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180-508: Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Maitrayaniya Upanishad ( Sanskrit : मैत्रायणीय उपनिषद् , Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad ) is an ancient Sanskrit text that is embedded inside the Yajurveda . It is also known as the Maitri Upanishad ( Sanskrit : मैत्री उपनिषद् , Maitrī Upaniṣad ), and

360-478: A Telugu language version showing just four, and another Burnell version showing just one section. The content and structure of the Upanishad is also different in various manuscript recensions, suggesting that the Upanishad was extensively interpolated and expanded over a period of time. The common kernel of the Upanishad across different recensions, states Max Muller , is a reverence for Self, that can be summarized in

540-502: A Buddha's pure land or buddha field ( buddhakṣetra ), where they can strive towards Buddhahood in the best possible conditions. Depending on the sect, liberation into a buddha-field can be obtained by faith , meditation, or sometimes even by the repetition of Buddha's name . Faith-based devotional practices focused on rebirth in pure lands are common in East Asia Pure Land Buddhism . The influential Mahāyāna concept of

720-544: A Buddha. This wish to help others by entering the Mahāyāna path is called bodhicitta and someone who engages in this path to complete buddhahood is a bodhisattva . High level bodhisattvas (with eons of practice) are seen as extremely powerful supramundane beings. They are objects of devotion and prayer throughout the Mahāyāna world. Popular bodhisattvas which are revered across Mahāyāna include Avalokiteshvara , Manjushri , Tara and Maitreya . Bodhisattvas could reach

900-694: A chronology for the Shaiva tantric literature and argues that both traditions developed side by side, drawing on each other as well as on local Indian tribal religion. Whatever the case, this new tantric form of Mahāyāna Buddhism became extremely influential in India, especially in Kashmir and in the lands of the Pala Empire . It eventually also spread north into Central Asia , the Tibetan plateau and to East Asia. Vajrayāna remains

1080-425: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." Mahayana Buddhism Mahāyāna also refers to the path of the bodhisattva striving to become a fully awakened Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings, and

1260-509: A debate on possible answers. The text begins with the following prelude, The performance of all the sacrifices, described in the Maitrayana-Brahmana, is to lead up in the end to a knowledge of Brahman, to prepare a man for meditation. Therefore, let such man, after he has laid those fires, meditate on the Self, to become complete and perfect. But who is to be meditated on? The above prelude

1440-602: A few words as, "(Man) is the Self – the immortal, the fearless, the Brahman ". The Maitri Upanishad is an important ancient text notable, in its expanded version, for its references to theories also found in Buddhism , elements of the Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hinduism, as well as the Ashrama system. The text is also notable for its practice of Anyatrapyuktam (or Ityevam Hyaha ), that

1620-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had

1800-581: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to

1980-643: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit

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2160-516: A minority among Buddhist communities in Nepal , Malaysia , Indonesia and regions with Asian diaspora communities. As of 2010, the Mahāyāna tradition was the largest major tradition of Buddhism , with 53% of Buddhists belonging to East Asian Mahāyāna and 6% to Vajrayāna , compared to 36% to Theravada . According to Jan Nattier , the term Mahāyāna ("Great Vehicle") was originally an honorary synonym for Bodhisattvayāna (" Bodhisattva Vehicle"),

2340-401: A minority in India, Indian Mahāyāna was an intellectually vibrant movement, which developed various schools of thought during what Jan Westerhoff has been called "The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy" (from the beginning of the first millennium CE up to the 7th century). Some major Mahāyāna traditions are Prajñāpāramitā , Mādhyamaka , Yogācāra , Buddha-nature ( Tathāgatagarbha ), and

2520-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This

2700-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be

2880-485: A new sect or order. A few of these texts often emphasize ascetic practices, forest dwelling, and deep states of meditative concentration ( samadhi ). Indian Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate Vinaya or ordination lineage from the early schools of Buddhism, and therefore each bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī adhering to the Mahāyāna formally belonged to one of the early Buddhist schools. Membership in these nikāyas , or monastic orders, continues today, with

3060-429: A number of loosely connected book worshiping groups of monastics, who studied, memorized, copied and revered particular Mahāyāna sūtras. Schopen thinks they were inspired by cult shrines where Mahāyāna sutras were kept. Schopen also argued that these groups mostly rejected stupa worship, or worshiping holy relics. David Drewes has recently argued against all of the major theories outlined above. He points out that there

3240-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given

3420-526: A particularly important place for the study of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Mahāyāna spread from China to Korea , Vietnam , and Taiwan , which (along with Korea) would later spread it to Japan . Mahāyāna also spread from India to Myanmar , and then Sumatra and Malaysia . Mahāyāna spread from Sumatra to other Indonesian islands , including Java and Borneo , the Philippines , Cambodia , and eventually, Indonesian Mahāyāna traditions made it to China. By

3600-405: A pure land, and enthusiastically recommends the cult of the book, yet seems to know nothing of emptiness theory, the ten bhumis , or the trikaya , while another (the P'u-sa pen-yeh ching ) propounds the ten bhumis and focuses exclusively on the path of the bodhisattva, but never discusses the paramitas . A Madhyamika treatise ( Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamika-karikas ) may enthusiastically deploy

3780-573: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and

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3960-534: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond

