Dharmabhanakas in early Mahayana [IIJ 2011]

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, DOI: 10.1163/001972411X552517

Indo-Iranian Journal () – brill.nl/iij

Dharmabha˙nakas in Early Mahayana*

David DrewesUniversity of Manitoba

Abstract

is article examines materials concerning the role of dharmabha˙nakas, or “dharma

preachers,” in early Mahayana. It argues that early Mahayana can best be thoughtof as a primarily textual movement centered on the composition, use, and trans-mission of Mahayana sutras, and that dharmabha

˙nakas were its primary agents.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, .

KeywordsEarly Mahayana Buddhism; dharmabha

˙naka; bha

˙naka; dharmakathika; preaching

Dharmabha˙nakas, or “dharma preachers,” are figures that Mahayana sutras

mention frequently and describe in remarkable ways. As early as ,Masao Shizutani argued that they “were employed in the important roleof composing and disseminating nearly all of the scriptures of early-periodMahayana” and that “it seems that the Mahayana movement began withthe dharmabha

˙naka.”1 In Graeme MacQueen suggested that “it was

probably through them that [Mahayana] sutras first made their appear-ance” and that “many of the mysteries of the origins of Mahayana arebound up with this figure” (–, ). Despite these suggestions, lit-tle additional work on dharmabha

˙nakas has been done. Leading scholars

*) Early drafts of this paper were presented at the Annual Conference on South Asiain Madison in and the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion inPhiladelphia in . I would like to thank Ronald Davidson, Ulrich Pagel, Jonathan Silk,and Peter Skilling for reading a late draft and sending valuable comments. I would also like tothank Lance Cousins for discussing the Pali materials with me, both at his home in Oxfordand by email. ough he and I did not always agree, this paper benefited significantly.1) Shizutani , a. I would like to thank Paul Harrison for the references to Shizutani’sarticles and Erik Hammerstrom for translating the passages cited here.

David Drewes / Indo-Iranian Journal () –

have suggested that the Mahayana arose as a result of the activity of lay peo-ple, dedicated ascetics, or people who mainly used or worshipped books,making it difficult to imagine that people who memorized, recited, andpreached texts played a central role. Translators of Mahayana sutras haveencouraged the general neglect by almost invariably translating the termdharmabha

˙naka inconsistently. Edward Conze, for instance, renders it var-

iously as “teacher,” “preacher of dharma,” “reciter of dharma,” “when hepreaches dharma,” and “who recites dharma” in his translation of theA˙s˙tasahasrika Prajñaparamita (a), making it difficult for readers to rec-

ognize that the text mentions a single figure repeatedly. A survey of thematerial on these figures may help to open up a new perspective in thefield.

For centuries after they were first composed, Buddhist texts were primar-ily preserved and transmitted mnemically/orally.2 Pali a

˙t˙thakathas depict

monks called bha˙nakas as being responsible for the transmission of Bud-

dhist suttas. e most common references are to Dıghabha˙nakas, Majjhi-

mabha˙nakas, Sa

˙myuttabha

˙nakas, Anguttarabha

˙nakas, and jatakabha

˙nakas,

i.e., bha˙nakas of the Dıgha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Sa

˙myutta Nikaya,

Anguttara Nikaya, and jataka stories, though sometimes other sorts ofbha

˙nakas, such as Dhammapadabha

˙nakas or bha

˙nakas of portions of the

Vinaya, are also mentioned. K.R. Norman points out cases in which suttasor portions of suttas are preserved in different forms in different nikayas anddeduces that lineages of bha

˙nakas transmitted texts independently without

correcting them against one another (, and , ). A passage inthe Sumangalavilasinı, the Dıgha Nikaya A

˙t˙thakatha, states that the Dıgha-

2) Scholars have long accepted the Sri Lankan tradition that Buddhist texts were not writ-ten down until the first century , though there have been a few noteworthy exceptions(Turnour , liv, cix; Weller , –; Brough , ; de Jong , ; Nor-man , and , and n. ). e recent discoveries of an avadana manuscriptradiocarbon dated to a σ range of – (Falk ) and a sutra manuscript radio-carbon dated to a σ range of – (Allon and Salomon , – n. ) nowstrongly suggest that this tradition is ahistorical. If the dating of these manuscripts holdsup, presuming that these were not the very first Buddhist manuscripts, it is possible thatBuddhists began to preserve texts in writing as early as the third century, perhaps even inthe time of Asoka. Despite this, mnemic preservation of texts has always been more presti-gious than writing in South Asia and texts preserved mnemically were believed to be morereliable. Sri Lankan tradition may have represented itself as having long shunned writingfor this reason.


andMajjhimabha˙nakas each maintained distinct views on the contents and

arrangement of the Khuddaka Nikaya.3 Oskar von Hinüber suggests onthe basis of this passage that bha

˙nakas may have redacted the Pali nikayas

(, , ). Several scholars have pointed out that the a˙t˙thakathas depict

bha˙naka lineages of various nikayas holding distinct views on a number of

doctrinal and historical issues.4Sri Lankan inscriptions that Norman dates to as early as the second

century make reference to Majjhimabha˙nakas, Sa

˙myuttabha

˙nakas, an

Anguttarabha˙naka, and a jatakabha

˙naka.5 On the mainland, seven inscrip-

tions from Bharhut, two from Sañcı, and two from Karli record gifts madeby people identified simply as bha

˙nakas.6 Commenting on some of the

inscriptions from Bharhut, Mahinda Deegalle suggests that on the main-land there may have been “ ‘generic’ bha

˙nakas” who were not associated

with particular texts or groups of texts.7 A few passages in the Pali Vinayathat refer simply to bha

˙naka/-ikas lend additional support to this view.8

3) Rhys Davids, Carpenter, and Stede –, :.4) E.g., Adikaram , –; Goonesekere , and n. and , ; Norman, and , ; Mori , ; von Hinüber , , , ; Endo .5) Paranavitana , nos. , , , , and , no. a; Norman , and n. and , . In Paranavitana’s transcriptions the spellings are majhimaba

˙naka,

sayutakaba˙naka, eka-utirikaba

˙naka, and jatakaba

˙na[ka].

6) Tsukamoto –, :, , , , , , , , , , . InTsukamoto’s transcriptions the word bha

˙naka is spelled bhanaka or bhanaka in the Bharhut

inscriptions and bhanaka in one of the Karli inscriptions. For some unjustly harsh commentson Tsukamoto’s collection, see Schopen , n. . Schopen ignores volume three,published in , which contains both of the re-edited inscriptions he criticizes Tsukamotofor omitting. ough it would be unreasonable to expect any work of this scope to becomplete, Tsukamoto does neglect most of Richard Salomon’s publications, as Schopenpoints out. For a fairer overall assessment, see Fussman . Many Indian Buddhistinscriptions remain unpublished (Davidson ).7) Deegalle , ; cf. Norman , . An inscription from Mathura refers to a monknamed Buddhisre

˙stha as a “bha

˙sa˙naka” (bha

˙sa(˙na)[k]a, bha

˙sana[ka]) (Tsukamoto –

, :), a term that Heinrich Lüders suggests is synonymous with bha˙naka (,

–) and that Deegalle treats as a variant (, , n. ). Lüders may be correct,but it is obviously a different word. e term occurs in a few vinaya texts (Dutt –, :; Jinananda , ; Sankrityayana , , ), where it clearly refers toreciters of Buddhist texts. On the occurrence in the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya and one of theoccurrences in the Vinayasutra, see Schopen , – and nn. , . I would like tothank Carola Roloff very much for going through significant trouble to provide me with acopy of Rahul Sankrityayana’s edition of the Vinayasutra.8) Oldenberg –, :, –, , , , /Horner –, :,:–, , , , .


Shizutani reports that the Chinese translations of the Dharmaguptakaand Mahısasaka vinayas contain phonetic renderings of the word bha

˙naka

(, b). In a single inscription from Amaravatı a monk refers tohimself as a student of the “Sa

˙myuttabha

˙naka mahatheras dwelling at the

Pusakavana [monastery]” (Tsukamoto –, :), but it is likelythat these were either Sri Lankan monks or monks who belonged to abranch of the Sri Lankan tradition established in the Andhra region.9Textual references to bha

˙nakas of specific texts or collections of texts are

apparently only found in Pali texts.10

Another figure, whose activities seem often to have overlapped withthose of bha

˙nakas, is the dharmakathika (Pali: dhammakathika). ese

figures are mentioned frequently in canonical Pali sutta and vinaya texts,where they are depicted as specialists in doctrinal discussion and debate.In Pali commentaries and histories, and vinaya and other texts preservedin Sanskrit, they are depicted as preachers, memorizers of texts, and peopleresponsible for textual transmission.11 Like bha

˙nakas, they are mentioned

with some frequency in Indian epigraphy.12 Several scholars have claimedthat early bha

˙nakas were responsible solely for the mnemic preservation

and recitation of texts and that dharmakathikas were preachers.13 Buildingon this idea, Sodo Mori suggests that after Buddhist texts began to bepreserved in writing, bha

˙nakas were left with free time which they used to

9) Tsukamoto’s transcription reads “sa˙myutakabhanakana

˙m pusakavanavasanamahath[e]ra-

na˙m … at[e]vasika ….” On the establishment of the Sri Lankan tradition in the Andhra

region, see Cousins , –. Scholars have generally accepted the Pali tradition thatthe system of separate bha

˙naka lineages began in India, but it seems most likely to have

originated in and remained largely peculiar to Sri Lanka.10) Nance (, ) suggests that the PaliMilindapañha, which refers to jatakabha

˙nakas,

Dıghabha˙nakas, etc. (Trenckner , –/Horner –, :–), may have

been originally composed in Sanskrit or Prakrit, but the small portion of the text for whichthis seems likely to be true does not mention bha

˙nakas (Demiéville ; Fussman ,

–; von Hinüber , –).11) Passages on dharmakathikas outside of Pali texts have generally been ignored. For somegood examples, see Cowell and Neil , (= Dutt –, :; cf. Eimer ,:– and Näther, Vogel, and Wille , ), ; Lévi , (= Dutt –, :); Dutt –, :, ; Speyer –, :; Rajapatirana ,§§–.12) Tsukamoto –, :, , , , , , , , , ; Salomon, ; Salomon , –. e spellings vary: dharmakathika, dhamakadhika, dha

˙mma-

kadhika, etc.13) E.g., Barua , , but cf. ; Shizutani , b; Gokhale , –;Mori , and , –; Deegalle , ; cf. Geiger , –.


expand their activities into textual interpretation and discussion, an ideathat other scholars have adopted as well.14 None of the scholars involved,however, cites any evidence that supports either of these views.15 So far as Iam aware, bha

˙nakas are nowhere represented as confining their activities to

memorization and recitation. Two overlooked passages in the Pali Vinayathat are surely older than all of the material that these scholars discuss depictthe bha

˙nika ullananda as a preacher, suggesting that preaching was com-

mon for bha˙nakas from the start.16 ough a careful study is a desidera-

tum, it seems unlikely that a precise differentiation between the activitiesof bha

˙nakas and dharmakathikas will be possible. Dharmakathikas are not

identified with particular texts or collections of texts, but seem generally tohave engaged in activities similar to those of bha

˙nakas, both in Sri Lanka

and on the mainland. ere was clearly some fluidity in the application ofboth terms.

