingenheimer, Editor in Chief; Bhikkhu Anālayo and Roderick S. Bucknell, Co-Editors. ''The Madhyama Agama: Middle Length Discourses Vol I (Taishō Volume 1, Number 26).'' Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai America, Inc. 2013. BDK English Tripiṭaka Series, p. xvi, 542. It contains forty-seven discourses. This includes some sutras not found in Pali at all, like the ''Māyājāla sutra'', the ''Catuṣpariṣat-sūtra'' and the ''Arthavistara-sūtra''.
* Madhyama āgama (fragmentary).
*
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 ...
Saṃyukta Āgama (fragmentary). The first twenty-five sūtras of the Nidāna-saṃyukta have been preserved and published.
*The ''Vidyāsthānopama-sūtra (‘Discourse on the Relative Value of the Varieties of Knowledge’)'' , a Saṃyukta Āgama type sutra without any parallels in other canonical collection.
*'' The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra''
*
Ekottara Āgama
The Ekottara Āgama (Sanskrit; ) is an early Indian Buddhist text, of which currently only a Chinese translation is extant (Taishō Tripiṭaka 125). The title ''Ekottara Āgama'' literally means "Numbered Discourses," referring to its organizati ...
Dharmapada
The Dhammapada (Pāli; sa, धर्मपद, Dharmapada) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka ...
"
**The Sūtra Nipata (fragmentary)
**Anavataptagāthā Bechert, Heinz. ''On a Fragment of Vimānāvadāna, a Canonical Buddhist Sanskrit Work.'' Buddhist Studies in Honour of I.B. Horner pp 19–25
**Vimānāvadāna (fragments)
**Sthaviragāthā (fragments)
Mahayana sutras
The Mahāyāna sūtras are a broad genre of Buddhist scriptures (''sūtra'') that are accepted as canonical and as ''buddhavacana'' ("Buddha word") in Mahāyāna Buddhism. They are largely preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, the Tibetan B ...
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
The ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' (Sanskrit, "Discourse of the Descent into Laṅka" bo, ལང་ཀར་བཤེགས་པའི་མདོ་, Chinese:入楞伽經) is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist sūtra. This sūtra recounts a teachi ...
(Descent into Lanka)
*Mahāmegha sūtra
* Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra
*Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtram (
Lotus sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...
Samādhi
''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditation, meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ash ...
of the Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present)
*Vinayaviniścaya upāliparipṛcchā
*Maitreyavyākaraṇa
*Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra
Pramāṇa
''Pramana'' (Sanskrit: प्रमाण, ) literally means " proof" and "means of knowledge".Dhāraṇī
There are numerous surviving dharanis, including those found in several collections from
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
. Examples include:
*Ārya amoghapāśahṛdaya nāma mahāyānasūtram
*Āryaśrīmahādevīvyākaraṇam
*Ekādaśamukham
*Mahāsannipātaratnaketudhāraṇī sūtraṃ
*Megha sūtra
*Dhāraṇī Saṃgraha (a collection of over 500 dharanis).
*
Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī
The , also known as the , or Great Compassion Dhāraṇī / Mantra (Chinese: 大悲咒, ''Dàbēi zhòu''; Japanese: 大悲心陀羅尼, ''Daihishin darani'' or 大悲呪, ''Daihi shu''; Vietnamese: ''Chú đại bi'' or ''Đại bi tâm đà l ...
* Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī
*Nirvikalpapravesadhāraṇī (Dhāraṇī For Entering into the Unmediated State), an influential source for Maitripa's Mahamudra teachings as well as for other Indian masters including Sthiramati, Kamalaśīla, Vimalamitra, Ratnākaraśānti, and Atīśa.
Avadāna
Avadāna (Sanskrit; Pali cognate: '' Apadāna'') is the name given to a type of Buddhist literature correlating past lives' virtuous deeds to subsequent lives' events.
Richard Salomon described them as "stories, usually narrated by the Buddha, ...
