Āryadeva (fl. 3rd century CE) (IAST: Āryadeva; Tibetan: འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་, Wylie: 'phags pa lha, Chinese: Tipo pusa [提婆 菩薩 = Deva Bodhisattva]), was a Mahayana Buddhist monk, a disciple of Nagarjuna and a Madhyamaka philosopher.[1] Most sources agree that he was from "Siṃhala", which some scholars identify with Sri Lanka.[1] After Nagarjuna, he is considered to be the next most important figure of the Indian Madhyamaka school.[2][3]
Aryadeva
Nagarjuna and Aryadeva
Āryadeva's writings are important sources of Madhyamaka in both East Asian Buddhism and in Tibetan Buddhism. His Catuḥśataka (Four Hundred Verses) was influential on Madhyamaka in India and Tibet and his *Śataka (Bailun, 百論, T. 1569) and Dvādaśamukhaśāstra (both translated by Kumārajīva in the 4th century) were important sources for the East Asian Madhyamaka school.[1] Āryadeva is also known as Kanadeva, recognized as the 15th patriarch in Chan Buddhism and some Sinhalese sources also mention an elder (thera) called Deva which may also be the same person.[1] He is known for his association with the Nalanda monastery in modern-day Bihar, India.[4]
The earliest biographical sources on Aryadeva state that he was a Buddhist monk who became a student of Nagarjuna and was skilled in debate.[3][2]
According to Karen Lang:
The earliest information we have about the life of Aryadeva occurs in the hagiography translated into Chinese by the Central Asian monk Kumarajiva (344–413 c.e.). It tells us that he was born into a Brahmin family in south India and became the spiritual son of Nagarjuna. Aryadeva became so skilled in debate that he could defeat all his opponents and convert them to Buddhism. One defeated teacher’s student sought him out and murdered him in the forest where he had retired to write. The dying Aryadeva forgave him and converted him to Buddhism with an eloquent discourse on suffering.[5]
Lang also discusses Xuanzang's (7th century) writings which mention Aryadeva:
He reports that Aryadeva came to south India from the island of Simhala because of his compassion for the ignorant people of India. He met the aging Nagarjuna at his residence on Black Bee Mountain, located southwest of the Satavahana capital, and became his most gifted student. Nagarjuna helped Aryadeva prepare for debate against Brahmanical teachers who had defeated Buddhist monks in the northeastern city of Vaisali for the previous twelve years. Aryadeva went to Vaisali and defeated all his opponents in less than an hour.[5]
Tom Tillemans also notes that Aryadeva's origins in Siṃhaladvīpa (Sri Lanka) are supported by his commentator Candrakīrti (sixth century C.E.), and "may possibly be confirmed by references in the Ceylonese chronicles Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa to a “Deva” who lived in the second half of the third century at the time when the Indian Vetullavāda sect of Great Vehicle Buddhism was temporarily implanted in Śrī Laṅka."[6]
Works
Most of Āryadeva's works were not preserved in the original Sanskrit but mainly in Tibetan and Chinese translations.