Mahayana sutras make reference to figures called dharmabha˙nakas with

remarkable frequency, far more often than any sort of non-Mahayana textmentions bha

˙nakas or dharmakathikas.17 To give a few examples from

Mahayana sutras preserved in Indic languages, for which the terminologyis certain, in Wogihara’s edition of the A

˙s˙tasahasrika, the word dharma-

bha˙naka occurs thirty-seven times; in Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya’s edition

of the Sanskrit manuscript of the Kasyapaparivarta, it occurs ten times; inSuzuki and Idzumi’s edition of the Ga

˙n˙davyuha, six; in Kern and Nanjio’s

edition of the Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka, sixty-one; in Rahder and Susa’s edition

of the Dasabhumika, seven; in Dutt’s edition of the Samadhiraja, fifty; inBhattacharya’s edition of the Ajitasenavyakara

˙na, six; in Lefmann’s edition

14) Mori , and , ; Deegalle , –; Nance , –; Endo ,.15) As often happens in scholarship, both of these theories became established as a resultof what was essentially a guess being accepted as fact. Barua asserted the first idea withoutrelevant evidence and the other scholars adopted it, citing one another in turn (Gokhaleexcepted). ough he could have discarded Barua’s idea when he found material in thea˙t˙thakathas that contradicted it, Mori concluded that there was a change in role of bha

˙nakas

and developed his idea on the effect of writing to account for it.16) Oldenberg –, :–/Horner –, :–.17) Deegalle has published some of the following numbers already (, ) but took themwithout acknowledgment from the draft of this paper presented at the annual meeting of theAmerican Academy of Religion in . He apologized when I contacted him about this byemail. Deegalle states that the Kara

˙n˙davyuha and Suvar

˙nabhasa mention dharmabha

˙nakas

twenty and thirty times respectively, but I gave these as only approximate figures. Deegalle’sassertion that the Pratyutpanna mentions dharmabha

˙nakas eleven times is my mistake.


of the Lalitavistara, five; in Vaidya’s edition of the Kara˙n˙davyuha, nine-

teen; in Kurumiya’s edition of the Ratnaketuparivarta, twelve; in Yamada’sedition of the Karu

˙napu

˙n˙darıka, nine; and in Skjærvø’s edition of the

Suvar˙nabhasottama, thirty-eight. Tibetan translations of Mahayana sutras

use the term chos smra ba as the standard equivalent for dharmabha˙naka,

making it possible to provide nearly equally reliable figures for many sutrasnot, or only partially, preserved in Indic languages.18 To give a few exam-ples from some better-known texts, in Harrison’s edition of the Pratyut-pannabuddhasa

˙mmukhavasthitasamadhi Sutra, the term occurs ten times;

in his edition of the Drumakinnararajaparip˚rccha, three; in Braarvig’s edi-

tion of the Ak˙sayamatinirdesa, sixteen; in the Ak

˙sobhyavyuha, three; in the

Ugraparip˚rccha, one; in the Bhadrakalpika, nineteen; in the Ajatasatru-

kauk˚rtyavinodana, four; and in the Sura

˙mgamasamadhi, four.19 Although

the term does not occur in all Mahayana sutras, in most that I am familiarwith that are more than a few pages long it occurs at least once or a fewtimes.

e term dharmabha˙naka is used with great consistency and specificity.

Mahayana sutras do not use the term bha˙naka alone or in compound with

the name of any specific text or group of texts. ey invariably use thecompound dharmabha

˙naka. ough Buddhas and celestial bodhisattvas

are often depicted preaching, they are not called dharmabha˙nakas; the

term is consistently used to refer to an actual human occupation. eterm is not used to refer to sravaka preachers, and some sutras are clearlycareful to avoid doing this. In the Saddharmapu

˙n˙darıka, for instance, the

Buddha praises the arhat Pur˙na Maitraya

˙nıputra for his preaching abilities

but instead of calling him a dharmabha˙naka refers to him four times as

a dharmakathika.20 In the A˙s˙tasahasrika, the arhat Subhuti preaches at

length and Sariputra says that he should be established as the Buddha’s

18) For cases in which this term renders other words, see below, note .19) Ak

˙sobhyavyuha (dKon brtsegs, Kha, b–a), Ugraparip

˚rccha (dKon brtsegs, Nga, a–

a), Bhadrakalpika (mDo sde, Ka, b–a), Ajatasatrukauk˚rtyavinodana (mDo sde, Tsha,

b–b), Sura˙mgamasamadhi (mDo sde, Da, b–b). I have not counted the occur-

rence of chos smra ba on b of the Ugraparip˚rccha because it likely renders dharmavadin

or another term (see below, note ). Mark Allon and Richard Salomon suggest that theBhadrakalpika might not be a Mahayana sutra (, ), but this concern seems unneces-sary. Unless otherwise noted, all references to Tibetan texts are to the TBRC’s bKa’ ’gyursDe dge par ma.20) Kern and Nanjio –, –/Kern , –. is passage restates thetraditional identification of Pur

˙na as the Buddha’s foremost monk dharmakathika (e.g.,

Morris and Hardy –, :/Woodward and Hare –, :–).


foremost dharmakathika.21 Later, the Buddha tells the god Sakra (Indra)that if one speaks and explains the dharma as Subhuti does one becomes adharmavadin.22 In Mahayana sutras the word dharmabha

˙naka thus seems

21) Wogihara –, /Conze a, . e text spells dharmakathika “dharma-kathika.” Subhuti was traditionally identified as the Buddha’s foremost monk who dwellsin peace (ara

˙naviharin) (e.g., Morris and Hardy –, :/Woodward and Hare

–, :), an identification that the A˙s˙tasahasrika repeats twice (Wogihara –

, , /Conze a, , ). Presuming that the text’s authors were aware of thetradition that Pur

˙na was the Buddha’s foremost monk dharmakathika, we can read Sariputra

as complimenting Subhuti by asserting that he should have been given this honor instead.22) Wogihara –, /Conze a, . Nance states that the terms dharma-kathika and dharmavadin are common terms for preachers in Mahayana texts and suggeststhat they are synonymous with the term dharmabha

˙naka (, ), but both terms are

rare, neither is a synonym, and dharmavadin is not a specific term for preachers. Apartfrom the passages in the A

˙s˙tasahasrika and Saddharmapu

˙n˙darıka, and the version of the

A˙s˙tasahasrika’s passage in the Pañcavi

˙msatisahasrika (Kimura –, I.:; Dutt

, ), I know of only one other passage from a Mahayana sutra that survives in anIndic language in which the term dharmakathika occurs, a passage from the Ratnarasi Sutraquoted in Santideva’s Sik

˙sasamuccaya (Bendall , /Bendall and Rouse , –;

cf. Silk , ), which clearly uses the word in imitation of the language of canon-ical vinaya texts (cf. Silk , – with Oldenberg –, :–/Horner–, :; Silk , –; and Jinananda , /Silk , ). Apartfrom the passage in the A

˙s˙tasahasrika that says that one becomes a dharmavadin by preach-

ing like Subhuti, which is also found (albeit with the Buddha’s preaching substituted forSubhuti’s) in the Pañcavi

˙msatisahasrika (Kimura –, V:–) and Conze’s edi-

tion of what he identifies as part of the A˙s˙tadasasahasrika (Conze , ; for prob-

lems with Conze’s identification of this text, see Zacchetti , –), I have foundonly seven other passages in Mahayana sutras surviving in Indic languages that use thisterm: another passage in the A

˙s˙tasahasrika (Wogihara –, /Conze a, –

); two passages in the Suvar˙nabhasottama (Skjærvø , §§.., ../Emmerick

, , ); single passages in the Dasabhumika (Rahder , ), Vimalakırtinirdesa(Vimalakırtinirdesa , §.), and Karu

˙napu

˙n˙darıka (Yamada , :); and a passage

from the Sagaramati Sutra quoted in Santideva’s Sik˙sasamuccaya (Bendall , /Bendall

and Rouse , ). Rather than a specific term for preachers, the term dharmavadinseems generally to mean something closer to “one who speaks in accord with dharma.” eA˙s˙tasahasrika passage, for example, describes irreversible bodhisattvas as praisers of non-

schism (abhedavar˙navadin) rather than praisers of schism (bhedavar

˙navadin), desirers of

friends (mitrakama) rather than desirers of enemies (amitrakama), dharmavadins ratherthan adharmavadins. e Dasabhumika passage says that second stage bodhisattvas arekalavadins, bhutavadins, arthavadins, dharmavadins, etc. In the Suvar

˙nabhasottama passages

the Four Great Kings refer to themselves as dharmikas, dharmavadins, dharmarajas, etc. andthe Buddha calls them dharmikas and dharmavadins and says that they rule in accordancewith dharma. As Nance observes, citing the translation of the A

˙s˙tadasasahasrika, the term

chos smra ba is sometimes used to render dharmavadin (Nance , , – n. ; Sherphyin, Khri brgyad, Kha, a). e term is also rendered chos smra ba in the translationsof the A

˙s˙tasahasrika and Suvar

˙nabhasottama (Sher phyin, brGyad stong, Ka, b, b–

a; rGyud ’bum, Pa, b, b), but in the translations of the Pañcavi˙msatisahasrika

and Satasahasrika it is rendered chos su brjod (Sher phyin, Nyi khri, A, b; Sher phyin,


to be used as a specific term for Mahayana preachers (cf. Shizutani ,b). e term dhammabha

˙naka occurs four times in Pali a

˙t˙thakathas

compiled in the fourth or fifth century, but in these texts it is a casualformation used to refer to anyone who might recite a Buddhist text ratherthan a specific term for preachers.23 ere are no known occurrences of theterm in non-Mahayana texts preserved in languages other than Pali.