Numerous collections of past life stories (avadanas) survive in Sanskrit, as well as single avadanas in various manuscripts. The main avadana collections include:
* The Mahāvastu Mahāvadānasūtra *
Avadanasataka The Avadānaśataka or "Century of Noble Deeds ( Avadāna)" is an anthology in Sanskrit of one hundred Buddhist legends, approximately dating to the same time as the Ashokavadana. Ratnamālāvadāna. The work may be from the Mulasarvastivada
Th ...
(100 stories)
* Divyavadāna (38 stories), it frequently quotes from other texts like the Sanskrit Agamas, Udana and Sthavira-gatha.
*Avadānakalpalatā (108 stories) by the Kashmiri poet Kṣemendra
*Kalpadrumāvadānamālā (26 stories)
*Asokavadanamala
*Vicitrakarnika Avadanamala (32 stories)
*Vrata Avadana (3 stories)
*Bhadrakalpāvadāna (34 stories)
*Dvavimsatya Avadana (22 stories)
*Sugata Avadana
*Ratnamala Avadana (12 stories)
*Bodhisattvavadana
*Uposadhavadana
*Suchandravadana
*Kumāralāta's Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā-dṛṣṭānta-paṅkti (mid-second century), fragmentary
* Svayambhū Purāṇa
Jataka
The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is ...
Past life stories in campū style (mixed verse and prose)
*Saṅghasena's Jātakamālā (third century), fragmentary
* Jātakamālā of Āryaśura
*Jātakamālā of Haribhatta
*Jātakamālā of Gopadatta (eighth century), fragmentary (about half)
*Jñānayaśas' Jātakastava
Tantra
Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...
Sahaja
Sahaja ( pra, সহজ sa, सहज ) means spontaneous enlightenment in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist spirituality. Sahaja practices first arose in Bengal during the 8th century among yogis called Sahajiya siddhas.
Ananda Coomaraswamy describe ...
Hevajra tantra
Hevajra (Tibetan: kye'i rdo rje / kye rdo rje; Chinese: 喜金剛 Xǐ jīngāng /
呼金剛 Hū jīngāng;) is one of the main yidams (enlightened beings) in Tantric, or Vajrayana Buddhism. Hevajra's consort is Nairātmyā (Tibetan: bdag med ...
**Buddhakapālatantra
**Ḍākārṇavaḥ
*Tantra darśana
**Niṣpannayogāvalī ("Garland of Perfect Yoga"), a compendium of tantric sādhanas with descriptions of maṇḍalas and deities
* Yoga tantras
** Sarva tathāgata tattva saṅgrahaḥ
**Sarvadurgatipariśodhana tantra
*Yogottara tantra
**Advayasiddhiḥ
**Srivajrabhairava mahayogatantram
** Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa tantra
*
Anuttarayoga Tantra
Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism refers to the categorization of Tantras (Buddhism), Buddhist tantric scriptures in Tibetan Buddhism, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism inherited numerous tantras and forms of Tantra, tantric practice from ...
Vrata
Vrata is a Sanskrit word that means "vow, resolve, devotion", and refers to pious observances such as fasting and pilgrimage ( Tirtha) found in Indian religions such as Jainism and Hinduism. It is typically accompanied with prayers seeking hea ...
Yogācāra
Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through t ...
Vinaya
The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions remai ...
texts discuss mainly discuss Buddhist monastic discipline. However, Vinaya texts may also incorporate sutras, avadanas and jataka stories within them. Some Sanskrit Vinayas include:
*Bodhisattva prātimokṣasūtram
*Bhiksu-karmavakya
* Bhiksuni-vinaya
*Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinayavastu
* Prātimokṣasūtram of 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 ...
Sarvastivada
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 ...
school
* Vinaya sūtram of Gunaprabha
*Vinaya viniscaya Upalipariprccha sutra
*Jayarakṣita's Sphuṭārthā Śrīghanācārasaṃgrahaṭīkā
This category includes various types of Śāstras, i.e. treatises or scholastic works:
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 ...