Four Hundred Verses
The Catuḥśataka śāstra kārikā (the Four Hundred Verse Treatise) is Āryadeva's main work. It is available in fragmentary Sanskrit, in Xuanzang's Chinese translation of the second part only, and in a full Tibetan translation.[7]
It is a work of sixteen chapters. David Seyfort Ruegg outlines the content as follows:
(i—iv) Elimination of the erroneous positing of things as permanent (nitya), pleasant (sukha), pure (asubha or suci), and self (atman) (according to Candrakirti these four chapters which dispel the four viparyasas explain the nature of mundane things so that they may be abandoned and buddhahood may be achieved), (v) The Bodhisattva's practice (which makes it practically possible to achieve Buddhahood). (vi) Elimination of the defilements (klesa) which hinder the preceding, (vii) Elimination of attachment to the enjoyment of seemingly desirable sensory objects (visaya), which causes the defilements to arise and increase. And (viii) the practice of the disciple. The first eight chapters of the Catuḥśataka are thus concerned with the preparation of those who practise the path. The last eight chapters then explain the non-substantiality of the dharmas. They deal in turn with the negation (pratisedha) of (ix) permanent entities, (x) self (atman), (xi) time, (xii) dogmatic opinions (drsti), (xiii) sense-faculties and their objects, (xiv) the positing of doctrinal extremes (antagraha, e.g. existence, non-existence, both, and neither) with special reference to identity and difference, and (xv) the positing of conditioned (samskrta) things as real. Finally chapter xvi, entitled 'An exposition of the cultivation of ascertainment for master and disciple', is devoted to a consideration of logical and epistemological problems in the doctrine of sunyata. In particular, it is pointed out (in conformity with Vigrahavyavartani 29—30) that he who does not maintain a thesis (paksa) based on the positions of existence (sat), non-existence (asat), and both cannot be attacked in logic by an opponent (xvi. 25).[8]
There also exists a complete commentary to this text by Chandrakirti which is only extant in Tibetan.[9]
Xuanzang also translated Dharmapāla’s commentary to verses 201–400 of the Catuḥśataka, published as Dasheng Guang bailun shi lun (大乘廣百論釋論, T. 1571).[1]
Other attributed texts
Two other texts which are attributed to Āryadeva in the Chinese tradition (but not the Tibetan) are the following:
Śataśāstra (Bailun, 百論, Treatise in One Hundred Verses,Taisho 1569), which only survives in Kumarajiva's Chinese translation. However, according to Ruegg, the attribution of this work to Aryadeva is uncertain.[10] This text also comes with a commentary by an author known as Vasu (婆藪).[1] This text is closely connected to the Catuḥśataka.
Akṣaraśataka (Baizi lun, 百字論, One Hundred Syllables, T. 1572) and its Vritti is sometimes attributed to Nagarjuna in the Tibetan tradition, but the Chinese tradition attributes this to Āryadeva.[11]
Possible wrong attributions
Chinese sources attribute a commentary to Nagarjuna's Madhyamakasastra ascribed to a "Pin-lo-chieh" ("Pingala") as being a work of Āryadeva. But this attribution has been questioned by some scholars according to Ruegg.[2]
Vincent Eltschinger also notes three other texts in the Chinese canon which are attributed to Āryadeva, but these attributions are dubious according to Eltschinger:[1]
*Mahāpuruṣaśāstra, Dazhangfu lun (大丈夫論, T. 1577)
Tipo pusa po Lengqie jing zhong waidao xiaosheng sizong lun (Treatise on the Refutation of Heterodox and Hīnayāna Theses in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra 提婆菩薩破楞伽經中外道小乘四宗論, T. 1639)
Tipo pusa shi Lengqie jing zhong waidao xiaosheng niepan lun (Treatise on the Explanation of Nirvāṇa by Heterodox and Hīnayāna Teachers in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra 提婆菩薩釋楞伽經中外道小乘涅槃論 T. 1640)
The Hastavalaprakarana (Hair in the Hand) is attributed to Dignaga in the Chinese tradition and to Āryadeva in the Tibetan tradition. Modern scholars like Frauwallner, Hattori and Ruegg argue that it is likely by Dignaga.[11][1]
According to Ruegg "the bsTan'gyur also contains two very short works attributed to Aryadeva, the *Skhalitapramathanayuktihetusiddhi and the *Madhyamakabhramaghata".[12]
Tillemans writes that while Tibetans attribute the Destruction of Errors about Madhyamaka (*madhyamakabhramaghāta), "this text copiously borrows from the Verses on the Heart of Madhyamaka (madhyamakahṛdayakārikā) and Torch of Dialectics (tarkajvālā) of Bhāviveka, a celebrated Mādhyamika who lived in the sixth century (i.e., 500-570 C.E.)" and thus cannot be Aryadeva's.[6]
The Tantric Āryadeva
Several important works of esoteric Buddhism (most notably the Caryamelapakapradipa or "Lamp that Integrates the Practices" and the Jñanasarasamuccaya) are attributed to Āryadeva. Contemporary research suggests that these works are datable to a significantly later period in Buddhist history (late ninth or early tenth century) and they are seen as being part of a Vajrayana Madhyamaka tradition which included a later tantric author also named Āryadeva.[13] Tillemans also notes that the Compendium on the Essence of Knowledge (jñānasārasamuccaya) "gives the fourfold presentation of Buddhist doctrine typical of the doxographical (siddhānta) literature, a genre which considerably post-dates the third century".[6]
Traditional historians (for example, the 17th century Tibetan Tāranātha), aware of the chronological difficulties involved, account for the anachronism via a variety of theories, such as the propagation of later writings via mystical revelation. A useful summary of this tradition, its literature, and historiography may be found in Wedemeyer 2007.