’Bum, a, b); in the translation of the Dasabhumika, chos su smra ba (Phal chen, Kha,b); and in the translation of the Vimalakırti, chos bzhin du smra ba (Vimalakırtinirdesa, §.). In theKaru

˙napu

˙n˙darıka the term occurs in a dhara

˙nı and the translators render

it phonetically (mDo sde, Cha, b). In the translation of the Sagaramati the somewhatunusual phrase “adharme dharmavadin” is rendered “chos ma yin pas rtsod pa” (mDo sde,Ba, b [this folio side is misplaced in the TBRC edition cited here; it should be located atmDo sde, Pha, b]). e translation of the Sik

˙sasamuccaya renders it in the same way (bsTan

’gyur sDe dge, dBu ma, Khi, b). e rareness of the term, the fact that it is usually usedin contexts incompatible with the word dharmabha

˙naka, and the fact that it is rendered

in other ways in the Tibetan translations of most of its known occurrences make it doubt-ful that scholars will often mistake cases in which the underlying term was dharmavadinfor occurrences of the word dharmabha

˙naka. Jan Nattier plausibly suggests that an occur-

rence of the term chos smra ba in the Tibetan translation of the Ugraparip˚rccha renders

what was originally dharmavadin (, and n. ; dKon brtsegs, Nga, b). eword chos smra ba was also sometimes used to render dharmakathika, as we see in the trans-lations of the Pañcavi

˙msatisahasrika (Sher phyin, Nyi khri, Ka, a), Satasahasrika (Sher

phyin, ’Bum, Nga, b), and Ratnarasi (Silk , ), though the translators of theA˙s˙tasahasrika render it chos ston pa (Sher phyin, brGyad stong, Ka, b) and the translators

of the Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka render it variously chos sgrog pa, chos rjod pa, and chos ston pa

(mDo sde, Ja, b–a). e rareness of the term, combined with the fact that it is onlyknown to be used to refer to sravakas or in vinaya-style lists of monastic specializations,makes this largely unproblematic as well. Lists similar to the Ratnarasi’s found in a passagein the Ugraparip

˚rccha contain the term chos brjod pa (dKon brtsegs, Nga, a–a/Nattier

, –), which Nattier suggests renders dharmabha˙naka (, n. ), but the

passage’s similarity to the Ratnarasi and vinaya passages mentioned above suggests that theunderlying term was dharmakathika. Pur

˙na is called a chos smra ba, e.g., also in the Tibetan

translations of the Pur˙naparip

˚rccha (dKon brtsegs, Nga, a) and Vimaladattaparip

˚rccha

(dKon brtsegs, Ca, b) sutras. In the Sura˙mgamasamadhi he is called a chos smra ba po

(mDo sde, Da, b).23) e term occurs twice in the Saratthappakasinı (Woodward –, :, ),once in the Samantapasadika (Takakusu and Nagai –, :), and once in theKankhavitara

˙nı (Norman and Pruitt , ). In the second passage in the Saratthappa-

kasinı, the author explicitly states that he uses the term to refer to abhidhammikas, sut-tantikas, and vinayadharas. e term also occurs in the Lınatthappakasinı, traditionallyattributed to Dhammapala (de Silva , :), and some late texts composed betweenthe twelfth and nineteenth centuries, most notably theCu

˚lava

˙msa (Geiger –, :,

/, :, ; Cha˙t˙tha Sangayana CD-ROM , Sılakkhandhavagga-abhinava

˙tıka-

, ,Vinayasangaha-a˙t˙thakatha, ,Kankhavitara

˙nı-pura

˙na-abhinava-

˙tıka, ,Vinaya-

vinicchaya-˙tıka, , Pacityadiyojanapa

˚li, ). In the Samantapasadika, Kankhavitara

˙nı, and

most of the later texts, the term is used in explanations of the monastic prohibition on


e large amount of material on dharmabha˙nakas in Mahayana sutras

makes it possible to form a fairly clear idea of the sorts of activities theyengaged in and the sorts of people they tended to be. A wide range ofmaterial makes it clear that like non-Mahayana bha

˙nakas, dharmabha

˙nakas

memorized sutras and transmitted them orally to students who studied withthem.24 In the Saddharmapu

˙n˙darıka, for example, the Buddha states that in

the future when dharmabha˙nakas are rehearsing the recitation (svadhyaya)

of the sutra he will appear from another world and recite any words or sylla-bles they have forgotten.25 Later, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra promisesthat if a dharmabha

˙naka forgets even a single syllable of the sutra he will

appear and repeat the entire text for him in person.26 e goddess Sarasvatımakes the same promise in the Suvar

˙nabhasottama.27 e A

˙s˙tasahasrika

makes reference to students (dharmasrava˙nika) following dharmabha

˙nakas

with a desire to memorize (udgrahıtukama) the Prajñaparamita.28 Some-times sutras make reference to students copying sutras from dharmabha

˙na-

kas, either in addition to or in lieu of memorizing them. e Kasyapapari-varta, for example, states that one should give rise to the same reverence forthe dharmabha

˙naka from whom one hears, memorizes, copies, or learns it

as for the Buddha (Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya , §). A passage fromthe Pratyutpanna states that students should follow a dharmabha

˙naka for a

period of years for the sake of hearing it, being instructed in it, learning it,copying it, retaining it in memory, proclaiming it, and cultivating it (Har-rison /, §R). A passage from the A

˙s˙tasahasrika states that one

should follow a dharmabha˙naka “until he has this Prajñaparamita in either

mnemic [kayagata] or book [pustakagata] form.”29

dancing, singing, music, and seeing shows. e “dhamma-reciter-song of unrestrainedmonks” (asa

˙myatabhikkhuna

˙m dhammabha

˙nakagıta) is cited as an example of a type of

singing to be avoided. In one of the passages in the Cu˚lava

˙msa the term is applied to people

who participate in a recitation of the Tipi˙taka and a

˙t˙thakathas sponsored by the king.

24) ough it often seems strange or hardly possible to modern Westerners, the memoriza-tion of texts has always been a central Buddhist monastic practice. Georges Dreyfus reportsthat with practice modern Tibetan monks can learn to memorize as many as ten to twentypages a day and that some memorize thousands of pages in total (, , and personalcommunication).25) Kern and Nanjio –, /Kern , .26) Kern and Nanjio –, /Kern , .27) Skjærvø , §§.–/Emmerick , .28) Wogihara –, ; cf. Conze a, .29) Wogihara –, ; cf. Conze a, .


A wide range of additional material depicts dharmabha˙nakas as public

preachers. A passage from the A˙s˙tasahasrika states that “on the eighth,

fourteenth, and fifteenth, wherever a son or daughter of good family who isa dharmabha

˙naka will speak the Prajñaparamita, there he or she will make

much merit.”30 e eighth and either the fourteenth or fifteenth of thelunar half-month were traditional days for the observance of po

˙sadha (Pali:

uposatha), when devout lay people would go to monasteries to take theeight precepts, make offerings to the sangha, and listen to preachers reciteand preach the dharma, often through the night. is passage suggests thatdharmabha

˙nakas often preached in monasteries, quite possibly at the same

time as non-Mahayana preachers. In another passage from the A˙s˙tasahas-

rika, the Buddha tells Sakra that if a dharmabha˙naka is unready to speak,

gods will provide inspired speech or eloquence (pratibha˙na) for him or her,

and continues:

Moreover, Kausika, that son or daughter of good family speaking this Prajña-paramita will not have a frightened mind in front of the four assemblies [i.e.,monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen] …. A son or daughter of good familypossessed of the Prajñaparamita will not receive any hostile question with thisdiscourse. And he or she will not be frightened, will not panic, will not fallinto panic. A son or daughter of good family, Kausika, who memorizes thisPrajñaparamita, retains it in memory, recites it, learns it, sets it forth, teachesit, instructs in it, explains it, and rehearses its recitation receives this benefit inthis very life. Moreover, Kausika … he or she will be ready and able to defeatin accordance with the dharma the various opponents who will come forth.And, when questioned by others, he or she will be able to respond to [their]questions.31

e fact that the text promises dharmabha˙nakas the ability to preach with-

out fear and without being confounded by opponents’ questions suggeststhat dharmabha

˙nakas often preached to audiences that were at least par-

tially hostile and that they often got into disputes with people who rejectedtheir teachings.

In a very interesting passage in the Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka, the Buddha

paints a vivid picture of a dharmabha˙naka and a Mahayana preaching

ritual:

30) Wogihara –, ; cf. Conze a, .31) Wogihara –, –, my trans.; cf. Conze a, –.


“e bodhisattva-mahasattva … who is desirous of revealing this dharma-discourse is established in pleasure [sukhasthita] and, established in pleasure,speaks the dharma, either from memory [kayagata] or from a book [pustak-agata]. When teaching, he is not excessively critical of others and does notspeak ill of other dharmabha

˙naka monks, does not denigrate them, and does

not speak denigratingly of them. And he does not mention monks of theSravakayana by name and denigrate them, he does not speak denigratinglyof them, and in their presence he does not have the perception [that they are]opponents. Why? Because he has been established in a state of pleasure. Heteaches the dharma for the various listeners [dharmasrava

˙nika] who come in a

gracious manner, not in an unfriendly way. And, when he is asked a question,not disputing, he does not respond with Sravakayana [teachings], but indeedanswers just as if he had fully awakened to the knowledge of a Buddha.” enat that time the Bhagavan spoke these verses:

He is established in pleasure. Always clear-sighted, seated pleasurably, hespeaks the dharma,

an elevated throne [udara asana] having been prepared in a clean and agreeableplace.

Having put on a clean, well-dyed robe [cıvara] with excellent colors,having put on a black under-shawl [asevakak

˚r˙s˙na] and put on a large lower

robe [mahaprama˙na; Tib.: sham thabs che tshad ],

having seated himself on the throne, which has a foot pedestal and is coveredwith multi-colored cloth,

having ascended [the throne] with well-washed feet and his head and facefreshly shaved (snigdha),

having seated himself on the dharma throne, when the assembled beings arefocused,

he should deliver many variegated discourses [citrakatha bahu] to monks andnuns,

laymen and laywomen, kings and princes.e wise one should deliver a sweet [discourse] with variegated meaning, never

being unfriendly. If they then ask a question, he should explain the meaning in the proper way

againand he should explain those things in such a way that, having heard, they will

obtain enlightenment [bodhi] …. And the wise one should speak the foremost dharma day and night with ko

˙tıs

of nayutas of illustrations [d˚r˙s˙tanta].

He should thrill and please the assembly without desiring anything at all. Hard food, soft food, food and drink, cloth, beds and seats, robes, and

medicine for the sick he should not think about and he should not ask foranything from the assembly.

Instead, always clear-sighted, he should think, “I and these beings shouldbecome Buddhas.

us, I will cause the true dharma, the basis of my pleasure and that of beings,to be heard for the benefit of the world.”


e monk who, after my nirva˙na, will reveal [this sutra] without envy

will never have suffering, obstacle, sorrow, or annoyance. No one will ever cause panic for him, beat him, denigrate him,

or drive him away because he is established in the strength of forbearance.32

What is perhaps most interesting about this passage is its representation ofthe details of a preaching ritual. e dharmabha

˙naka is described as being

washed and dressed in an elegant manner. Having been “established inpleasure,” presumably by his disciples, he sits on an elevated throne in frontof monastics and lay people to whom he preaches “day and night.” Refer-ences to dharmabha

˙nakas washing before preaching, wearing clean clothes,

preaching from elevated thrones, and preaching at night are found in otherMahayana sutras as well, suggesting that these were common features ofMahayana preaching rituals.33 Such rituals were probably similar to non-Mahayana preaching rituals of their day. Monks are depicted preachingthrough the night and from elevated seats in the Pali canon, and ritualsin which monks preach or recite sutras and other texts from ornate, ele-vated thrones, often at night, are common in eravada countries to thisday.34 Along with reciting the dharma from memory or a book, the passagesays that dharmabha

˙nakas should deliver “many variegated discourses” and

patiently respond to questions. Like the passage from the A˙s˙tasahasrika dis-

cussed in the last paragraph, and similar passages from other texts, this

32) Kern and Nanjio –, –/mDo sde, Ja, a–b, my trans. e translationis of the Sanskrit text informed in places by the Tibetan translation. Cf. Watanabe ,:–; Toda , –; Kern , –; and, for the version of the passagein the Sik

˙sasamuccaya, Silk , –.