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 ...
Asanga
Asaṅga (, ; Romaji: ''Mujaku'') ( fl. 4th century C.E.) was "one of the most important spiritual figures" of Mahayana Buddhism and the "founder of the Yogachara school".Engle, Artemus (translator), Asanga, ''The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed ...
*Abhidharmasamuccaya-bhāṣya (a commentary to Abhidharma-samuccaya)
*Daśākuśalakarmapathadeśanā Mahākarmavibhaṅga *Subodhālaṅkāraḥ
Stotra
''Stotra'' (Sanskrit: स्तोत्र) is a Sanskrit word that means "ode, eulogy or a hymn of praise."Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on 'Stotra'' It is a literary genre of In ...
(odes)
*Ādibuddhadvādaśakastotram
*Advayaparamārthā nāmasaṅgītiḥ
*Ākāśagarbhanāmāṣṭottaraśatastotram
*Maṅgalāṣṭakam
*Avadhānastotram
*Avalokiteśvarāṣṭakastotram (and 17 other stotras to Avalokiteśvarā)
*Daśabhūmīśvaro nāma mahāyānasūtraratnarājastotram
*Caityavandanāstotram
*Cakrasaṃvarastutiḥ
*
Gaṇeśa
Ganesha ( sa, गणेश, ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in Ganapatya sect. His image is found throughout India. Hindu d ...
stotram
*Hāratī stotram
*Prajñāpāramitāstotram attributed to Rāhulabhadra
*Dharmadhātunāmastavaḥ (praise to the sphere of reality) and other works attributed to
Nagarjuna
Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...
(Lokātītastavaḥ, Niraupamyastavaḥ, Paramārthastavaḥ)
*The Satapañcasatka and the Catusataka of Matṛceta
*Mahākālastotram
*(Ārya)mañjuśrīnāmāṣṭottaraśatakastotram
*Aryataranamasatottarasatakastotra (eulogy which lists 108 names of Tara) Nariman, J.K. (1992). ''Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism'', p. 111. Motilal Banarsidass, India.
*Pañcatathāgatastotram
*Various works titled Śākyasiṃhastotram and other stotras to Shakyamuni Buddha
*Bhadracarīpraṇidhānastotram
*Mañjuvajrastotram
*Gururatnatrayastotram
*Mahogratārāṣṭakastotram
*Vajrapāṇināmāṣṭottaraśatastotram
*Vajrasattvastotram
*Vajrayoginyāḥ piṇḍārthastutiḥ
*Kalyanapancavimsatika of Amritananda Nariman, J.K. (1992). ''Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism'', p. 110. Motilal Banarsidass, India.
*Lokesvara-staka by Vajradatta
Darśana
* Gurukriyākramaḥ
* Gurupañcāśikā
Kāvya
Kāvya (Devanagari: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá'') refers to the Sanskrit literary style used by Indian court poets flourishing between c.200 BCE and 1200 CE.
This literary style, which includes both poetry and prose, is characterised by ab ...
(
Epic Poetry
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
Buddhacarita
''Buddhacharita'' (; ) is an epic poem in the Sanskrit ''mahakavya'' style on the life of Gautama Buddha by of Sāketa (modern Ayodhya), composed in the early second century CE.
The author has prepared an account of the Buddha's life and teach ...
(partial in Sanskrit, complete in Chinese)
* Asvaghosa's Saundaranandam Mahākāvyam
*Buddhavijayakāvyam
*Siddhārthacaritrakāvya
*Sragdharastotra, a kavya poem by Sarvajñamitra in praise of Tara
*Subhāṣitaratnakāraṇḍaka
*Yaśodharācaritam
*Triratnasaundaryagāthā
*Saṅgītamālikā
*Maitreyavyakarana (prophecy of
Maitreya
Maitreya (Sanskrit: ) or Metteyya (Pali: ), also Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha, is regarded as the future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. As the 5th and final Buddha of the current kalpa, Maitreya's teachings will be aimed at ...