References
^ abcdefghSilk, Jonathan A. (ed.) (2019). Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume II:Lives, pp. 60-68. Brill.
^ abWomen of Wisdom by Tsultrim Allione, Shambhala Publications Inc, p. 186.
^Niraj Kumar; George van Driem; Phunchok Stobdan (18 November 2020). Himalayan Bridge. KW. p. 253. ISBN978-1-00-021549-6.
^ abLang, Karen C. (2003). Four Illusions: Candrakīrti's Advice for Travelers on the Bodhisattva Path, p. 9. Oxford University Press.
^ abcTillemans, Tom. Āryadeva, appearing in The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, ed. by William Edelglass, Sara McClintock and Pierre-Julien Harter.
Ruegg, David Seyfort (1981), ''The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India,'' Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
Ruth Sonam (tr.), Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way: with Commentary by Gyel-tsap—Additional Commentary by Geshe Sonam RinchenISBN9781559393027.
Lang, Karen (1986). Aryadeva's Catuhsataka: On the Bodhisattva's Cultivation of Merit and Knowledge. Narayana Press, Copenhagen.
Wedemeyer, Christian K. (2007). Aryadeva's Lamp that Integrates the Practices: The Gradual Path of Vajrayana Buddhism according to the Esoteric Community Noble Tradition. New York: AIBS/Columbia University Press. ISBN978-0-9753734-5-3
Wedemeyer, Christian K. (2005). , University of Chicago
Young, Stuart H. (2015). Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China, Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, pp. 265-282
External links
Aryadeva - "Els quatre-cents versos" (En català) 12 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
aryadeva, Āryadeva, century, iast, Āryadeva, tibetan, འཕགས, wylie, phags, chinese, tipo, pusa, 提婆, 菩薩, deva, bodhisattva, mahayana, buddhist, monk, disciple, nagarjuna, madhyamaka, philosopher, most, sources, agree, that, from, siṃhala, which, some, scholars, . Aryadeva fl 3rd century CE IAST Aryadeva Tibetan འཕགས པ ལ Wylie phags pa lha Chinese Tipo pusa 提婆 菩薩 Deva Bodhisattva was a Mahayana Buddhist monk a disciple of Nagarjuna and a Madhyamaka philosopher 1 Most sources agree that he was from Siṃhala which some scholars identify with Sri Lanka 1 After Nagarjuna he is considered to be the next most important figure of the Indian Madhyamaka school 2 3 Aryadeva Nagarjuna and Aryadeva Aryadeva s writings are important sources of Madhyamaka in both East Asian Buddhism and in Tibetan Buddhism His Catuḥsataka Four Hundred Verses was influential on Madhyamaka in India and Tibet and his Sataka Bailun 百論 T 1569 and Dvadasamukhasastra both translated by Kumarajiva in the 4th century were important sources for the East Asian Madhyamaka school 1 Aryadeva is also known as Kanadeva recognized as the 15th patriarch in Chan Buddhism and some Sinhalese sources also mention an elder thera called Deva which may also be the same person 1 He is known for his association with the Nalanda monastery in modern day Bihar India 4 Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 2 1 Four Hundred Verses 2 2 Other attributed texts 2 3 Possible wrong attributions 3 The Tantric Aryadeva 4 References 5 Bibliography 6 External linksBiography Edit Aryadeva The earliest biographical sources on Aryadeva state that he was a Buddhist monk who became a student of Nagarjuna and was skilled in debate 3 2 According to Karen Lang The earliest information we have about the life of Aryadeva occurs in the hagiography translated into Chinese by the Central Asian monk Kumarajiva 344 413 c e It tells us that he was born into a Brahmin family in south India and became the spiritual son of Nagarjuna Aryadeva became so skilled in debate that he could defeat all his opponents and convert them to Buddhism One defeated teacher s student sought him out and murdered him in the forest where he had retired to write The dying Aryadeva forgave him and converted him to Buddhism with an eloquent discourse on suffering 5 Lang also discusses Xuanzang s 7th century writings which mention Aryadeva He reports that Aryadeva came to south India from the island of Simhala because of his compassion for the ignorant people of India He met the aging Nagarjuna at his residence on Black Bee Mountain located