33) E.g., Wogihara –, /Conze a, – (for the identification of Dhar-modgata as a dharmabha

˙naka, see Wogihara –, –, ); Kurumiya ,

–, –; Skjærvø , §§..–, .–, .–, ., .–/Emmerick , –, , , , –; Suzuki and Idzumi –, –; Lef-mann –, :; Dutt –, :–; Samten and Bahulkar , –; mDo sde, Na, a (Caturdarakasamadhi Sutra); dKon brtsegs, Ca, b (Vimaladatta-parip

˚rccha Sutra); dKon brtsegs, Ga, b (Bodhisattvapi

˙taka Sutra); Braarvig , :/

:.34) E.g., Rhys Davids and Carpenter –, :–, :–, :–/Walshe, –, –, –; Feer –, :–/Bodhi , –;Oldenberg –, :–/Horner –, :– (cf. Prebish , ,, and the original texts cited there); Hureau , ; Schopen , – n. XIV.; von Hinüber , ; Legge , ; Takakusu , , –;La Loubere , :; Kæmpfer , :; Davy , ; Knowles , –;Wells , –, ; Tiyavanich , –; Blackburn , ; Deegalle , – and the texts cited there; Wickremeratne , –.


suggests that dharmabha˙nakas often spoke extemporaneously and inter-

acted with members of their audiences. Like the A˙s˙tasahasrika passage,

this passage also shows a strong concern for potential negative reactions,which surely reflects both the controversial status of Mahayana sutras andactual rejection, heckling, and abuse historical dharmabha

˙nakas must have

faced.35 Also interesting is the passage’s insistence on dharmabha˙nakas not

being concerned with receiving gifts of food, clothing, or other things, andwith their not asking for things from their audiences, as well as its assertionthat dharmabha

˙nakas should preach without criticizing sravakas or other

dharmabha˙nakas. at the authors of the text were concerned with these

issues suggests that dharmabha˙nakas often sought offerings for preaching

and that they often preached in a confrontational manner.36

35) Many sutras show evidence of this concern, criticizing or promising retribution to peo-ple who treat dharmabha

˙nakas disrespectfully, e.g., Harrison /, §E; Vorobyova-

Desyatovskaya , §; Kern and Nanjio –, , , –/Kern , ,, ; Bhattacharya , –; Bendall , –, –/Bendall and Rouse, –, – (Sarvadharmavaipulyasa

˙mgraha and Lokottaraparivarta sutras).

Many sutras also contain promises of protection for dharmabha˙nakas or provide dhara

˙nıs for

this purpose, e.g., Kern and Nanjio –, –, , –/Kern , –, , –; Harrison , §F; Braarvig , :–/:–; Skjærvø, §§..–, .–/Emmerick , , ; Vimalakırtinirdesa /Lamotte, §.; Nanjio , –/Suzuki , –. Kamala Tiyavanich reportsthat a twentieth-century ai preacher told her that “often, monks with lesser [preaching]skill are jealous and seek to ruin [a] preacher by using black magic. So a good preachermust possess magical knowledge for self-protection. He must learn to recite sacred mantrafor self-defense as well as to attract people with goodwill” (, ). Similar sentimentsprobably existed in ancient India.36) Many sutras speak of food and other gifts that dharmabha

˙nakas could expect for preach-

ing. A passage in the Bhadramayakaravyakara˙na, for example, lists gifts of food, robes, offer-

ings, beds, seats, medicine, and care when sick as benefits to be gained from preachingthe dharma (Régamey , §). e Sura

˙mgamasamadhi states that a meal offered to

a dharmabha˙naka who preaches it is equal to the meal offered to the Buddha when he

first taught the dharma (mDo sde, Da, b; cf. Lamotte , [Lamotte improba-bly reconstructs chos smra ba as dharmacarya]). In Sten Konow’s edition of the Sanskrittext of the Aparimitayu

˙h Sutra the Buddha advocates giving money to dharmabha

˙nakas

after they explain the sutra (, §§–). e Pratyutpanna tells a story of a kingwho gives a dharmabha

˙naka a hundred thousand pieces of gold for preaching well (Har-

rison /, §L). A passage in the A˙s˙tasahasrika says that one should not follow

a dharmabha˙naka monk with a mind focused on material things (Wogihara –,

–/Conze a, –), suggesting that people did so. Simon de La Loubèrereports that seventeenth-century ai Buddhist preachers could “easily become rich” fromgifts they received for preaching (, ). Other sutras also caution against being criticalof other dharmabha

˙nakas: Harrison , §F; Régamey , §; Phal chen, Ga, b

(Avata˙msaka Sutra).


Mahayana sutras depict dharmabha˙nakas preaching and teaching in a

wide range of places and circumstances. We have already seen that a pas-sage from the A

˙s˙tasahasrika recommends that dharmabha

˙nakas preach on

po˙sadha days, presumably in monasteries. In the Sadaprarudita story at the

end of the A˙s˙tasahasrika, the dharmabha

˙naka Dharmodgata is depicted as

living and preaching in the center of a city.37 e Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka

states that whether a dharmabha˙naka lives in a village or monastery people

will visit him to ask questions about the dharma.38 e Sarvadharmaprav˚rtt-

inirdesa Sutra tells a story of a dharmabha˙naka monk named Visuddhacari-

tra who travels with a group of monk disciples, takes up residence in amonastery, and goes daily to preach the dharma in a nearby village. Afterbeing expelled from the monastery he and his disciples go to anothermonastery and preach in nearby villages, cities, the region (ljongs, yul ;*janapada, *desa), and royal cities (rgyal po’i pho brang ’khor, *rajadhanı)(Braarvig , §). e same text tells a story of a dharmabha

˙naka who

preaches to a layperson in his home and gets into an argument aboutthe dharma with him (§). e Ak

˙sayamatinirdesa similarly makes ref-

erence to dharmabha˙nakas preaching in villages, cities, towns (grong rdal,

*nigama), the region (yul), and royal cities (Braarvig , :/:).Other sutras contain similar lists as well.39 e Suvar

˙nabhasottama advises

kings to set up preaching thrones in their palaces and invite dharmabha˙na-

kas to preach there. Later it tells a story of a king who visits a dharmabha-

˙naka who lives in a cave and sets up a throne for him to preach in a pureplace. e sutra also makes reference to its being preached in monasteriesor monastic cells (lena).40 e Samadhiraja tells a story of a dharmabha

˙naka

who travels alone, preaching in villages, cities, towns, the kingdom (ra˙s˙tra),

and royal cities, until he arrives at a royal city named Ratnavatı, where heresides for several days, preaching the dharma in the city during the dayand staying near a stupa outside the city at night (Dutt –, :–).

37) Wogihara –, –, –/Conze a, –, .38) Kern and Nanjio –, /Kern , –.39) E.g., Skjærvø , §§.–/Emmerick , ; Vimalakırtinirdesa /Lamotte, §.; mDo sde, Na, a (Sarvapu

˙nyasamuccayasamadhi Sutra).

40) Skjærvø , §§..–, .–., ./Emmerick , –, –, .


In all of the sutras I am familiar with dharmabha˙nakas are consistently

depicted as male monastics, but there is some material that suggests thatwomen or lay people could also become dharmabha

˙nakas. e Pali Vinaya

mentions female bha˙nakas (bha

˙nika) and the Divyavadana mentions

female dharmakathikas (dharmakathika).41 As we saw above, the A˙s˙tasahas-

rika refers in two passages to “sons or daughters of good family” (kulaputra,kuladuhit

˚r) who are dharmabha

˙nakas. Although the phrase “son or daugh-

ter of good family” is formulaic, its use in these passages suggests that somedharmabha

˙nakas were women. e Ratnaketuparivarta similarly refers to

monks or nuns (bhik˙su, bhik

˙su˙nı) who are dharmabha

˙nakas or dharma-

students (dharmasrava˙nika) (Kurumiya , ). e Suvar

˙nabhasot-

tama states that one should approach “monk, nun, layman, or laywoman[bhik

˙subhik

˙su˙nyupasakopasika] dharmabha

˙nakas” and ask them to preach

the sutra and the Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka warns against criticizing its dhar-

mabha˙nakas, whether they are householder (g

˚rhastha) or monastic (pravra-

jita),42 suggesting that lay people could become dharmabha˙nakas as well.

As we saw above, some scholars have already suggested that dharma-bha

˙nakas were responsible for the composition of Mahayana sutras. Shizu-

tani states that dharmabha˙nakas “were employed in the important role of

composing and disseminating nearly all of the scriptures of early-periodMahayana” and MacQueen suggests that it was “through them” that Maha-yana sutras made their first appearance and that “dharmabha

˙nakas prob-

ably continued to play a major role in the ongoing generation of sutraswithin Mahayana” (, ). Paul Harrison comments similarly that thedharmabha

˙naka is a “figure whom we may identify with the compilers and

disseminators of Mahayana sutras” (, ). While these scholars donot provide explicit argument for this view, it seems likely to be correctif for no other reason than that, as Shizutani points out, dharmabha

˙nakas

were textual specialists and Mahayana sutras reserve their “greatest wordsof praise and authorization” (, a) for them.

More specific evidence that supports this view is found in passages thatdepict the future revelation of Mahayana sutras. In such passages, foundin many sutras, the Buddha entrusts either the sutra itself, or Mahayanasutras in general, to certain bodhisattvas who vow to return to this world

41) Oldenberg –, :–, , , , /Horner –, :–, , , , ; Cowell and Neil , .42) Skjærvø , §§.–; cf. Emmerick , ; Kern and Nanjo –, /Kern , .


after roughly five hundred years in the “last time, the last period” (pascimakala, pascima samaya) to reveal it, or them, to the world.43 Commentingspecifically on passages in the Pratyutpanna, Harrison argues that the sce-nario they describe can be seen as an “authenticating device that bothexplains the sudden appearance of the sutra in the world and vindicatesthose who champion it by identifying them with [people who heard thesutra from the Buddha]” (, – n. ). It seems that Mahayanaauthors often incorporated such passages into their texts and then claimedeither to be or to have received their texts from the bodhisattvas to whomthe Buddha originally entrusted them. In passages of this sort the futurerevealers of sutras are commonly depicted as, or explicitly said to be, dhar-mabha

˙nakas. In the A

˙s˙tasahasrika, for instance, the Buddha states that he

personally revealed the Prajñaparamita to people who will teach it in “thelast time, the last period,” and that these people will be bodhisattvas whowill “copy it, memorize it, retain it in memory, recite it,” etc.,44 which is astandard list of dharmabha

˙nakas’ activities.45 In the Pratyutpanna, the Bud-

dha similarly states that after his death the sutra “will go into a cave in theground” and that certain bodhisattvas will return to preach and spread itin the last period. Several bodhisattvas then vow to perform this task, stat-ing that they will memorize, copy, and propagate “profound sutras of thiskind” (/, §§B–F, K) at that time. In the Vimalakırtinirdesabodhisattvas promise to spread the sutra in the future and Maitreya saysthat he will provide them with memory (sm

˚rti) by which they will be

able to “memorize sutras of this kind, learn them, retain them in mem-ory, set them forth, copy them, and teach them in detail to others.”46

Presuming that the authors of these texts presented themselves as rein-carnations of the people about whom these predictions were made, these

43) For discussion of the pascima kala, see Harrison , – n. ; Nattier , –, –; Boucher , . As Boucher suggests, Nattier’s suggestion that in earlyMahayana literature the term refers simply to a “latter period” immediately following theBuddha’s death is incorrect. I plan to discuss this issue in another publication.44) Wogihara –, –; cf. Conze a, –.45) In one passage the text explicitly identifies people who perform a similar list of activitiesas dharmabha

˙nakas (Wogihara –, ).