) of Aryacandra (fragmentary)
*Padyacūḍāmaṇi (an epic life of the Buddha) by Buddhaghoṣa (not to be confused with the Pali commentator of the same name)
Mahāvyutpatti
The ''Mahāvyutpatti'' (Devanagari: महाव्युत्पत्ति, compound of महत् (in compounds often महा) - great, big, and व्युत्पत्ति f. - science, formation of words, etymology; Wylie: Bye-bra ...
Chandragomin
Chandragomin (Skt. Candragomin) was an Indian Buddhist lay scholar and poet from the Varendra region of Eastern Bengal. The Tibetan tradition believes challenged Chandrakirti. According to the Nepalese tradition, Chandragomin's student was Rat ...
Prajnaparamita
A Tibetan painting with a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra at the center of the mandala
Prajñāpāramitā ( sa, प्रज्ञापारमिता) means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Transcendental Knowledge" in Mahāyāna and Theravāda B ...
śāstras
* Abhisamayālaṇkāra-loka
* Abhisamayālaṅkārāntaḥ-pātināṃ-padārthānāṃ
* Abhisamayālaṅkāra-vṛttiḥ-sphuṭārthā
* Āryaprajñāpāramitāvajracchedikāṭīkā
* Pāramitāsamāsaḥ
* Sāratamākhyā pañjikā (a pañjikā on the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā by Ratnākaraśānti)
* Asaṅga's Triśatikāyāḥ prajñāpāramitāyāḥ kārikāsaptatiḥ
* Kamalaśīla's Vajracchedikāṭīkā
Madhyamaka
Mādhyamaka ("middle way" or "centrism"; ; Tibetan: དབུ་མ་པ ; ''dbu ma pa''), otherwise known as Śūnyavāda ("the emptiness doctrine") and Niḥsvabhāvavāda ("the no ''svabhāva'' doctrine"), refers to a tradition of Buddhist ...
śāstras
*
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
The ''Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' ( sa, मूलमध्यमककारिका, ''Root Verses on the Middle Way''), abbreviated as ''MMK'', is the foundational text of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy. It was compose ...
Nagarjuna
Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...
* Akutobhaya (a commentary on the
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
The ''Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' ( sa, मूलमध्यमककारिका, ''Root Verses on the Middle Way''), abbreviated as ''MMK'', is the foundational text of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy. It was compose ...
)
* Catuḥstava (Four Hymns) of Nagarjuna
* Amṛtākara's Catuḥstavasamāsārtha, commentary on the Catuḥstava
* Catuḥ śatikā of
Āryadeva
Āryadeva (fl. 3rd century CE) (; , Chinese: ''Tipo pusa'' 婆 菩薩 = Deva Bodhisattva, was a Mahayana Buddhist monk, a disciple of Nagarjuna and a Madhyamaka philosopher.Silk, Jonathan A. (ed.) (2019). ''Brill’s Encyclopedia of Budd ...
* Hastavālaprakaraṇa
* Śikṣāsamuccaya-kārikā by
Shantideva
Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; ; ; mn, Шантидэва гэгээн; vi, Tịch Thiên) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka philo ...
* Madhyamakahṛdayaḥ by
Bhāviveka
Bhāviveka, also called Bhāvaviveka (; ), and Bhavya was a sixth-century (c. 500 – c. 570) madhyamaka Buddhist philosopher.Qvarnström 1989 p. 14. Alternative names for this figure also include Bhavyaviveka, Bhāvin, Bhāviviveka, Bhagavadviv ...
* Madhyamakālokaḥ by
Kamalaśīla
Kamalaśīla (Skt. Kamalaśīla; Tib. པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་, Pemé Ngang Tsul; Wyl. pad+ma'i ngang tshul) (c. 740-795) was an Indian Buddhist of Nalanda Mahavihara who accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at th ...