4140-519: A result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Saivism . Sanderson argues that Vajrayāna works like the Samvara and Guhyasamaja texts show direct borrowing from Shaiva tantric literature . However, other scholars such as Ronald M. Davidson question the idea that Indian tantrism developed in Shaivism first and that it was then adopted into Buddhism. Davidson points to the difficulties of establishing

4320-470: A significant turning point in the development of a Mahāyāna tradition. The earliest Mahāyāna texts, such as the Lotus Sūtra , often use the term Mahāyāna as a synonym for Bodhisattvayāna , but the term Hīnayāna is comparatively rare in the earliest sources. The presumed dichotomy between Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna can be deceptive, as the two terms were not actually formed in relation to one another in

4500-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from

4680-457: A single unified movement, but scattered groups based on different practices and sutras. One reason for this view is that Mahāyāna sources are extremely diverse, advocating many different, often conflicting doctrines and positions, as Jan Nattier writes: Thus we find one scripture (the Aksobhya -vyuha ) that advocates both srávaka and bodhisattva practices, propounds the possibility of rebirth in

4860-424: A source of his suffering, which manifests itself as quality of Tamas (darkness), such as "confusion, fear, grief, sloth, carelessness, decay, sorrow, hunger, thirst, infidelity, anger, ignorance, cruelty, meanness, envy, shamelessness, pride, folly, dishonesty, arrogance, miserliness". The quality of Rajas () too, states the Upanishad, is a result of this interplay of overpowered elemental Self and guna , and lists

5040-474: A specific school or sect, Mahāyāna is a "family term" or a religious tendency, which is united by "a vision of the ultimate goal of attaining full Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings (the 'bodhisattva ideal') and also (or eventually) a belief that Buddhas are still around and can be contacted (hence the possibility of an ongoing revelation)." Buddhas and bodhisattvas (beings on their way to Buddhahood) are central elements of Mahāyāna. Mahāyāna has

5220-571: A vastly expanded cosmology and theology , with various Buddhas and powerful bodhisattvas residing in different worlds and buddha-fields ( buddha kshetra ). Buddhas unique to Mahāyāna include the Buddhas Amitābha ("Infinite Light"), Akṣobhya ("the Imperturbable"), Bhaiṣajyaguru ("Medicine guru") and Vairocana ("the Illuminator"). In Mahāyāna, a Buddha is seen as a being that has achieved

5400-588: A view similar to Phillips, placing Maitri's chronological composition in the fifth group of ancient Upanishads and last of the Principal Upanishads. Cowell too considers Maitri Upanishad as late era Upanishad, with its later sections comparatively modern, because of the structural and style differences within texts, inconsistencies in Poona manuscript, Calcutta (Kolkata) manuscript, Eckstein manuscript, Burnell manuscript and other manuscripts, and because some version of

5580-516: A world in which such things occur, how can one experience only joy! The sage then shares with the king the philosophy of the Brahman (Universal Self, Cosmic Principle, Ultimate Reality), described in the next lessons. Paul Deussen states that parts of the above questions, on sorrow and frailty of human life is found in the oldest Upanishads of Hinduism, for example in chapters 3.4, 3.5, 3.7, 3.28 and 4.4 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad , yet its declamation in

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5760-576: Is a calque of maha (great 大 ) yana (vehicle 乘 ). There is also the transliteration 摩诃衍那 . The term appeared in some of the earliest Mahāyāna texts, including Emperor Ling of Han 's translation of the Lotus Sutra. It also appears in the Chinese Āgamas , though scholars like Yin Shun argue that this is a later addition. Some Chinese scholars also argue that the meaning of the term in these earlier texts

5940-508: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand

6120-526: Is being one of the earliest known Sanskrit texts that embedded quotes with credits and frequent citations to more ancient Sanskrit texts. The etymological root of the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is unclear. This has historically led to a variety of names and spellings for this Upanishad. Maitra (Sanskrit: मैत्र) and Maitri (मैत्री) are related words which literally mean "kindly, benevolent, good will, amity, friend of all creatures". The likely root for

6300-485: Is contested, but generally accepted to be a late period Upanishadic composition. The Maitrayaniya Upanishad consists of seven Prapathakas (lessons). The first Prapathaka is introductory, the next three are structured in a question-answer style and discuss metaphysical questions relating to Atman (Self), while the fifth to seventh Prapathaka are supplements. However, several manuscripts discovered in different parts of India contain lesser number of Prapathakas , with

6480-404: Is different from later ideas of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The origins of Mahāyāna are still not completely understood and there are numerous competing theories. The earliest Western views of Mahāyāna assumed that it existed as a separate school in competition with the so-called " Hīnayāna " schools. Some of the major theories about the origins of Mahāyāna include the following: The lay origins theory

6660-420: Is disagreement among scholars regarding this issue as well on the general relationship between Buddhism and Theism. The idea that Buddhas remain accessible is extremely influential in Mahāyāna and also allows for the possibility of having a reciprocal relationship with a Buddha through prayer, visions, devotion and revelations. Through the use of various practices, a Mahāyāna devotee can aspire to be reborn in

6840-410: Is distracted from its purpose, its Self. The Upanishad, thereafter recites the "parable of chariot" found in older Upanishads. Max Muller summarizes it as, "the perceptive organs are his reins, the active organs his horses, the body his chariot, the mind the charioteer, the whip being the temperament (emotions). Driven by that whip, his body goes round and round like a wheel driven by the potter. This body