46) Vimalakırtinirdesa , §§.–; cf. the same sections in Lamotte . Formore similar passages, see, e.g., Kern and Nanjio –, –, , –/Kern , –, , –; Ashikaga , –/Gómez , –; mDosde, Ka, a–b/e Fortunate Aeon , :–; Braarvig , :/:–; Hikata, –/Conze b, –; Tucci , /Conze b, –. For someadditional discussion, see Drewes , :–.


passages strongly suggest that they were dharmabha˙nakas. Although most

of these prediction passages merely list dharmabha˙nakas’ activities, in the

Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka a group of nuns, including the Buddha’s aunt and

adopted mother Mahaprajapatı Gautamı and his wife Yasodhara, vow toreveal the sutra in the last time in other worlds and the Buddha explicitlystates that they will born as (male) dharmabha

˙nakas.47 A jataka story in

the Bhadrakalpika tells us that Amitayus was once born as a monk whoappeared in the last time of another Buddha’s dharma to preach the sutraand explicitly identifies him as a dharmabha

˙naka.48

Along with depicting them as revealers of Mahayana sutras, Mahayanasutras often tell stories that depict dharmabha

˙nakas as advanced bodhisatt-

vas very near to the attainment of Buddhahood. e A˙s˙tasahasrika’s Sada-

prarudita story, for instance, depicts the great dharmabha˙naka Dharmod-

gata’s city Gandhavatı as a virtual pure land, with trees made of gems,ponds with lotuses the size of cart wheels, and networks of bells thatgive off heavenly music in the wind, which beings there enjoy while theyhave sex with one another (tena ca sabdena te sattva

˙h krı

˙danti ramante

paricarayanti).49 Dharmodgata is depicted as presiding over the city muchlike a pure land Buddha, preaching from a great golden throne in the cen-ter of the city, and—perhaps surprisingly—living in a great mansion withsixty-eight thousand women with whom he “plays, makes love, and hassex, endowed and furnished with the five objects of desire [i.e., objects ofthe five senses]” (a

˙s˙ta˙sa˙stya strısahasrai

˙h sarddha

˙m pañcabhi

˙h kamagu

˙nai

˙h

samarpita˙h samanvangıbhuta

˙h krı

˙dati ramate paricarayati).50 Merely hear-

ing him preach is sufficient to enable Sadaprarudita to obtain six milliondifferent samadhis.51 In the Saddharmapu

˙n˙darıka the Buddha tells a story of

a Buddha named Candrasuryapradıpa who had eight sons who became stu-dents of a dharmabha

˙naka named Varaprabha after Candrasuryapradıpa’s

47) Kern and Nanjio –, –/Kern , –.48) mDo sde, Ka, a–b/e Fortunate Aeon , :–.49) Wogihara –, –; cf. Conze a, –. Cf. this passage withAshikaga , /Gómez , . On the meaning of the verbs √krı

˙d, √ram, and

pari√car, see Harrison , and n. .50) Wogihara –, –; cf. Conze a, . e irrelevance of traditionalBuddhist morality, especially sexual morality, to bodhisattvas is a common theme in earlyMahayana sutras that has been neglected. In Lokak

˙sema’s version of this passage Dhar-

modgata is said to have “,, wives and concubines who are united to amuse him”(Lancaster , ). A full translation of Lokak

˙sema’s version of the A

˙s˙tasahasrika is an

urgent desideratum.51) Wogihara –, –/Conze a, –.


death. By preaching the Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka for eighty antarakalpas Vara-

prabha ripens all eight for the attainment of Buddhahood, they all becomedharmabha

˙nakas themselves, and all eventually go on to attain Buddha-

hood, except for one named Yasaskama, who was attached to profit andfame and was unable to memorize sutras. At the end of the story the Bud-dha identifies himself as having been Varaprabha and Maitreya as havingbeen Yasaskama.52 Later in the same text the Buddha tells a story of a Bud-dha named Mahabhijñajñanabhibhu who had sixteen sons, all of whombecame dharmabha

˙nakas. ey reveal the Saddharmapu

˙n˙darıka to a vast

number of beings and Mahabhijñajñanabhibhu predicts that all sixteenwill attain Buddhahood and that anyone who does not reject their teach-ing will attain Buddhahood as well. e Buddha then states that he himselfwas one of the sixteen dharmabha

˙nakas and that the others also went on to

become Buddhas, including the Buddhas Ak˙sobhya and Amitayus.53 Many

other sutras contain similar stories, many of which depict Sakyamuni,Ak

˙sobhya, Amitayus, Dıpa

˙mkara, Mañjusrı, and others as having been

great dharmabha˙nakas in previous lives.54 Such stories consistently empha-

size the great power, knowledge, and sanctity of dharmabha˙nakas and

present being a dharmabha˙naka as a typical occupation of advanced bod-

hisattvas in their final lifetimes before attaining Buddhahood.Becoming a dharmabha

˙naka is also associated with advanced status in

formal models of the bodhisattva path. e Dasabhumika Sutra, the locusclassicus for the system of ten bhumis, or stages, of the bodhisattva path,states that bodhisattvas on the third bhumi have no regard for any asceticpractice (du

˙skara) except ascetic practice on behalf of their dharmabha

˙naka.

ey are willing to give up all of their wealth and even their own limbs.Bodhisattvas on the fifth bhumi have obedience (susru

˙sa˙nata) to all bod-

hisattvas and dharmabha˙nakas, listen to and memorize teachings in the

presence of Buddhas, and typically become monastics and dharmabha˙nakas

themselves. On the ninth bhumi, a bodhisattva “becomes a dharmabha˙naka

52) Kern and Nanjio –, –/Kern , –.53) Kern and Nanjio –, –/Kern , –.54) E.g., mDo sde, Tsha, b–a (Ajatasatrukauk

˚rtyavinodana); Skjærvø , §§.–

/Emmerick , –; Dutt –, :–, :–, –, –; mDo sde, Ka, b–a, a–b/e Fortunate Aeon , :–, –; Harri-son /, §§H–N, W–X; Vaidya , –; dKon brtsegs, Ca, b–b(Mahapratiharyanirdesa Sutra). For a discussion of the stories in the Samadhiraja, see Fil-liozat , Durt , and Skilton . For a discussion of the story in theKara

˙n˙davyuha,

see Studholme , –.


and protects the treasury of the Tathagatas’ dharma,” becomes a greatdharmabha

˙naka (mahadharmabha

˙naka), and “having obtained the state of

being a dharmabha˙naka, teaches the dharma with the skillful voice of a

bodhisattva which pursues immeasurable knowledge and is produced bythe four pratisa

˙mvid s” (sa dharmabha

˙nakagatim upagato ’prama

˙najñananu-

gatena kausalyena catu˙hpratisa

˙mvidabhinirh

˚rtaya bodhisatvavaca dharma

˙m

desayati).55 Although Mahayana sastra authors seem not always to have beenfully sympathetic to the Mahayana of the dharmabha

˙nakas, the Bodhisat-

tvabhumi states similarly that one acquires “the state of being an incon-ceivable, great dharmabha

˙naka” (acintyamahadharmabha

˙nakatva) in the

pratisa˙mvidvihara, which the text explicitly correlates to the ninth bhumi.56

e Ratnagotravibhaga preserves this idea as well, stating that a bodhisattvaacquires “the state of being an unsurpassed dharmabha

˙naka” (bla na med

pa’i chos smra ba nyid, *anuttaradharmabha˙nakatva) on the ninth bhumi.57

Although bha˙nakas mentioned in Pali commentaries are depicted as impor-

tant thinkers, this association of dharmabha˙nakas with advanced religious

attainment seems to have no parallel in non-Mahayana literature. In addi-tion, so far as I am aware, Mahayana sutras do not link any other activityor occupation to high religious attainment in this way.

Perhaps the most interesting passages on dharmabha˙nakas in Mahayana

sutras are ones that depict them as people to be followed and served. In apassage in the A

˙s˙tasahasrika, Subhuti asks the Buddha where people who

believe in and become intent on the Prajñaparamita as soon as they hear itwere born in their previous lives and where they will go in future lives. eBuddha replies:

A bodhisattva-mahasattva who, when he hears this deep Prajñaparamita, willbecome firmly devoted to it and not shrink back, cower … become stupe-fied, or doubt … and [who] will rejoice at seeing and hearing it, [who] willmemorize and cultivate this deep Prajñaparamita, not relinquish his focuslinked to the Prajñaparamita, and not turn his mind away, [who] will giverise to a desire to memorize it, retain it in memory, recite it, learn it, and set itforth, [this bodhisattva] will form a relationship [kari

˙syaty anubandham], fol-

low, and not abandon the dharmabha˙naka. Subhuti, like a cow with a young

55) Rahder , –, –, –. See also Rahder and Susa –, :. Onthe four pratisa

˙mvid s, or “special knowledges,” see, e.g., Dayal , –.

56) Dutt , . For other passages on dharmabha˙nakas in the Bodhisattvabhumi, see

pages –, , –, .57) bsTan ’gyur sDe dge, Sems tsam, Phi, b; Johnston , .


calf does not abandon her calf, in just this way a bodhisattva, having heardthis deep Prajñaparamita, does not abandon the dharmabha

˙naka until he has

this Prajñaparamita in either mnemic or book form. Subhuti, this bodhisattva-mahasattva is one who has passed on from [the world of ] humans and is rebornamong humans.58

Subhuti then continues to question the Buddha and the Buddha statesthat such people may previously have lived in other Buddha-fields or theymay have lived in the Tu

˙sita heaven and learned about the Prajñaparamita

from Maitreya. e main point of this passage is that anyone who becomesinvolved with Mahayana texts is already an advanced bodhisattva, an im-portant idea reiterated throughout Mahayana sutra literature that has longbeen overlooked.59 What is particularly interesting here for our purposesis the passage’s representation of the proper course of action for peopleto follow when they encounter the Prajñaparamita. As soon as they hearit, they immediately believe in it. ey then continue to think about itand wish to hear it again and to see it, presumably in written form. Alongwith this, they conceive a desire to memorize it, retain it in memory,preach, recite, and spread it, i.e., to become dharmabha

˙nakas themselves.

ey then establish a relationship with the dharmabha˙naka and follow him

until they are able to memorize the Prajñaparamita or make a copy ofit for themselves. Overall, this passage reads as an idealized account of aconversion to the Mahayana. One first hears a dharmabha

˙naka recite or

preach the Prajñaparamita, then becomes his student, and finally becomesa dharmabha

˙naka oneself.

e importance of following dharmabha˙nakas is given a significantly

more forceful presentation in the A˙s˙tasahasrika’s Sadaprarudita story. When

Sadaprarudita finally arrives after a long journey at Gandhavatı and receivesteachings from Dharmodgata, he gives him prodigious gifts and offershimself, along with five hundred and one young women travelling withhim, to Dharmodgata as slaves. Sakra then states:

Sadhu, sadhu, son of good family! Bodhisattva-mahasattvas should becomerenouncers of all that they have. With a mind of renunciation of this sort abodhisattva-mahasattva quickly fully awakens to unsurpassed, complete en-lightenment, and, having worshipped dharmabha

˙nakas [dharmabha

˙naka

˙na˙m

58) Wogihara –, –, my trans.; cf. Conze a, .59) I plan to discuss this idea in a future publication.


puja˙m k

˚rtva] in this way, is able to hear [about] the Prajñaparamita and

skillful means. Son of good family, those previous Tathagatas, arhats, fully-enlightened Buddhas also, while formerly pursuing the course of a bodhisattva,abiding in renunciation in this very way, enquiring into the Prajñaparamitaand skillful means, attained unsurpassed, complete enlightenment.60

Along with seeking out and following dharmabha˙nakas, we see here the

idea that we should also be willing to serve them and give them all of ourpossessions in order to be able to hear the Prajñaparamita.