southwest of the Satavahana capital and became his most gifted student Nagarjuna helped Aryadeva prepare for debate against Brahmanical teachers who had defeated Buddhist monks in the northeastern city of Vaisali for the previous twelve years Aryadeva went to Vaisali and defeated all his opponents in less than an hour 5 Tom Tillemans also notes that Aryadeva s origins in Siṃhaladvipa Sri Lanka are supported by his commentator Candrakirti sixth century C E and may possibly be confirmed by references in the Ceylonese chronicles Dipavaṃsa and Mahavaṃsa to a Deva who lived in the second half of the third century at the time when the Indian Vetullavada sect of Great Vehicle Buddhism was temporarily implanted in Sri Laṅka 6 Works EditMost of Aryadeva s works were not preserved in the original Sanskrit but mainly in Tibetan and Chinese translations Four Hundred Verses Edit The Catuḥsataka sastra karika the Four Hundred Verse Treatise is Aryadeva s main work It is available in fragmentary Sanskrit in Xuanzang s Chinese translation of the second part only and in a full Tibetan translation 7 It is a work of sixteen chapters David Seyfort Ruegg outlines the content as follows i iv Elimination of the erroneous positing of things as permanent nitya pleasant sukha pure asubha or suci and self atman according to Candrakirti these four chapters which dispel the four viparyasas explain the nature of mundane things so that they may be abandoned and buddhahood may be achieved v The Bodhisattva s practice which makes it practically possible to achieve Buddhahood vi Elimination of the defilements klesa which hinder the preceding vii Elimination of attachment to the enjoyment of seemingly desirable sensory objects visaya which causes the defilements to arise and increase And viii the practice of the disciple The first eight chapters of the Catuḥsataka are thus concerned with the preparation of those who practise the path The last eight chapters then explain the non substantiality of the dharmas They deal in turn with the negation pratisedha of ix permanent entities x self atman xi time xii dogmatic opinions drsti xiii sense faculties and their objects xiv the positing of doctrinal extremes antagraha e g existence non existence both and neither with special reference to identity and difference and xv the positing of conditioned samskrta things as real Finally chapter xvi entitled An exposition of the cultivation of ascertainment for master and disciple is devoted to a consideration of logical and epistemological problems in the doctrine of sunyata In particular it is pointed out in conformity with Vigrahavyavartani 29 30 that he who does not maintain a thesis paksa based on the positions of existence sat non existence asat and both cannot be attacked in logic by an opponent xvi 25 8 There also exists a complete commentary to this text by Chandrakirti which is only extant in Tibetan 9 Xuanzang also translated Dharmapala s commentary to verses 201 400 of the Catuḥsataka published as Dasheng Guang bailun shi lun 大乘廣百論釋論 T 1571 1 Other attributed texts Edit Two other texts which are attributed to Aryadeva in the Chinese tradition but not the Tibetan are the following Satasastra Bailun 百論 Treatise in One Hundred Verses Taisho 1569 which only survives in Kumarajiva s Chinese translation However according to Ruegg the attribution of this work to Aryadeva is uncertain 10 This text also comes with a commentary by an author known as Vasu 婆藪 1 This text is closely connected to the Catuḥsataka Akṣarasataka Baizi lun 百字論 One Hundred Syllables T 1572 and its Vritti is sometimes attributed to Nagarjuna in the Tibetan tradition but the Chinese tradition attributes this to Aryadeva 11 Possible wrong attributions Edit Chinese sources attribute a commentary to Nagarjuna s Madhyamakasastra ascribed to a Pin lo chieh Pingala as being a work of Aryadeva But this attribution has been questioned by some scholars according to Ruegg 2 Vincent Eltschinger also notes three other texts in the Chinese canon which are attributed to Aryadeva but these attributions are dubious according to Eltschinger 1 Mahapuruṣasastra Dazhangfu lun 大丈夫論 T 1577 Tipo pusa po Lengqie jing zhong waidao xiaosheng sizong lun