7020-404: Is followed by an answer, offered as a tale of a king named Brihadratha who renounces his kingdom, lives an austere life and therewith seeks the knowledge of the eternal, the Self. Sage Śākāyanya appears before the king. The king admits, "I lack the knowledge of Self, you know the essence of Self", so please teach me. In the resulting reply, the sage Śākāyana first claims that the "seeking

7200-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to

7380-433: Is in. The Upanishad, in paragraph 4.3 acknowledges the inherent tension between ascetic life of renouncing society for Self-knowledge and the svadharma in each Ashrama stage of life with devotion to society. It calls asceticism qua asceticism wrong, and then immediately calls asceticism right, necessary and praises asceticism for the inner perfection and Self-knowledge it helps bring. The fourth prapathaka does not resolve

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7560-605: Is listed as number 24 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads. The Maitrayaniya Upanishad is associated with the Maitrayanas school of the Yajurveda. It is a part of the "black" Yajurveda, with the term "black" implying "the un-arranged, motley collection" of content in Yajurveda, in contrast to the "white" (well arranged) Yajurveda where Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Isha Upanishad are embedded. The chronology of Maitrayaniya Upanishad

7740-439: Is made intelligent, and he (Atman) is the driver thereof." He experiences the fruits of his Karma , his personality the weaving of the three Guṇas (sattvam, rajas, tamas). In essence, however, man seeks the true bliss, the immortal happiness, the resplendent contentment, the calm freedom that is his Self, states paragraph 2.7 of Maitri Upanishad. This Self of his is pure, unchanging, unmoving, undefilable, serenely calm constant,

7920-664: Is mostly dominated by various branches of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Paul Williams has noted that in this tradition in the Far East, primacy has always been given to the study of the Mahāyāna sūtras. Beginning during the Gupta (c. 3rd century CE–575 CE) period a new movement began to develop which drew on previous Mahāyāna doctrine as well as new Pan-Indian tantric ideas. This came to be known by various names such as Vajrayāna (Tibetan: rdo rje theg pa ), Mantrayāna, and Esoteric Buddhism or "Secret Mantra" ( Guhyamantra ). This new movement continued into

8100-507: Is no actual evidence for the existence of book shrines, that the practice of sutra veneration was pan-Buddhist and not distinctly Mahāyāna. Furthermore, Drewes argues that "Mahāyāna sutras advocate mnemic/oral/aural practices more frequently than they do written ones." Regarding the forest hypothesis, he points out that only a few Mahāyāna sutras directly advocate forest dwelling, while the others either do not mention it or see it as unhelpful, promoting easier practices such as "merely listening to

8280-485: Is not far removed in time from, though it is prior to, the Maitri Upanishad". Nakamura states that "although Buddhistic influence can be seen in the Maitri Upanishad (from words used), the particular terms and modes of expression of Mahayana Buddhism do not yet appear (in it)". Phillips, in contrast, lists Maitri Upanishad before and about the time the first Buddhist Pali canonical texts were composed. Ranade posits

8460-429: Is overcome by Dvandva (pairs of opposite such as heat and cold, health and disease, etc)?" As answer, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad states that there is another, different Self, calling it Bhutatman (the elemental Self), which transmigrates. In paragraph 3.2, the Upanishad presents the "theory of gross elements and subtle elements" which combine to form Sarira (शरीर, body). The "elemental Self" resides in this body, and

8640-405: Is overcome by prakrti guna (inner nature of an individual's personality). This, states the text, is cause of confusion, conflicting desires, unsteady behaviors and self-conceit. Man, because of this confusion, binds himself with suffering, just like a bird binds itself inside a net. Human suffering is the result of human actions ( Karma ) and complex interplay of human psychology ( Guṇas ). However,

8820-524: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in

9000-501: Is seen as being the superior spiritual path by Mahāyānists, over and above the paths of those who seek arhatship or "solitary buddhahood" for their own sake ( Śrāvakayāna and Pratyekabuddhayāna ). Mahāyāna Buddhists generally hold that pursuing only the personal release from suffering i.e. nirvāṇa is a smaller or inferior aspiration (called " hinayana "), because it lacks the wish and resolve to liberate all other sentient beings from saṃsāra (the round of rebirth ) by becoming

9180-626: Is serene, immortal, fearless and soaring for the highest light. The Maitri Upanishad states that this is the message of all Upanishads, अथ खल्वियं ब्रह्मविद्या सर्वोपनिषद्विद्या वा राजन्नस्माकं भगवता मैत्रेयेण व्याख्याताहं ते Now then, O king, this is the Brahman-knowledge, and the knowledge contained in all the Upanishads, which was taught to us by honorable Maitri. I shall tell it to thee. Sage Sakayanya thereafter narrates an ancient dialogue between Vālakhilya s and Prajāpati Kratu, which

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9360-494: Is sourced from Rig Veda. The dialogue states that "man was created in the image of its creator, innately has all its powers, and is driven by it". The dialogue raises a series of metaphysical objections and inconsistencies with this premise, and then offers theories to resolve the what, how and why this is so. The Maitrayaniya Upanishad states that the Prajapati (lord of creatures) divided himself fivefold and entered all creatures of

9540-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,

9720-580: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of

9900-432: Is thus also called the "Bodhisattva Vehicle" ( Bodhisattvayāna ). Mahāyāna Buddhism generally sees the goal of becoming a Buddha through the bodhisattva path as being available to all and sees the state of the arhat as incomplete. Mahāyāna also includes numerous Buddhas and bodhisattvas that are not found in Theravada (such as Amitābha and Vairocana ). Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy also promotes unique theories, such as