Passages like this are common in Mahayana sutras. In the Pratyutpanna,the Buddha tells a story of a prince named Brahmadatta who hears adharmabha

˙naka named Ratna teach the Pratyutpanna and is so thrilled that

he gives him fine cloth and a hundred thousand pieces of gold, becomesa monk, and serves him for eight thousand years, despite the fact thathe never gets an opportunity to hear the sutra again. After his death heencounters a large number of other Buddhas and eventually becomes aBuddha himself.61 Presenting the moral of the story, the Buddha statesthat a person should be willing to travel up to a hundred yojanas to obtainan opportunity to hear and memorize the Pratyutpanna. He then contin-ues:

ose bodhisattvaswho are endowed with resolve and who strive for awakeningshould evoke the apperception of Teacher [i.e., of the Buddha] towards themasters from whom they hear this samadhi [i.e. the Pratyutpanna Sutra] ….ey should honour those sons of good family who preach the Dharma [chossmra ba; *dharmabha

˙naka] with all honours, and they should follow them.

ey should follow them for one year, or two, or three, or four … or ten years,or a hundred, or for as long as they live …. Bhadrapala, those sons or daughtersof good family should relinquish their own minds, and having relinquishedthem should become of like mind with those masters. ey should follow themasters with reverence and respect. ey should follow them with obedience.ey should follow them by not being disobedient, by constancy of devotion,by the elimination of fickleness, and by the absence of wrong views. eyshould evoke the apperception of good friend; towards them they should alsoevoke the apperception of Teacher. Bhadrapala, if those bodhisattvas behavein that way towards those masters, then … it will be impossible that theyshould not at the very least manage to hear this samadhi, unless they formerlyperformed and accumulated acts conducive to the ruin of the Dharma.

(Harrison /, §§R–S)

60) Wogihara –, , my trans.; cf. Conze a, .61) Harrison /, §§L–N and , n. .


In another passage in the Pratyutpanna, the Buddha tells a jataka storyin which he was born as a prince and renounced his kingdom in order tobecome a monk and follow a dharmabha

˙naka, but, though he served him

for thirty-six thousand years, never obtained an opportunity to hear thesutra. Explaining the point of this story to the bodhisattva Bhadrapala, theBuddha says:

Bhadrapala, if people seek this samadhi singlemindedly they should constantlyfollow their teachers and never forsake them, they should make them offerings,namely of medicinal broths, drink and food, clothes, bedding, and variousutensils, even all their gold, silver and jewels. All their wealth they should offerto their teachers without begrudging it, and if they have nothing of their ownthey should beg for it and then offer it. ey will quickly obtain the samadhiand not give rise to thoughts of dissatisfaction. Bhadrapala, setting aside thesecustomary offerings, if the teachers have need of them, those seekers of theDharma should go so far as to cut off their own body, their flesh, their limbsand trunk, and offer them to their teachers. If their teachers have need oftheir lives they should still not begrudge them, so how could they not offerexternal things to their teachers? Such is the way, Bhadrapala, in which theseseekers of the Dharma, in serving Teachers of Dharma, will assist and obeythem. Further, they will serve their teachers as slaves obey their masters; asministers [serve] their princes so will they serve their teachers. us thesepeople will quickly obtain the samadhi. Having obtained the samadhi theyshould remember it and bear it in mind, being ever grateful to their teachersand constantly thinking of how to repay them.62

e Bhadrakalpika fancifully describes a glorious samadhi that it identi-fies, among other things, with “seeking out a dharmabha

˙naka without

straying” and “serving a dharmabha˙naka without [concern for] material

things [zang zing, *ami˙sa].” e same text tells a story of a dharmabha

˙naka

for whom thirty thousand beings provided “all the necessities for plea-sure” (bde ba’i yo byad thams cad ) “exactly as he wished” (bsam pa jilta ba bzhin) and who, having been thus “established in pleasure” (bdebar gnas pa; *sukhasthita), taught the sutra for half a kalpa. Later thetext identifies “serving a dharmabha

˙naka without resentment or weari-

ness” as a form of the perfection of vigor (*vırya).63 A passage in the

62) Harrison , §W. is prose version of the passage occurs only in the Chinesetranslations of the text. e Tibetan preserves a shorter verse version of the story (Harrison/, §X) in which the person the Buddha served is identified as a dharmabha

˙naka

(chos smra ba).63) mDo sde, Ka, b, a–b, b; cf. e Fortunate Aeon , :–, –, –.


Bodhisattvapi˙taka Sutra, repeated in the Ak

˙sayamatinirdesa as well, states

that giving birch bark, ink, books, beautiful teaching thrones (chos kyistan sna tshogs; *vicitradharmasana), material things, and “all profit [rnyedpa; *labha], honor, and praise” to dharmabha

˙nakas will increase a bod-

hisattva’s “equipment of knowledge” (ye shes gyi tshogs; *jñanasa˙mbhara).64

e Sarvadharmagu˙navyuharaja Sutra advocates offering dharmabha

˙nakas

cloth, jewelry (rgyan rnams), umbrellas, vehicles (bzhon pa; *yana), andother things.65

In the Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka, the Buddha states:

Gods and humans should make [the gesture of ] añjali to [a dharmabha˙naka of

the Saddharmapu˙n˙darıka] wherever he goes; they should honor, show vener-

ation to, venerate, worship, and reverence him … with flowers, incense, per-fumes, garlands, ointments, powders, robes, umbrellas, banners, flags, musicalinstruments, hard food, soft food, food and drink, vehicles [yana], and heapsof the foremost, heavenly jewels. at dharmabha

˙naka is to be honored, shown

veneration, venerated, and worshipped, and heaps of heavenly jewels shouldbe offered to that dharmabha

˙naka.66

In the corresponding verse version of this passage the Buddha states thatone who praises the sutra’s dharmabha

˙nakas will make more merit than one

who would praise the Buddha himself for a kalpa.67 e same text promisesthat if one retains the sutra in memory, teaches, reveals, and writes it, onewill develop the ability to preach in such a way that

ose for whom he teaches dharma, even gods, having heard his beautiful,pleasing, sweet voice, will think that he should be visited for the sake ofseeing, for the sake of paying homage, for the sake of revering, and for thesake of listening to the dharma …. Monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomenwill also be desirous of seeing him. Kings, princes, ministers, and viceroyswill also be desirous of seeing him …. Others also, brahmans, householders,people from the town or region, will always constantly be associated with thatdharmabha

˙naka as followers until the end of their lives.68

64) dKon brtsegs, Ga, b; Braarvig , :; cf. :–. On the relationshipbetween the Bodhisattvapi

˙taka and Ak

˙sayamatinirdesa, see Pagel , –.

65) mDo sde, Ja, a–a, b.66) Kern and Nanjio –, , my trans.; cf. Toda , and Kern , –.67) Kern and Nanjio –, /Kern , .68) Kern and Nanjio –, –, my trans.; cf. Toda , – and Kern, –.


e Kasyapaparivarta presents obtaining the sight (darsana) of a dhar-mabha

˙naka as one of four great treasures (mahanidhana) of bodhisattvas.

e corresponding verse version of the passage states that “[a bodhisattva]with a pure mind always looks upon a dharmabha

˙naka with reverence”

(Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya , §). Later, the text states:

From which dharmabha˙naka one might hear this dharma-discourse, memo-

rize, write, or learn it, toward that dharmabha˙naka, Kasyapa, one should give

rise to reverence of the same kind as for the Tathagata. Kasyapa, whichever sonor daughter of good family honors, shows devotion to, venerates, or worshipsa dharmabha

˙naka (I predict to unsurpassed, complete enlightenment) and at

the time of (death) he or she will have a vision of the Tathagata.69

In the Samadhiraja, the Buddha, speaking to the prince Candraprabha,says:

Moreover, prince, a bodhisattva-mahasattva who desires this samadhi [i.e.,the Samadhiraja Sutra], either a householder or a monastic, and is desirousof quickly fully awakening to unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, shouldserve, attend, and wait upon without deceit bodhisattva-mahasattvas possess-ing morality, virtues, and prajña. If there is a bodhisattva-mahasattva monkwho has memorized this samadhi, and he is afflicted and very sick, that monkshould be made to rise from that affliction even with one’s own flesh andblood [svama

˙msaso

˙nita]. A bodhisattva-mahasattva endowed with determina-

tion, prince, who desires this samadhi and is desirous of quickly fully awak-ening to unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, untrembling, fearless, havinggiven up even his own flesh and blood, should cause the dharmabha

˙naka monk

to rise from affliction. (Dutt –, :–, my trans.)

e Buddha then states that he will make this clear to Candraprabha witha story and tells a jataka in which he was born as a princess who cutflesh from her body and used her own blood to heal a dharmabha

˙naka

named Bhutamati who had an illness that could be cured by no othermeans.70 ese passages, and many others like them that occur throughoutMahayana sutra literature, depict dharmabha

˙nakas as the deserving recipi-

ents of the most extreme forms of devotion and service.71 We are to regard

69) Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya , §/dKon brtsegs, Cha, b, my trans. e mate-rial in parentheses is missing in the Sanskrit manuscript but supplied from the Tibetantranslation.70) Dutt –, :–. For a discussion of this story, see Durt .71) For few similar passages from other sutras, see dKon brtsegs, Nga, b/Nattier ,


dharmabha˙nakas as Buddhas, give them all of our possessions, work to pro-

vide them with whatever pleasures they desire, serve them like slaves, followthem for long periods of time even if they are reluctant to teach us, and evenoffer them our own flesh, blood, and lives.

Because most material of this sort is normative in nature, the extent towhich it can be taken as evidence for actual states of affairs surroundinghistorical dharmabha

˙nakas is not always clear. is is especially so in con-

sideration of the fact that most of this material was probably composedby dharmabha

˙nakas themselves, who had an obvious interest in encour-

aging people to treat them well whether or not they were accustomedto receiving reverential treatment in actual practice. Nevertheless, thereis a significant amount of material that suggests that devoted service todharmabha

˙nakas was common practice in early and even later Mahayana.