* Mahāyānaviṃśikā
* Prajñāpradīpaḥ by
Bhāviveka
Bhāviveka, also called Bhāvaviveka (; ), and Bhavya was a sixth-century (c. 500 – c. 570) madhyamaka Buddhist philosopher.Qvarnström 1989 p. 14. Alternative names for this figure also include Bhavyaviveka, Bhāvin, Bhāviviveka, Bhagavadviv ...
*
Madhyamakāvatāra
The ''Madhyamakāvatāra'' () is a text by Candrakīrti (600–c. 650) on the Mādhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy. Candrakīrti also wrote an auto-commentary to the work, called the ''Madhyamakāvatārabhasya.''
It is traditionally conside ...
(Entering the Middle Way) by
Candrakīrti
Chandrakirti (; ; , meaning "glory of the moon" in Sanskrit) or "Chandra" was a Buddhist scholar of the madhyamaka school and a noted commentator on the works of Nagarjuna () and those of his main disciple, Aryadeva. He wrote two influential w ...
Candrakīrti
Chandrakirti (; ; , meaning "glory of the moon" in Sanskrit) or "Chandra" was a Buddhist scholar of the madhyamaka school and a noted commentator on the works of Nagarjuna () and those of his main disciple, Aryadeva. He wrote two influential w ...
Shantideva
Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; ; ; mn, Шантидэва гэгээн; vi, Tịch Thiên) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka philo ...
Shantideva
Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; ; ; mn, Шантидэва гэгээн; vi, Tịch Thiên) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka philo ...
*
Bodhipathapradīpa ''Bodhipathapradīpa'' (''A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment'') is a Buddhist text composed in Sanskrit by the 11th-century teacher Atiśa and widely considered his magnum opus. The text reconciles the doctrines of many various Buddhist schools ...
Yogācāra
Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through t ...
Abhisamayalankara
The "Ornament of/for Realization , abbreviated AA, is one of five Sanskrit-language Mahayana śastras which, according to Tibetan tradition, Maitreya revealed to Asaṅga in northwest India circa the 4th century AD. (Chinese tradition recogni ...
Ratnagotravibhāga
The ''Ratnagotravibhāga'' (Sanskrit, abbreviated as RGV, meaning: ''Analysis of the Jeweled Lineage, Investigating the Jewel Disposition'') and its ''vyākhyā'' commentary (abbreviated RGVV to refer to the RGV verses along with the embedded comm ...
*
Madhyanta-vibhaga-karika
The Madhyāntavibhāgakārikā ( zh, t=辯中邊論頌, p=Biàn zhōng biān lùn sòng), or Verses Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes is a key work in Buddhist philosophy of the Yogacara school attributed in the Tibetan tradition to Mait ...
*
Mahāyānasaṃgraha
The Mahāyānasaṃgraha (MSg) (Sanskrit; zh, t=攝大乘論, p=Shè dàchéng lùn, Tibetan: ''theg pa chen po bsdus pa''), or the Mahāyāna Compendium/Summary, is a key work of the Yogācāra school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy, attrib ...
of
Asanga
Asaṅga (, ; Romaji: ''Mujaku'') ( fl. 4th century C.E.) was "one of the most important spiritual figures" of Mahayana Buddhism and the "founder of the Yogachara school".Engle, Artemus (translator), Asanga, ''The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed ...
*Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa by
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 ...
*
Vimśatikāvijñaptimātratāsiddhi
The ''Vimśatikāvijñaptimātratāsiddhi'' ( sa, विम्शतिकाविज्ञप्तिमात्रतासिद्धि) or ''Twenty Verses on Consciousness Only'' is an important work in Buddhism. The work was composed by V ...
by
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 ...
*
Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā
The ''Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā'' (Sanskrit; ), also known simply as the ''Triṃśikā'' or occasionally by is English translation Thirty Verses on Manifestation Only, is a brief poetic treatise by the Indian Buddhist monk Vasubandhu. It w ...
by
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 ...