10080-526: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside

10260-568: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created

10440-668: The Dharmaguptaka nikāya being used in East Asia, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda nikāya being used in Tibetan Buddhism . Therefore, Mahāyāna was never a separate monastic sect outside of the early schools. Paul Harrison clarifies that while monastic Mahāyānists belonged to a nikāya, not all members of a nikāya were Mahāyānists. From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in

10620-483: The Dharmaguptaka ). Because of such evidence, scholars like Paul Harrison and Paul Williams argue that the movement was not sectarian and was possibly pan-buddhist. There is no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a separate formal school or sect of Buddhism, but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for aspiring bodhisattvas. The "forest hypothesis" meanwhile states that Mahāyāna arose mainly among "hard-core ascetics , members of

10800-646: The East Asian Madhymaka (by Kumārajīva ) and East Asian Yogacara (especially by Xuanzang ). Later, new developments in Chinese Mahāyāna led to new Chinese Buddhist traditions like Tiantai , Huayen , Pure Land and Chan Buddhism ( Zen ). These traditions would then spread to Korea , Vietnam and Japan . Forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism which are mainly based on the doctrines of Indian Mahāyāna sutras are still popular in East Asian Buddhism , which

10980-653: 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 Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in

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11160-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c.  350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c.  late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in

11340-640: The Madhyamaka theory of emptiness ( śūnyatā ), the Vijñānavāda ("the doctrine of consciousness" also called "mind-only"), and the Buddha-nature teaching. While initially a small movement in India, Mahāyāna eventually grew to become an influential force in Indian Buddhism . Large scholastic centers associated with Mahāyāna such as Nalanda and Vikramashila thrived between the 7th and 12th centuries. In

11520-509: The Mahāsāṃghika tradition. This is defended by scholars such as Hendrik Kern , A.K. Warder and Paul Williams who argue that at least some Mahāyāna elements developed among Mahāsāṃghika communities (from the 1st century BCE onwards), possibly in the area along the Kṛṣṇa River in the Āndhra region of southern India. The Mahāsāṃghika doctrine of the supramundane ( lokottara ) nature of

11700-522: The Mundaka Upanishad and Prashna Upanishad . But its precise chronology is unclear and contested. The chronology is difficult to resolve because all opinions rest on scanty evidence, an analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies. van Buitenen identified at least five compositional layers in

11880-690: The Pala era (8th century–12th century CE), during which it grew to dominate Indian Buddhism. Possibly led by groups of wandering tantric yogis named mahasiddhas , this movement developed new tantric spiritual practices and also promoted new texts called the Buddhist Tantras . Philosophically, Vajrayāna Buddhist thought remained grounded in the Mahāyāna Buddhist ideas of Madhyamaka, Yogacara and Buddha-nature. Tantric Buddhism generally deals with new forms of meditation and ritual which often makes use of

12060-744: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became

12240-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,

12420-526: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to

12600-486: The Sannyasa Upanishads corpus. Hume includes it among his list of "Thirteen Principal Upanishads". Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas Maitri Upanishad deals with the concept and nature of Atman (Self), the question of "how is joy possible?" and "how one can achieve moksha (liberation)?"; in later sections it offers

12780-738: The earlier Buddhist texts . Broadly speaking, Mahāyāna Buddhists accept the classic Buddhist doctrines found in early Buddhism (i.e. the Nikāya and Āgamas ), such as the Middle Way , Dependent origination , the Four Noble Truths , the Noble Eightfold Path , the Three Jewels , the Three marks of existence and the bodhipakṣadharmas (aids to awakening). Mahāyāna Buddhism further accepts some of

12960-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of

13140-540: The school of Dignaga and Dharmakirti as the last and most recent. Major early figures include Nagarjuna , Āryadeva , Aśvaghoṣa , Asanga , Vasubandhu , and Dignaga . Mahāyāna Buddhists seem to have been active in the Kushan Empire (30–375 CE), a period that saw great missionary and literary activities by Buddhists. This is supported by the works of the historian Taranatha . The Mahāyāna movement (or movements) remained quite small until it experienced much growth in

13320-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined

13500-410: The "immortal Self" is, states the text, unaffected by the elemental Self's confusion and drifts. The third Prapathaka explains the two Self and human personalities using the metaphor of "fire, iron and forge" as follows, He who acts, is the elemental Self; he who causes to act, is the inner man (immortal Self). Now as even a ball of iron, pervaded by fire, hammered by smiths, becomes manifold forms, thus

13680-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and

13860-469: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to

14040-698: The Buddha is sometimes seen as a precursor to Mahāyāna views of the Buddha. Some scholars also see Mahāyāna figures like Nāgārjuna , Dignaga , Candrakīrti , Āryadeva , and Bhavaviveka as having ties to the Mahāsāṃghika tradition of Āndhra. However, other scholars have also pointed to different regions as being important, such as Gandhara and northwest India. The Mahāsāṃghika origins theory has also slowly been shown to be problematic by scholarship that revealed how certain Mahāyāna sutras show traces of having developed among other nikāyas or monastic orders (such as

14220-545: The Buddhism practiced in China , Indonesia , Vietnam , Korea , Tibet , Mongolia and Japan is Mahāyāna Buddhism. Mahāyāna can be described as a loosely bound collection of many teachings and practices (some of which are seemingly contradictory). Mahāyāna constitutes an inclusive and broad set of traditions characterized by plurality and the adoption of a vast number of new sutras , ideas and philosophical treatises in addition to