Some of this material can be found in Mahayana sutras themselves. In theA˙s˙tasahasrika, for example, near the beginning of the Sadaprarudita story,

when Sadaprarudita has just set out in search of the dharmabha˙naka Dhar-

modgata, a voice from the sky says to him:

You should avoid bad friends, son of good family, and you should serve, attend,and wait upon good friends [kalya

˙namitra] who teach the dharma thus, “All

dharmas are empty, signless, wishless, unarisen, unborn, unrestrained, andnon-existent.” Proceeding in this manner, son of good family, before longyou will hear the Prajñaparamita either from a book or from the memoryof a dharmabha

˙naka monk. And you should give rise to the perception of the

Teacher, son of good family, in regard to the one from whom you may hearthe Prajñaparamita, and be thankful and grateful, thinking, “e one fromwhom I hear this Prajñaparamita is my good friend. Hearing it, I will quicklyindeed become irreversible from unsurpassed, complete enlightenment and Iwill be close to Tathagatas, arhats, fully-enlightened Buddhas. I will be bornin Buddha-fields that are not without Tathagatas and I will avoid undesirablerebirths and obtain the accomplishment of desirable rebirths.” Weighing theseadvantages, son of good family, you should give rise to the perception of theTeacher in regard to the dharmabha

˙naka monk, but you should not, son of

good family, follow a dharmabha˙naka monk with a mind linked to material

things of the world. You should follow a dharmabha˙naka monk with desire

for the dharma, with respect for the dharma, and you should be aware of thedeeds of Mara. It is indeed Mara, the evil one, son of good family, [who]provides objects of form, sound, taste, smell, and touch for a dharmabha

˙naka,

; Suzuki and Idzumi –, ; Bendall , –/Bendall and Rouse , (Sagaramati Sutra); Konow , §; Dutt , ; Yamada , :–, –.


a bodhisattva-mahasattva, to serve, attend, and wait upon, but he serves,attends, and waits upon them with superior skillful means. In this case, sonof good family, you should not give rise to a mind of distrust [aprasada] inthe dharmabha

˙naka monk but give rise to this thought, “I do not understand

the skillful means that he understands. He serves, attends, and waits uponthese dharmas in the training of beings for the sake of acquiring good rootsfor beings. Bodhisattva-mahasattvas do not have attachment or a mental basisanywhere.” And at that time you should consider, son of good family, the trueprinciple of dharmas. And which true principle of dharmas is this, son of goodfamily? Namely, that all dharmas are without defilement or purification ….Considering the true principle of all dharmas in this way, son of good family,following the dharmabha

˙naka, you will soon go forth into the Prajñaparamita.

You should also, son of good family, take note of another deed of Mara. If,son of good family, a dharmabha

˙naka rebukes or does not take note of a

son of good family with desire for the Prajñaparamita, in that case, son ofgood family, you should not form aversion [prativa

˙ni] but, having only desire

for the dharma, having only reverence for the dharma, you should follow thedharmabha

˙naka monk with an undaunted mind.72

In this remarkable passage we see essentially the same idea that we saw inthe passages quoted above: We should treat dharmabha

˙nakas like Buddhas

and follow and serve them faithfully. What is novel here is the specificadvice that the passage offers and the fact that much of it seems intendedas an apology for dharmabha

˙nakas’ behavior. We should not follow a

dharmabha˙naka out of a desire for worldly things, we should not lose

heart if a dharmabha˙naka rejects us, and we should not be surprised if a

dharmabha˙naka turns out to be devoted to the pursuit of wealth and sensual

pleasures. In such cases we should reflect that the dharmabha˙naka is so wise

and pure that he engages in such activities solely for our benefit, perhaps toteach us the lesson that “all dharmas are without defilement or purification.”Given that Buddhist monks were traditionally not supposed to engagein the pursuit of sensual pleasure, it seems that this advice can only bean attempt to justify behavior that actual followers of the A

˙s˙tasahasrika’s

dharmabha˙nakas were likely to encounter.

e A˙s˙tasahasrika contains two other significant passages that address

problems that could arise between dharmabha˙nakas and their students.

Because of their great richness, I quote them here at length. Speaking toSubhuti, the Buddha says:

72) Wogihara –, –, my trans.; cf. Conze a, –.


Moreover, Subhuti, a student [dharmasrava˙nika] will be dedicated and desir-

ous of memorizing the Prajñaparamita, but the dharmabha˙naka will be lazy

and not desirous of teaching the dharma. is also, Subhuti, should be under-stood by a bodhisattva-mahasattva as discord [visamagrı; Tib.: tshogs pa dangbral ba] that is a deed of Mara. Moreover, Subhuti, the dharmabha

˙naka will

not be lazy and will be desirous of giving the Prajñaparamita, but the studentwill be lazy or have much to do. is also, Subhuti, should be understood by abodhisattva-mahasattva as discord that is a deed of Mara. Moreover, Subhuti,a student will be dedicated, desirous of memorizing the Prajñaparamita, de-sirous of retaining it in memory, desirous of reciting it, desirous of learningit, desirous of setting it forth, even merely desirous of writing it, and will beknowledgeable, intelligent, and have a good memory, but the dharmabha

˙naka

will spend time in another place, or not be one who can understand somethingfrom a brief statement [udgha

˙titajña], or not be one who can understand from

a detailed explanation [vipañcitajña], or one without deep knowledge …. isalso, Subhuti, should be understood by a bodhisattva-mahasattva as discordthat is a deed of Mara. Moreover, Subhuti, the dharmabha

˙naka will not be

lazy, be one with deep knowledge, and be desirous of giving, desirous of recit-ing this Prajñaparamita, but a student will leave for another place, or not beone who can understand something from a brief statement, or not be onewho can understand from a detailed explanation, or one without deep knowl-edge. is also, Subhuti, should be understood by a bodhisattva-mahasattvaas discord that is a deed of Mara. Moreover, Subhuti, the dharmabha

˙naka will

be one who is intent on material things, intent on profit, honor, and robes,but a student will be one with few desires, content, and solitary, or will notbe desirous of giving wealth [artha; Tib.: nor] …. is also, Subhuti, shouldbe understood by a bodhisattva-mahasattva as a deed of Mara. Moreover,Subhuti, a student will have faith, be desirous of hearing this Prajñaparamita,desirous of understanding the meaning, and willing to give up wealth, but thedharmabha

˙naka will not have faith, be one of few desires, or not be desirous

of speaking. From this also, Subhuti, discord that is a deed of Mara is to beunderstood. Moreover, Subhuti, a student will have faith, be desirous of hear-ing, and desirous of understanding the meaning, but because of conditionsobstructing the dharma these sutras will not accrue to or fall to the lot of thedharmabha

˙naka. From this, also, Subhuti, a student will have an aversion to

a dharma-speaker [dharmabha˙nin] who has not acquired them …. is also,

Subhuti, is to be understood by a bodhisattva-mahasattva as a deed of Mara.73

Moreover, Subhuti, those who are dharmabha˙naka monks will be pleased by

solitude but those who are students will be intent on the assembly. osedharmabha

˙nakas will say, “I will give this Prajñaparamita to those who will fol-

low me, but will not give it to those who will not follow me.” us those sons

73) Wogihara –, –/Sher phyin, brGyad stong, Ka, a–b, my trans. etranslation of this and the following passage is of the Sanskrit text informed in places by theTibetan translation. Cf. Conze a, –.


and daughters of good family will follow that dharmabha˙naka from desire,

dedication, and respect for the dharma [in order to acquire the Prajñapara-mita], but he will never give them a chance [to learn it]. And that dharmabha-

˙naka will be one who desires some material things [ami

˙sakiñcitkabhila

˙sin] but

they will be unwilling to give. And wherever he goes will be poor, withoutprosperity, and he will have danger of losing his life. And those students willhear from others, “at place is poor and without prosperity and in that placethere could be a danger of losing one’s life.” And that dharmabha

˙naka will say

to those sons of good family, “In this place, son of good family, there is thedanger of poverty. If you come, do not be regretful later, having entered thedanger of poverty.” In this way they will be rejected by that dharmabha

˙naka

with a subtle means [upaya]. And, with a daunted look, they will think, “eseare signs of rejection, these are not signs of a desire to give.” inking, “Hedoes not want to give [the Prajñaparamita]” they will not follow him …. isalso, Subhuti, is to be understood by a bodhisattva-mahasattva as a deed ofMara …. Moreover, Subhuti, a dharmabha

˙naka will be one who is intent on

friendly families and families that give him alms. Because of being intent onthose friendly families and families that give him alms, he will think that those[families] should be seen and visited constantly. Because of that constant see-ing, and because he has much to do, he will reject [his] students, [saying],“Right now I have [a family] that I need to see, right now I have [a family]I need to visit.” … is also, Subhuti, is to be understood by a bodhisattva-mahasattva as a deed of Mara.74

In these two passages we again see what seems to be an attempt to providean explanation for actual difficulties that arose in dharmabha

˙nakas’ circles.

e first passage states that problems can arise because a dharmabha˙naka

or one of his students is too lazy or busy to teach or study, because adharmabha

˙naka or his student moves away, because a dharmabha

˙naka or

his student is ignorant or lacks aptitude, or because a dharmabha˙naka does

not know or possess the sutras that his student wishes to study. It statesthat sometimes dharmabha

˙nakas will be unwilling to give their sutras away

and we again see the idea that dharmabha˙nakas will sometimes be intent

on the acquisition of material gain and honor. Particularly interesting isthe passage’s depiction of a situation in which a student is willing to offerwealth to a dharmabha

˙naka, but in which the dharmabha

˙naka is unwilling

to teach because he has few desires. In this case the fault is clearly depicted asbeing with the dharmabha

˙naka, the idea apparently being that if a student

is willing to make an appropriate offering a dharmabha˙naka should be

74) Wogihara –, –/Sher phyin, brGyad stong, Ka, b–b, my trans.Cf. Conze a, – and Kimura –, IV:–.


willing to teach. e second passage continues in the same vein and depictsdharmabha

˙nakas as promising to teach sutras to their followers, but then

never actually doing so, and as desiring worldly things that their followersare unwilling to give. Like the first passage, this strongly suggests thatdharmabha

˙nakas often did not part with their sutras easily and that they

often expected gifts or payment for them. e passage also suggests thatsometimes dharmabha

˙nakas would refuse to accept students as a skillful

means, perhaps a way of testing their resolve. Overall, these passages yielda picture of dharmabha

˙nakas as people who presented themselves as exalted

religious figures, sought to attract patrons and followers, commonly livedan itinerant lifestyle, often sought fame and wealth, and typically requiredgifts, payment, and service from their students.

Other evidence on the role of dharmabha˙nakas comes from outside

of the corpus of Mahayana sutra literature. First, Nagarjuna mentionsdharmabha

˙nakas in two separate passages in the Ratnavalı:

You should furnish a true dharmabha˙naka [chos smra] with worship, profit,

and honor.You should do things to please him and serve him respectfully with six dhar-

mas.