*Viṃśatikā vijñaptimātratāsiddhiḥ by
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 ...
Madhyamaka-yogācāra śāstras
*
Bhāvanākrama
The Bhāvanākrama (Bhk, "cultivation process" or "stages of meditation"; Tib. , ) is a set of three Buddhist texts written in Sanskrit by the Indian Buddhist scholar yogi Kamalashila (c. 9th century CE) of Nalanda university.Adam, Martin T. Med ...
ḥ by
Kamalaśīla
Kamalaśīla (Skt. Kamalaśīla; Tib. པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་, Pemé Ngang Tsul; Wyl. pad+ma'i ngang tshul) (c. 740-795) was an Indian Buddhist of Nalanda Mahavihara who accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at th ...
* Caryāsaṅgrahapradīpaḥ
* Cittotpādasaṃvaravidhikramaḥ
* Mahāyānapathasādhanasaṅgrahaḥ
* Tattvasaṃgraha of
Śāntarakṣita
(Sanskrit; , 725–788),stanford.eduŚāntarakṣita (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)/ref> whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particul ...
and its commentary by
Kamalaśīla
Kamalaśīla (Skt. Kamalaśīla; Tib. པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་, Pemé Ngang Tsul; Wyl. pad+ma'i ngang tshul) (c. 740-795) was an Indian Buddhist of Nalanda Mahavihara who accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at th ...
* Munimatālaṃkāra of Abhayākaragupta (composed 1113).
Pramāṇa
''Pramana'' (Sanskrit: प्रमाण, ) literally means " proof" and "means of knowledge".Diṅnāga
*Apohasiddhiḥ of
Ratnakīrti
Ratnakīrti (11th century CE) was an Indian Buddhist philosopher of the Yogācāra and epistemological (''pramāṇavāda'') schools who wrote on logic, philosophy of mind and epistemology. Ratnakīrti studied at the Vikramaśīla monastery in mo ...
*Hetubinduḥ of
Dharmakīrti
Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: ''chos kyi grags pa''), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.Tom Tillemans (2011)Dharmakirti Stanfor ...
*Hetubinduṭīkā
*Kṣaṇabhaṅgasiddhiḥ
*Nyāyabindu prakaraṇakārikā of Dharmakīrti
*Nyāyabinduṭīkā of
Dharmottara Dharmottara (Tibetan: ''chos mchog'') was an 8th-century Buddhist author of several important works on pramana (valid cognition, epistemology), including commentaries on the writings of Dharmakirti. Only one of his works survives in the original San ...
*Pramāṇavārtikam and Pramāṇavarttikasvavṛti of Dharmakīrti
*Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra by Prajñākaragupta
*Various texts by
Śaṅkaranandana Śaṅkaranandana (fl. c. 9th or 10th century), (Tibetan: ''Bde byed dga’ ba)'' was a Mahayana Buddhist philosopher, and a brahmin lay devotee (upāsaka) active in Kashmir in the epistemological (''pramana'') tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakīrt ...
, including Prajñālaṅkārakārikā, Sarvajñasiddhisaṅkṣepa, Sarvajñasiddhikārikā, Āgamaprāmāṇya-kārikā
*Numerous texts by Jñānaśrīmitra such as the Apohaprakaraṇa, Advaitabinduprakaraṇa, Anupalabdhirahasya, Bhedābhedaparīkṣā and Vyāpticarcā
*Ratnakīrti nibandhāvalī
*Hetutattvopadeśa by Jitāri
*Santānāntarasiddhiḥ
*Tarkaśāstram
*Udayananirākaraṇam
*Vajrasūcī
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 par ...