14400-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on

14580-521: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with

14760-513: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of

14940-469: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that

15120-507: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of

15300-565: The Mahāyāna." Evidence of the name "Mahāyāna" in Indian inscriptions in the period before the 5th century is very limited in comparison to the multiplicity of Mahāyāna writings transmitted from Central Asia to China at that time. Based on archeological evidence, Gregory Schopen argues that Indian Mahāyāna remained "an extremely limited minority movement – if it remained at all – that attracted absolutely no documented public or popular support for at least two more centuries." Likewise, Joseph Walser speaks of Mahāyāna's "virtual invisibility in

15480-521: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around

15660-489: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support

15840-488: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of

16020-616: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with

16200-585: The Upamsu-vessel (or prana) depends on the Antaryama-vessel (apana) and the Antaryama-vessel (apana) on the Upamsu-vessel (prana), and between these two the self-resplendent (Self) produced heat. This heat is the purusha(person), and this purusha is Agni Vaisvanara. The Purusha resides within, assumes the nature of Buddhi (intellect, power to reason). However, having divided itself fivefold, its purpose unattained, it impulsively feels, "let me enjoy objects". It

16380-816: The Upanishad is probably the name of an ancient Indian scholar, Maitra, sometimes spelled Maitri or Maitreya, giving the text the alternate name of Maitri or Maitra Upanishad. The ancient scholar is also credited with a school of thought, thus giving the text the name Maitrayaniya Upanishad. Other names for this text include Maitrayani Upanishad (मैत्रायणि उपनिषद्), Maitrayana Upanishad, Maitrayaniya-brahmana Upanishad, Sriyagussakhayam Maitrayaniya-brahmana Upanishad, Maitreyopanishad and Maitrayaniyopanishad. The Maitrayaniya Upanishad offers no firm evidence as to its date. But on various internal criteria such as its passages on yoga and its doctrinal heterogeneity, scholarly consensus places its composition in late 1st millennium BCE or even slightly later, likely after Atharva Veda texts such as

16560-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into

16740-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to

16920-407: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound

17100-404: The archaeological record until the fifth century". Schopen also sees this movement as being in tension with other Buddhists, "struggling for recognition and acceptance". Their "embattled mentality" may have led to certain elements found in Mahāyāna texts like Lotus sutra , such as a concern with preserving texts. Schopen, Harrison and Nattier also argue that these communities were probably not

17280-524: The beginning of the common era . Jan Nattier has noted that some of the earliest Mahāyāna texts, such as the Ugraparipṛccha Sūtra use the term "Mahāyāna", yet there is no doctrinal difference between Mahāyāna in this context and the early schools . Instead, Nattier writes that in the earliest sources, "Mahāyāna" referred to the rigorous emulation of Gautama Buddha 's path to Buddhahood. Some important evidence for early Mahāyāna Buddhism comes from

17460-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era

17640-517: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on

17820-609: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in

18000-653: The course of its history, Mahāyāna Buddhism spread from South Asia to East Asia , Southeast Asia and the Himalayan regions . Various Mahāyāna traditions are the predominant forms of Buddhism found in China , Korea , Japan , Taiwan , Singapore , Vietnam , Philippines , and Malaysia . Since Vajrayāna is a tantric form of Mahāyāna, Mahāyāna Buddhism is also dominant in Tibet , Mongolia , Bhutan , and other Himalayan regions. It has also been traditionally present elsewhere in Asia as

18180-639: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting

18360-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and

18540-467: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in

18720-456: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes

18900-732: The dominant form of Buddhism in Tibet , in surrounding regions like Bhutan and in Mongolia . Esoteric elements are also an important part of East Asian Buddhism where it is referred to by various terms. These include: Zhēnyán ( Chinese : 真言, literally "true word", referring to mantra), Mìjiao (Chinese: 密教; Esoteric Teaching), Mìzōng (密宗; "Esoteric Tradition") or Tángmì (唐密; "Tang (Dynasty) Esoterica") in Chinese and Shingon , Tomitsu, Mikkyo , and Taimitsu in Japanese. Few things can be said with certainty about Mahāyāna Buddhism in general other than that

19080-483: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in

19260-432: The elemental Self, pervaded by inner man, hammered by guna (qualities, personality), becomes manifold. And as when the ball of iron is hammered, the fire is not overcome (unaffected), so the inner man is not overcome, only elemental Self is overcome. The Maitri Upanishad in paragraph 3.4 states that true essence of man is not his body, but his immortal Self. The elemental Self is mere reflection of his Gunas (psychology),

19440-415: The fifth century . Very few manuscripts have been found before the fifth century (the exceptions are from Bamiyan ). According to Walser, "the fifth and sixth centuries appear to have been a watershed for the production of Mahāyāna manuscripts." Likewise it is only in the 4th and 5th centuries CE that epigraphic evidence shows some kind of popular support for Mahāyāna, including some possible royal support at

19620-447: The fifth century, Mahāyāna Buddhism and its institutions slowly grew in influence. Some of the most influential institutions became massive monastic university complexes such as Nalanda (established by the 5th-century CE Gupta emperor, Kumaragupta I ) and Vikramashila (established under Dharmapala c. 783 to 820) which were centers of various branches of scholarship, including Mahāyāna philosophy. The Nalanda complex eventually became