Treatise on the Refutation of Heterodox and Hinayana Theses in the Laṅkavatarasutra 提婆菩薩破楞伽經中外道小乘四宗論 T 1639 Tipo pusa shi Lengqie jing zhong waidao xiaosheng niepan lun Treatise on the Explanation of Nirvaṇa by Heterodox and Hinayana Teachers in the Laṅkavatarasutra 提婆菩薩釋楞伽經中外道小乘涅槃論 T 1640 The Hastavalaprakarana Hair in the Hand is attributed to Dignaga in the Chinese tradition and to Aryadeva in the Tibetan tradition Modern scholars like Frauwallner Hattori and Ruegg argue that it is likely by Dignaga 11 1 According to Ruegg the bsTan gyur also contains two very short works attributed to Aryadeva the Skhalitapramathanayuktihetusiddhi and the Madhyamakabhramaghata 12 Tillemans writes that while Tibetans attribute the Destruction of Errors about Madhyamaka madhyamakabhramaghata this text copiously borrows from the Verses on the Heart of Madhyamaka madhyamakahṛdayakarika and Torch of Dialectics tarkajvala of Bhaviveka a celebrated Madhyamika who lived in the sixth century i e 500 570 C E and thus cannot be Aryadeva s 6 The Tantric Aryadeva EditSeveral important works of esoteric Buddhism most notably the Caryamelapakapradipa or Lamp that Integrates the Practices and the Jnanasarasamuccaya are attributed to Aryadeva Contemporary research suggests that these works are datable to a significantly later period in Buddhist history late ninth or early tenth century and they are seen as being part of a Vajrayana Madhyamaka tradition which included a later tantric author also named Aryadeva 13 Tillemans also notes that the Compendium on the Essence of Knowledge jnanasarasamuccaya gives the fourfold presentation of Buddhist doctrine typical of the doxographical siddhanta literature a genre which considerably post dates the third century 6 Traditional historians for example the 17th century Tibetan Taranatha aware of the chronological difficulties involved account for the anachronism via a variety of theories such as the propagation of later writings via mystical revelation A useful summary of this tradition its literature and historiography may be found in Wedemeyer 2007 References Edit a b c d e f g h Silk Jonathan A ed 2019 Brill s Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume II Lives pp 60 68 Brill a b c Ruegg 1981 p 50 a b Women of Wisdom by Tsultrim Allione Shambhala Publications Inc p 186 Niraj Kumar George van Driem Phunchok Stobdan 18 November 2020 Himalayan Bridge KW p 253 ISBN 978 1 00 021549 6 a b Lang Karen C 2003 Four Illusions Candrakirti s Advice for Travelers on the Bodhisattva Path p 9 Oxford University Press a b c Tillemans Tom Aryadeva appearing in The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy ed by William Edelglass Sara McClintock and Pierre Julien Harter Ruegg 1981 p 51 Ruegg 1981 p 52 Ruegg 1981 p 52 Ruegg 1981 pp 50 51 a b Ruegg 1981 p 53 Ruegg 1981 p 54 Ruegg 1981 p 54 Bibliography EditRuegg David Seyfort 1981 The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Ruth Sonam tr Aryadeva s Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way with Commentary by Gyel tsap Additional Commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen ISBN 9781559393027 Lang Karen 1986 Aryadeva s Catuhsataka On the Bodhisattva s Cultivation of Merit and Knowledge Narayana Press Copenhagen Wedemeyer Christian K 2007 Aryadeva s Lamp that Integrates the Practices The Gradual Path of Vajrayana Buddhism according to the Esoteric Community Noble Tradition New York AIBS Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 9753734 5 3 Wedemeyer Christian K 2005 25117 http www lib uchicago edu e reserves regenstein timp 557 5114pt1 pdf Aryadeva sLamp that Integrates the Practices The Gradual Path of Vajrayana Buddhism according to the Esoteric Community Noble Tradition part II annotated English translation University of Chicago Young Stuart H 2015 Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China Honolulu University of Hawaiʻi Press pp 265 282External links EditAryadeva Els quatre cents versos En catala Archived 12 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine clarification needed Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Aryadeva amp oldid 1152182184, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