Commentaries on Yogottaratantras:
* Cittaviśuddhiprakaraṇa
* Pañcakramaḥ ("Five Stages" of Guhyasamaja yoga)
* Śrīguhyasamājamaṇḍalavidhiḥ
* Tattvaratnāvalokaḥ
Mahāyogatantraṭīkā
Commentaries on Mahāyogatantras
* Guhyāsamājatantrapradīpodyotanaṭīkā ṣaṭkoṭivyākhyā
* Mañjuvajramukhyākhyāna
Tantric Prakaraṇas
* Guhyadi-astasiddhi-samgraha (known as 'the Seven Siddhi texts' in Tibetan
Mahamudra
Mahāmudrā (Sanskrit: महामुद्रा, , contraction of ) literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable". Mahāmudr ...
): Padmavajra's Guhyasiddhi, Prajñopayaviniscayasiddhi, Indrabhūti’s Jñānasiddhi, Advayasiddhi, Guhyatattva, Yogini Cinta, and Sahajasiddhi.Jackson, Roger R. ''The Indian Mahamudra Canonsn A Preliminary Sketch''. The Indian International Journal o f Buddhist Studies 9, 2008.
* Advayavajrasaṇgrahaḥ (works of Advayavajra/
Maitripa
Maitrīpāda ( 1007–1085, also known as Maitreyanātha, Advayavajra, and, to Tibetans, Maitrīpa), was a prominent Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha associated with the Mahāmudrā transmission of tantric Buddhism.Roberts, Peter Alan, Mahamudra an ...
, with 25 amanasikara works which are key to the
Mahamudra
Mahāmudrā (Sanskrit: महामुद्रा, , contraction of ) literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable". Mahāmudr ...
tradition).
* Rāmapāla's Sekanirdeśapañjikā, a commentary by Rāmapāla on the ''Sekanirdeśa'' (also called ''Sekanirdeśa'') of his teacher Advayavajra (Maitreya/Maitrīpa).
* Caryāmelāpakapradīpa (''The Lamp That Integrates the Practices'') by the Tantric Aryadeva
* Cittaviśuddhiprakaraṇa by the Tantric Aryadeva
* Svādhiṣṭhānakramaprabheda by the Tantric Aryadeva
* Śāntarakṣita's (perhaps a pseudo-Śāntarakṣita) Tattvasiddhi
* Śrīlakṣmī or Lakṣmīkarā's Advayasiddhir nāma sādhanopāyikā
* Subhāṣitasaṃgraha (A Collection of Aphoristic Statements)
* Yuktipradīpa or Yuktidīpa (A Lamp of Reasoning)
* Ratnavajra’s Caturthasadbhāvopadeśa
* Tattvaratnāvalokavivaraṇa (An Elucidation of “A consideration of Precious Reality by Vāgīśvarakīrti
Vyākaraṇa
* Paribhāṣāvṛtteh
* Laghukaumudīvyākaraṇam
Jyotiḥśāstra
A ' is a text from a classical body of literature on the topic of Hindu astrology, known as , dating to the medieval period of Classical Sanskrit literature (roughly the 3rd to 9th centuries CE)
Only the most important ones exist in scholarly ed ...
(astrological treatises)
* Kālacakrāvatāraḥ
Sanskrit Drama
The term Indian classical drama refers to the tradition of dramatic literature and performance in ancient India. The roots of drama in the Indian subcontinent can be traced back to the Rigveda (1200-1500 BCE), which contains a number of hymns in ...
* Asvaghosha's Sariputraprakaraṇa (partial, ninth and last chapters)
* Śrī Harṣa's Nāgānanda, tells the story of the Bodhisattva Jīmūtavāhavana
Dohas (songs)
* Kṛṣṇapa's (10th-11th century) Dohākoṣa and its two commentaries (Dohākoṣaṭīke).
Grammar
Buddhist Indian authors composed numerous works on
Sanskrit Grammar
The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminating ...
, such as:
* The ''Kaumāralāta'' (the earliest of these grammatical works by a Buddhist) which also covers some non-standard Middle Indic forms of Buddhist Sanskrit
* Sarvavarman's ''Kātantra,'' a very popular work which was widely used by Buddhists
* Durgasimha's commentary (''vrtti'') on the ''Kātantra'' (c. between the sixth and eighth cent.)