19800-543: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to

19980-640: The forest dwelling ( aranyavasin ) wing of the Buddhist Order", who were attempting to imitate the Buddha's forest living. This has been defended by Paul Harrison, Jan Nattier and Reginald Ray . This theory is based on certain sutras like the Ugraparipṛcchā Sūtra and the Mahāyāna Rāṣṭrapālapaṛiprcchā which promote ascetic practice in the wilderness as a superior and elite path. These texts criticize monks who live in cities and denigrate

20160-599: The forest life. Jan Nattier's study of the Ugraparipṛcchā Sūtra, A few good men (2003) argues that this sutra represents the earliest form of Mahāyāna, which presents the bodhisattva path as a 'supremely difficult enterprise' of elite monastic forest asceticism. Boucher's study on the Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā-sūtra (2008) is another recent work on this subject. The cult of the book theory , defended by Gregory Schopen , states that Mahāyāna arose among

20340-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as

20520-455: The fourth century, Chinese monks like Faxian (c. 337–422 CE) had also begun to travel to India (now dominated by the Guptas ) to bring back Buddhist teachings, especially Mahāyāna works. These figures also wrote about their experiences in India and their work remains invaluable for understanding Indian Buddhism. In some cases Indian Mahāyāna traditions were directly transplanted, as with the case of

20700-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in

20880-466: The gods. They are means to man's liberation, which is obtained through Self meditation and in Self-knowledge. This is expounded on, as follows, Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] ) is a classical language belonging to

21060-454: The highest kind of awakening due to his superior compassion and wish to help all beings. An important feature of Mahāyāna is the way that it understands the nature of a Buddha, which differs from non-Mahāyāna understandings. Mahāyāna texts not only often depict numerous Buddhas besides Sakyamuni , but see them as transcendental or supramundane ( lokuttara ) beings with great powers and huge lifetimes. The White Lotus Sutra famously describes

21240-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with

21420-478: The ideas found in Buddhist Abhidharma thought. However, Mahāyāna also adds numerous Mahāyāna texts and doctrines, which are seen as definitive and in some cases superior teachings. D.T. Suzuki described the broad range and doctrinal liberality of Mahāyāna as "a vast ocean where all kinds of living beings are allowed to thrive in a most generous manner, almost verging on a chaos". Paul Williams refers to

21600-517: The importance of dharmabhanakas (preachers, reciters of these sutras) in the early Mahāyāna sutras. This figure is widely praised as someone who should be respected, obeyed ('as a slave serves his lord'), and donated to, and it is thus possible these people were the primary agents of the Mahāyāna movement. Early Mahayana came directly from " early Buddhist schools " and was a successor to them. The earliest textual evidence of "Mahāyāna" comes from sūtras ("discourses", scriptures) originating around

21780-528: The inherent conflict it acknowledges. In paragraph 4.4, the Upanishad asserts that meditation, austerities, perseverance and knowledge leads to Brahman state, of bliss that is imperishable, infinite and unchangeable. It is this union of Brahman that frees the true Self unto bliss. In paragraph 4.5, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad presents the question as to which of the gods is best for worship. The text answers that they are merely forms of Brahman, that one should meditate upon, worship, yet ultimately deny them and reject

21960-478: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as

22140-568: The kingdom of Shan shan as well as in Bamiyan and Mathura . Still, even after the 5th century, the epigraphic evidence which uses the term Mahāyāna is still quite small and is notably mainly monastic, not lay. By this time, Chinese pilgrims, such as Faxian (337–422 CE), Xuanzang (602–664), Yijing (635–713 CE) were traveling to India, and their writings do describe monasteries which they label 'Mahāyāna' as well as monasteries where both Mahāyāna monks and non-Mahāyāna monks lived together. After

22320-430: The knowledge of Atman" was a practice of the past, it is difficult and not in vogue, then urges the king to ask something else". The king insists, by asking a series of metaphysical questions to the sage. In this body infected with passions, anger, greed, delusion, fright, despondency, grudge, separation from what is dear and desirable, attachment to what is not desirable, hunger, thirst, old age, death, illness, sorrow and

22500-560: The largest and most influential Buddhist center in India for centuries. Even so, as noted by Paul Williams, "it seems that fewer than 50 percent of the monks encountered by Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang; c. 600–664) on his visit to India actually were Mahāyānists." Over time Indian Mahāyāna texts and philosophy reached Central Asia and China through trade routes like the Silk Road , later spreading throughout East Asia . Over time, Central Asian Buddhism became heavily influenced by Mahāyāna and it

22680-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It

22860-476: The last three sections as supplements and appendices. Other discovered manuscript versions of the Maitri Upanishad present different number of sections, ranging from 1 to 4, without any appendices. There are also differences in style, structure and content among the discovered manuscripts when the text contains the same number of sections. The text is a prose style Upanishad, with a motley collection of different sized paragraphs. The first section has four paragraphs,

23040-498: The lifespan of the Buddha as immeasurable and states that he actually achieved Buddhahood countless of eons ( kalpas ) ago and has been teaching the Dharma through his numerous avatars for an unimaginable period of time. Furthermore, Buddhas are active in the world, constantly devising ways to teach and help all sentient beings. According to Paul Williams, in Mahāyāna, a Buddha is often seen as "a spiritual king, relating to and caring for