You should honor the true dharma and the dharmabha˙naka [chos smra] most

highlyAnd listen to the dharma respectfully and also make gifts of the dharma.75

In both of these passages Nagarjuna advocates essentially the same sort ofdevotion to dharmabha

˙nakas as Mahayana sutras themselves. If we presume

that he was not himself a dharmabha˙naka, these passages constitute signif-

icant corroborating evidence for the importance of service and devotion todharmabha

˙nakas in pre-Gupta period Mahayana.76

Other possible evidence comes from the writings of the Chinese pilgrimsFa-hsien and I-ching. Fa-hsien, who traveled to India in the late fourth andearly fifth centuries, describing the city of Pa

˙taliputra, writes:

75) Hahn , , , my trans. What the six dharmas are is not clear. ey could beobjects of the senses or perhaps six practices, e.g., not drinking alcohol, having a goodoccupation, listed earlier in the text (Hahn , ).76) Nagarjuna never identifies himself as a dharmabha

˙naka and, so far as is known, is not

identified as a dharmabha˙naka by any other author. Nance’s suggestion that Mahayana sastra

authors were dharmabha˙nakas (, ) seems unlikely.


In this city there had resided a great Brahman, named Râdha-sâmi, a profes-sor of the mahâyâna, of clear discernment and much wisdom, who understoodeverything, living by himself in spotless purity. e king of the country hon-oured and reverenced him, and served him as his teacher. If he went to inquirefor and greet him, the king did not presume to sit down alongside of him; andif, in his love and reverence, he took hold of his hand, as soon as he let it go,the Brahman made haste to pour water on it and wash it. He might be morethan fifty years old, and all the kingdom looked up to him. By means of thisone man, the Law of Buddha was widely made known, and the followers ofother doctrines did not find it in their power to persecute the body of monksin any way.77

While it is not clear that this particular teacher was a dharmabha˙naka, this

is suggested by the fact that Fa-hsien describes him as being affiliated withthe Mahayana and as spreading the dharma widely. ough his being abrahman apparently had something to do with it, Fa-hsien depicts him asa person whom even the king treated with utmost solicitude and devotion.

I-ching, who visited India in the late seventh century, paints a similarpicture of a monk who lived in a monastery in Tamralipti in modern WestBengal:

At that time there was a Bhikshu named … (Râhula-mitra) in that monastery.He was then about thirty years old; his conduct was very excellent and hisfame was exceedingly great. Every day he read over the Ratnakûta-sûtra [i.e.,the Kasyapaparivarta], which contains verses. He was not only versed inthe three collections of the scriptures, but also thoroughly conversant with thesecular literature on the four sciences. He was honoured as the head of thepriests in the eastern districts of India ….

e assembly assigned to venerable priests, if very learned, and also to thosewho thoroughly studied one of the three collections, some of the best rooms(of the monastery) and servants. When such men gave daily lectures, they werefreed from the business imposed on the monastics. When they went out, theycould ride in sedan-chairs, but not on horseback. (Takakusu , –)

Although I-ching does not explicitly identify *Rahulamitra as a dharma-bha

˙naka, the fact that he describes him as reading, and perhaps lecturing

on, the Kasyapaparivarta suggests that he may have been. ough it isunclear how much continuity they had with the early dharmabha

˙naka

77) Legge , . For a discussion and retranslation of this passage, see Deeg , –, . Deeg reconstructs the preacher’s name as Raivatasvamin.


tradition, we know that at least some people referred to themselves asdharmabha

˙nakas at least roughly during I-ching’s time from the colophons

of two Gilgit manuscripts, one of which identifies its copyist as the dharma-bha

˙naka Narendradatta and the other of which identifies two of its donors

as dharmabha˙nakas: “the great dharmabha

˙naka acarya monk … Kalya

˙na-

trata” and the “great dharmabha˙naka monk Dhramedramati” (von Hinüber

, –, –). Two undated but apparently fairly late Brahmı in-scriptions from the same area similarly make reference to three dharma-bha

˙nakas named Sura, Pala, and Gu

˙nasena who stayed (vi√car) there.78

In either case, the way I-ching describes the treatment typically accordedto monks like *Rahulamitra suggests that prominent Mahayana preacherswere treated much as Mahayana sutras recommend as late as the seventhcentury.

e significance of the material discussed here for our understanding ofIndian Mahayana will undoubtedly take some time to determine. It is per-haps possible to say immediately that dharmabha

˙nakas are mentioned so

frequently in Mahayana sutras, and assigned so much significance by thesetexts, that it will not be possible for any future theory of Mahayana to becredible if it does grant them a significant place. Since the beginning ofthe study of Indian Mahayana, scholars have persistently tended to imag-ine early Mahayana as a group or groups that split off from the main bodyof ancient Buddhists. Attempts to determine which Buddhists split off andwhy they did so have proceeded primarily on a priori grounds. Essential-izing the Mahayana as a movement centered on the bodhisattva ideal, andprojecting this imputed essence onto the movement’s origin, most schol-ars have imagined the rejection of the arhat ideal as the Mahayana’s initial

78) Tsukamoto –, :, ; cf. von Hinüber , , and Bemmann andKönig , –. e word dharmabha

˙naka occurs twice in one of the inscriptions and

in the first occurrence is spelled dharmava˙naka. Ronald Davidson also points out that the

Dhara˙nısa

˙mgraha was compiled in Ch’ang-an in – by the Indian monk Atiku

˙ta,

who is identified as a dharmabha˙naka in the text’s introduction (personal communica-

tion). Just as this paper was entering the press, Péter-Dániel Szántó noticed a late eleventh-century A

˙s˙tasahasrika manuscript colophon in which the scribe identifies himself as “the

dharmabha˙naka Ananda dwelling at the glorious Nalanda” ( and personal communi-

cation). is is currently the latest known, datable, mainland reference to a historical personidentified as a dharmabha

˙naka, though it is again dubious that this represents a continuous

tradition from early Mahayana. Perhaps additional study of Pala manuscript colophons willturn up additional examples. Szántó also points out that the term occurs in at least two latetantric texts.


impulse. e central question of early Mahayana thus became: Which partof the Buddhist community rejected the arhat ideal and why? Without cit-ing any evidence, Jean Przyluski proposed that lay people were responsibleand that they rejected the arhat ideal because they saw it as selfish, isola-tionist, and nihilistic (e.g., , –), a theory that became dominantin Western Buddhist studies for more than fifty years. More recently, sev-eral Western scholars have argued that the main agents of early Mahayanawere forest dwellers or ascetics who reacted against the corrupt monasticestablishment, or looked down on the pursuit of arhatship and strenuouslypursued Buddhahood as a higher religious goal. Only a small minority ofMahayana sutras advocate forest dwelling or ascetic practice, however, andit seems unlikely that they represent an especially early or important partof the tradition.79

If we begin from the actual facts that we have, it may be possible tosolve the problem fairly easily. My own view is that the Mahayana wasat root a textual movement that grew out of preaching circles and devel-oped within, and never really departed from, traditional Buddhist insti-tutional structures. Apart from Mahayana sutras themselves, we have vir-tually no epigraphic, archaeological, or other evidence for the Mahayanaduring the first centuries of its existence. We know that Mahayanists livedin and travelled between monasteries where non-Mahayanists also livedand that Mahayana monks and nuns continued to take ordination in thevarious nikayas. Mahayana sutras do not advocate or reflect an awarenessof any sort of separate Mahayana institution, but often represent them-selves as being part of a new textual revelation that the Buddha arranged tobegin about five hundred years after his death. Mahayana sastra authorsalso show no awareness of a distinct Mahayana institution and defendonly the status of Mahayana sutras as buddhavacana when apologizingfor the Mahayana. e practices that Mahayana sutras recommend mostfrequently and enthusiastically, almost constantly in many texts, are onesinvolving the use of Mahayana sutras themselves: listening to them, mem-orizing them, reciting them, preaching them, copying them, and worship-ping them.80

Dharmabha˙nakas were the central figures of this movement. ey com-

posed Mahayana sutras and claimed that they had been entrusted tothem by the Buddha himself. ey typically presented themselves as exalted

79) For a general discussion of scholarship on early Mahayana, see Drewes , part .80) For a general discussion of early Mahayana, see Drewes , part .


bodhisattvas with knowledge and power nearly equal to that of Buddhas.ey attributed great power to their texts and claimed that anyone whoused them could make easy and rapid progress to arhatship, pratyekabud-dhahood, or Buddhahood. Despite their monastic status many dharma-bha

˙nakas claimed to be above the restraints of Buddhist morality. Some

of them apparently became wealthy and lived as Buddhist libertines. Somemay have done some ascetic practices or publically presented themselvesas ascetics, but this was probably unusual. As Mahayana sutras reiter-ate again and again, the vast power of these texts makes strenuous train-ing unnecessary. ere does not seem to be any good reason to imaginethat dharmabha

˙nakas spent much time practicing meditation. Samadhis

are mentioned frequently but more often than not are depicted as accru-ing to bodhisattvas as a result of other practices, usually textual ones.Dharmabha

˙nakas were clearly unwelcome in certain monasteries, and often

had to endure rejection and abuse. ey aimed to preach in a dynamic,inspiring manner, publically enacting the role of great bodhisattvas, andsought to attract believers, followers, and patrons. Some early dharmabha-

˙nakas likely acquired royal patronage that helped the movement to spread.Despite the rejection they endured, they clearly enjoyed significant success,witnessed by the hundreds of Mahayana sutras that survive to this day.

What led dharmabha˙nakas to compose Mahayana sutras is unclear,

but it seems unlikely that they did so as a reaction to anything. emost common thing that Mahayana sutras criticize non-Mahayanists foris rejecting Mahayana sutras. ough some sutras criticize certain peo-ple for immoral behavior, this is uncommon, and other Mahayanists areusually included in the critique, indicating that this was not a Mahayanavs. non-Mahayana issue. Instead, dharmabha

˙nakas can probably better be

thought of as participating, along with other authors from roughly the sameperiod, including avadanists, the authors of texts like the Buddhava

˙msa and

Cariyapi˙taka,81 and the authors of many other texts that have surely been

lost, in a widespread effort to present a vision of a broader universe thatto them seemed intimated or presupposed by earlier Buddhist texts. EarlyBuddhist texts clearly depicted the Buddha as having vast knowledge thathe never imparted to his disciples, but left the broad question of the contentof this knowledge completely open. ey also clearly represented the bod-hisattva as a distinct sort of being dedicated to the pursuit of Buddhahood,

81) Cf. Bechert , – and Walters .


but presented no teachings for them, leaving the question of their train-ing open as well. Because, as beings pursuing Buddhahood, bodhisattvassurely needed to know precisely the things that the Buddha did not teachhis sravakas, the development of the Mahayana sutra—as a genre of litera-ture that presented teachings for bodhisattvas—gave dharmabha

˙nakas the

ability to fill both of these gaps simultaneously, along with the ability topromise the high reward of Buddhahood to their listeners. In so doing, itopened to them a broad new road for the extension of Buddhist thoughtand practice and an opportunity to create what they could fairly claim werethe most powerful texts in the universe.

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