* Candragomin's ''Cāndravyākaraṇa'' (c. 450 CE) and its ''vrtti''
Ayurveda
Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repo ...
* The medical treatise found in the Bower Manuscript, which contains one of the earliest Ayurvedic treatises written in
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) is a modern linguistic category applied to the language used in a class of Indian Buddhist texts, such as the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. BHS is classified as a Middle Indo-Aryan language. It is sometimes called "Bu ...
.
* Vāgbhaṭa's '' Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā'' (7th century) is a work of medicine influenced by Mahayana Buddhist principles.
* The ''Jīvakapustaka'', which presents itself as being the work of
Jīvaka
Jīvaka ( pi, Jīvaka Komārabhacca; sa, Jīvaka Kumārabhṛta) was the personal physician ( sa, vaidya, italic=yes) of the Buddha and the Indian King Bimbisāra. He lived in Rājagṛha, present-day Rajgir, in the 5th century BCE. Sometimes ...
, the Buddha's personal physician.Idem, ''Khotanese Texts'' TI-VII, Cambridge, 1945-85 (several reprs. with corrections). R. E. Emmerick, "Contributions to the Study of the ''Jīvaka-pustaka''," ''BSOAS'' 42, 1979, pp. 235-43.
See also
*
Buddhist texts
Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts a ...
*
Gandharan Buddhist Texts
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 ...
*
Sanskrit literature
Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as s ...
*
Pali literature
Pali literature is concerned mainly with Theravada Buddhism, of which Pali is the traditional language. The earliest and most important Pali literature constitutes the Pāli Canon, the authoritative scriptures of Theravada school.
Pali literat ...
*
Sanskrit revival
Sanskrit revival is the accumulation of attempts at reviving Sanskrit that have been undertaken. This revival is happening not only in India but also in Western countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and in many European ...
*
List of Sanskrit universities in India
The following is a list of at least 18 Sanskrit universities in India (3 central, 1 deemed and 14 state universities) which are only focused on Sanskrit revival and Sanskrit studies along with related disciplines like Ayurveda
Ayurveda () ...
List of Sanskrit poets
This is a list of Sanskrit-language poets.
A
* Manmohan Acharya
* Agasthya Kavi
* Amaru
B
* Bharavi
* Bhartṛhari
* Bhāsa
* Bhatta Narayana
* Budhasvamin
* Banabhatta
D
* Daṇḍin
* P. C. Devassia
* Rahas Bihari Dwivedi
G
* Shat ...
Sanskrit Wikipedia
Sanskrit Wikipedia ( sa, संस्कृत विकिपीडिया; IAST: Saṃskṛta Vikipīḍiyā) (also known as sawiki) is the Sanskrit edition of Wikipedia, a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia proje ...
Sources
References
Sources
* Bingenheimer, Marcus; Bhikkhu Anālayo; Bucknell, Roderick S. ''The Madhyama Agama: Middle Length Discourses Vol I (Taishō Volume 1, Number 26).'' Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai America, Inc. 2013. BDK English Tripiṭaka Series.
* Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011). ''Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism''. Handbook of Oriental Studies (Leiden: Brill).
* Edgerton, Franklin (1953). ''Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary'', ''Volume 1,'' pp. 1–3. MOTILAL BANARSIDASS. .
* Nariman, J. K. (1972). Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism. ' Orient Book Distributors.
* Winternitz, Maurice (1972). ''A history of Indian Literature Vol. II. Buddhist literature and Jaina literature''. Oriental Books Reprint Corporation.
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...
,
Bibliotheca Polyglotta
The Bibliotheca Polyglotta is a Norwegian database for Multilingualism project, lingua franca and science per global history at the University of Oslo. The aim of the project is according to pages is "producing a web corpus of Buddhist texts for ...