23220-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and

23400-503: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,

23580-475: The main impulse behind Mahāyāna as the vision which sees the motivation to achieve Buddhahood for sake of other beings as being the supreme religious motivation. This is the way that Atisha defines Mahāyāna in his Bodhipathapradipa . As such, according to Williams, "Mahāyāna is not as such an institutional identity. Rather, it is inner motivation and vision, and this inner vision can be found in anyone regardless of their institutional position." Thus, instead of

23760-419: The manifold manifestation of this as, "greed, covetousness, craving, possessiveness, unkindness, hatred, deceit, restlessness, mania, fickleness, wooing and impressing others, servitude, flattery, hedonism, gluttony, prodigality and peevishness". While the elemental Self is thus affected, the inner Self, the immortal Self, the inner spectator is unaffected, asserts the Upanishad. The fourth Prapathaka begins with

23940-602: The manuscripts insert quotes from Vaishnavism . Deussen states that the Upanishad is chronologically significant because its author(s) takes for granted the concepts and ideas found in Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hinduism, which must have been established by the time Maitri Upanishad was composed. The extant recension of the text consists seven Prapāṭhaka s (lessons), of which several sections are Khilas (appendices, supplements) added later. The last two are called as khila by medieval era Indian scholar Ramatirtha. Others consider

24120-501: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of

24300-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India

24480-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created

24660-593: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around

24840-583: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,

25020-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as

25200-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for

25380-464: The personal nirvana of the arhats , but they reject this goal and remain in saṃsāra to help others out of compassion. According to eighth-century Mahāyāna philosopher Haribhadra , the term "bodhisattva" can technically refer to those who follow any of the three vehicles, since all are working towards bodhi (awakening) and hence the technical term for a Mahāyāna bodhisattva is a mahāsattva (great being) bodhisattva . According to Paul Williams,

25560-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and

25740-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes

25920-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view

26100-528: The question form above in Maitri Upanishad, mirrors those found in Buddhism and Samkhya school of Hinduism. It is likely, states Deussen, that these two philosophies influenced the formulation of these questions in the form presented in Maitri Upanishad. Sakayanya answers the king's question, in verse 2.2 of Maitri Upanishad, by asserting that Atman (Self) exists in every individual, and it is that inmost being which "moves about without moving" (exists everywhere), which dispels darkness of ignorance and error, which

26280-537: The question, "how can the elemental Self obtain union with the true Self"? The Maitri Upanishad answers that the elemental Self is distracted, intoxicated and attached to numerous things in life, craving for false delights, which prevents its ability to know the true Self. The remedy for elemental Self, in order to realize the true Self, is to acquire the knowledge of the Veda, perform svadharma (one's duty) based on one's age, be part of Rta, devote oneself to Ashrama stage one

26460-596: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly

26640-490: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,

26820-420: The rest - how can one experience only joy? There are other great ones. We see the destruction of Gandharvas, Asuras, Yakshas, Rakshasas, Ganas, snakes and vampires. And what of these? The drying up of great oceans, the crumbling down of the mountains, the instability of the pole-star, the tearing of the wind-chords, the sinking down, the submergence of the earth, the tumbling down of the gods from their place - in

27000-429: The rhetoric of emptiness without ever mentioning the bodhisattva path, while a Yogacara treatise ( Vasubandhu's Madhyanta-vibhaga-bhasya ) may delve into the particulars of the trikaya doctrine while eschewing the doctrine of ekayana . We must be prepared, in other words, to encounter a multiplicity of Mahayanas flourishing even in India, not to mention those that developed in East Asia and Tibet. In spite of being

27180-558: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with

27360-454: The same era. Among the earliest and most important references to Mahāyāna are those that occur in the Lotus Sūtra (Skt. Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra ) dating between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. Seishi Karashima has suggested that the term first used in an earlier Gandhāri Prakrit version of the Lotus Sūtra was not the term mahāyāna but the Prakrit word mahājāna in

27540-468: The same monasteries side by side. It is also possible that, formally, Mahāyāna would have been understood as a group of monks or nuns within a larger monastery taking a vow together (known as a " kriyākarma ") to memorize and study a Mahāyāna text or texts. The earliest stone inscription containing a recognizably Mahāyāna formulation and a mention of the Buddha Amitābha (an important Mahāyāna figure)

27720-491: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had

27900-567: The second has seven, the third presents five paragraphs, while the fourth section contains six. As appendices, the fifth lesson has two paragraphs, while the sixth Prapathaka is the longest section with thirty eight paragraphs. The last supplementary section, or the seventh Prapāṭhaka has eleven paragraphs some with many sub-paragraphs. The Maitrayaniya Upanishad is embedded after the Brahmana text of Yajur Veda, and in its opening passages refers to rituals contained therein. It contextually belongs to

28080-551: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes

28260-493: The sense of mahājñāna (great knowing). At a later stage when the early Prakrit word was converted into Sanskrit, this mahājāna , being phonetically ambivalent, may have been converted into mahāyāna , possibly because of what may have been a double meaning in the famous Parable of the Burning House , which talks of three vehicles or carts (Skt: yāna ). In Chinese , Mahāyāna is called 大乘 ( dàshèng, or dàchéng ), which

28440-594: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it

28620-454: The spectator within him, the self-abiding. The Self is inherently good, enjoyer of Ṛta (that which is properly/excellently joined, natural perfection, harmonious, holistic, right, truth). The third Prapathaka of Maitri Upanishad presents a theory of Self that is different from the Vedanta school of Hinduism, rather it resonates with its Samkhya school. It enumerates different types of Atman,

28800-622: The sutra, or thinking of particular Buddhas, that they claim can enable one to be reborn in special, luxurious ' pure lands ' where one will be able to make easy and rapid progress on the bodhisattva path and attain Buddhahood after as little as one lifetime." Drewes states that the evidence merely shows that "Mahāyāna was primarily a textual movement, focused on the revelation, preaching, and dissemination of Mahāyāna sutras , that developed within, and never really departed from, traditional Buddhist social and institutional structures." Drewes points out

28980-453: The texts translated by the Indoscythian monk Lokakṣema in the 2nd century CE, who came to China from the kingdom of Gandhāra . These are some of the earliest known Mahāyāna texts. Study of these texts by Paul Harrison and others show that they strongly promote monasticism (contra the lay origin theory), acknowledge the legitimacy of arhatship , and do not show any attempt to establish

29160-399: The three Gunas and how these "qualities of personality" overwhelm him from his essential nature into egoistic life of cravings, the source of evil and sorrow in a man's life, and other terminology from the Samkhya philosophy. The third Prapathaka opens with the question, "if Self is inherently great, then who is this Self that suffers from the 'bright and dark fruits' of karma , rebirth and

29340-508: The three bodies ( trikāya ) of a Buddha developed to make sense of the transcendental nature of the Buddha. This doctrine holds that the "bodies of magical transformation" ( nirmāṇakāyas ) and the "enjoyment bodies" ( saṃbhogakāya ) are emanations from the ultimate Buddha body, the Dharmakaya , which is none other than the ultimate reality itself, i.e. emptiness or Thusness . The Mahāyāna bodhisattva path ( mārga ) or vehicle ( yāna )

29520-641: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but

29700-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines

29880-438: The vehicle of a bodhisattva seeking buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. The term Mahāyāna (which had earlier been used simply as an epithet for Buddhism itself) was therefore adopted at an early date as a synonym for the path and the teachings of the bodhisattvas. Since it was simply an honorary term for Bodhisattvayāna , the adoption of the term Mahāyāna and its application to Bodhisattvayāna did not represent

30060-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit

30240-475: The visualization of Buddhist deities (including Buddhas, bodhisattvas, dakinis , and fierce deities ) and the use of mantras. Most of these practices are esoteric and require ritual initiation or introduction by a tantric master ( vajracarya ) or guru . The source and early origins of Vajrayāna remain a subject of debate among scholars. Some scholars like Alexis Sanderson argue that Vajrayāna derives its tantric content from Shaivism and that it developed as

30420-535: The work, composed at different times by different groups or individuals. When discussing the chronology of the Upaniṣads, Olivelle did not specifically mention the Maitri Upanishad but noted that the last group of principal Upanishads "cannot be much older than the beginning of the common era." Mahony suggests an earlier date, placing Prashna along with Maitri and Mandukya Upanishads, as texts that probably emerged about early fourth century BCE. Jayatilleke states, "Buddhism

30600-625: The world", rather than simply a teacher who after his death "has completely 'gone beyond' the world and its cares". Buddha Sakyamuni 's life and death on earth are then usually understood docetically as a "mere appearance", his death is a show, while in actuality he remains out of compassion to help all sentient beings. Similarly, Guang Xing describes the Buddha in Mahāyāna as an omnipotent and almighty divinity "endowed with numerous supernatural attributes and qualities". Mahayana Buddhologies have often been compared to various types of theism (including pantheism ) by different scholars, though there

30780-470: The world. The divided parts are Prana , Apana , Samana , Udana and Vyana . Prana is upward breath, Apana is downward breath (exhale). Vyana holds the Prana and Apana in balance, giving strength to the whole body. Samana is that which carries gross food to Apana and then subtler food throughout the body. Udana is that which delivers food up and down the body from what has been eaten or drunk. Now

30960-497: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times

31140-551: Was a major source for Chinese Buddhism. Mahāyāna works have also been found in Gandhāra , indicating the importance of this region for the spread of Mahāyāna. Central Asian Mahāyāna scholars were very important in the Silk Road Transmission of Buddhism . They include translators like Lokakṣema (c. 167–186), Dharmarakṣa (c. 265–313), Kumārajīva (c. 401), and Dharmakṣema (385–433). The site of Dunhuang seems to have been

31320-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit

31500-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in

31680-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have

31860-722: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in

32040-565: Was first proposed by Jean Przyluski and then defended by Étienne Lamotte and Akira Hirakawa. This view states that laypersons were particularly important in the development of Mahāyāna and is partly based on some texts like the Vimalakirti Sūtra , which praise lay figures at the expense of monastics. This theory is no longer widely accepted since numerous early Mahāyāna works promote monasticism and asceticism. The Mahāsāṃghika origin theory , which argues that Mahāyāna developed within

32220-772: Was found in the Indian subcontinent in Mathura , and dated to around 180 CE. Remains of a statue of a Buddha bear the Brāhmī inscription: "Made in the year 28 of the reign of King Huviṣka , ... for the Blessed One, the Buddha Amitābha." There is also some evidence that the Kushan Emperor Huviṣka himself was a follower of Mahāyāna. A Sanskrit manuscript fragment in the Schøyen Collection describes Huviṣka as having "set forth in

32400-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as

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