Oldenberg, Religion du Veda, 209, has indeed shown that the Buddhist Gandharva is "the animated seed which, passing from an old existence to a new existence, waits and instantly grasps on to the act of
generation
in order to become an embryo, or garbha" (Against Hillebrandt, who makes the Gandharva a genie of fertility; same conception in Rhys Davids-Stede: the Gandharva "is said to preside over child conception.
Abhidharmakosabhasyam-Vol-2-Vasubandhu-Poussin-Pruden-1991
65. Upapdduka sattva, sems can skye ba pa, Hsiian-tsang: hua-sheng yu ch'mg {b^fe^f ffif Paramartha: tsejan sheng ch'ung sheng.
Upapdduka in Mahavyutpatti, Ko/avydkhyd, and Mahdvastu; aupapdduka in Divya, Avadd- nafataka; aupapddika in Caraka (quoted in Windisch, Geburt, 187), which corresponds to theJaina uvavdtya, and the Pali aupapdtika.
Upapdtika, upapattika, opapdtika (defined in Sumafigalavildsim: cavitva uppajjanakasattd: "one who, (immediately upon) death, is reborn").
A very long bibliography from the Lotus Sutra, 394: "came into the world by a miracle", Senart, JAs. 1876, ii. 477, Windisch, Geburt, 184, to S. Lev'tfAs. 1912, ii. 502 (who quotes Weber, Childers, Leumann, etc).
Upapdta simply signifies "birth, arising" (cyutyupapdtajtidna, vii. 29, etc) and not necessarily "casual and unusual birth" (Rhys Davids-Stede).
66. Organs not lacking is avikalendriydh; organs not deficient is ahinendriydh: the organ of the eye is hina when one is one-eyed or when one squints. The members, anga, are the hands, the feet; the "sub-members" are the fingers, etc
67. Majjhima: katamd ca opapdtikayoni / devd nerayikd ekacce ca manussd ekacce ca vinipdtikd.
68. Two merchants whose ship had burned found (samadhigata) a crane on the sea shore. From this union there were born the Sthaviras Saila and Upa? aila (Vydkhyd). According to another source, "&aila = mountain, Upa? aila = small mountain; a crane produced two eggs there, from whence there was born two men, and hence their names. "
69. The thirty-two eggs of Vis*? kha, Ralston-Schiefner, p. 125. The eggs of PadmavatI, Chavannes, Cinq cents contes, L81 ("Lait de la mere").
70. Five hundred eggs were born to the queen of the King of Pancala: they were placed in a box (manjasa) that was abandoned in the Ganges. The King of the Licchavis found the box and in it, five hundred young men (Vydkhyd*).
71. Mandhatar was born from a swelling (pitaka) which formed on the head of Uposadha; Cam and Upacaru were born from a swelling which formed on the knee of Mandhatar (Cakravartin Kings, see Koia, iil97d). Divya, 210, Ralston-Schiefner, p. xxxvii, Buddhacarita, i. 29), and the references of Cowell (Visnupurana, iv. 2, Mahdbhdrata, iii. 10450), Hopkins, Great Epic, 1915,169.
72. Kapotamalini was born from a swelling on the breast of King Brahmadatta.
73. Amrapali was born from the stem of a banana-tree.
See the story of Amrapali and Jivaka in Chavannes, Cinq cents contes, iii. 325, (translated
between A. D. 148 and 170); Ralston-Schiefner, p. lii A birth considered as "apparitional," in "Sisters," p. 120.
74. Compare Majjhima, i. 73, Vibhanga, 416.
75. This paragraph according to Vibhdsa, TD 27, p. 626cl7 and also according to the Kdranaprajtidpti, xv (Cosmologie bouddhique, p. 345-6) where Vasubandhu deviates on a point: "The Pretas are solely apparitionaL However certain masters say that they are also born from a womb. One Preti in fact said to Maudgalyayana. . . " The Vydkhyd observes that the discourse of the Preti appears to indicate that her sons are apparitional; if they were born from a womb, the mother would be satisfied. But this fecundity is explained by the speed with which the sons of the Preta are constituted, and the violence of the mother's hunger explains how they do not satisfy as food
We have the Petavatthu, 16: kdlenapaflcapundnisdyarhpah^apundpare/ vijayitvdna khdddmi te pi na honti me alam 11 The Vydkhyd furnishes fragments of the Sanskrit stanza: [aham] rdtrau paftca sutdn dw&paftca tathapardn /janayhvd [pi khdddmi] ndsti trptis tathdpi me //
? In Ceylon the nijjhamatanhikapetas, which are exclusively apparitional, are distinguished from the other Pretas which are of the four types. See Rhys Davids-Stede, s. voc peta.
76. The fifth of the Bodhisattvava? itas of the Mahavyutpatti, 27; defined in the Madhyamakdvatdra, 347.
77. In the Mahavastu, i. 145, "the Buddhas are produced through their own virtues and their birth is miraculous (upapdduka)"; LI54, "Rahula descended directly from Tusita into the bowels of his mother; his birth is marvellous without being, for that, like that of the Cakravartins, and like that of those of aupapadukabML" On these texts and other Lokottaravadin declarations of the Mahavastu, see Barth, /. des Savants, Aug. 1899. Compare Latita, Lefmann, 88.
78. These Tlrthikas are Maskarin, etc
We read in the Nirgrantha/dstra: rddhim bhadanta ko dariayati / mayavi gautamah, and
elsewhere, referring to the Bhagavat, the passage quoted by Vasubandhu: kalpafatasydtyaydd evamvidho loke mayavi prddurbhuya lokarh bhaksayati (Vydkhya). ("to devour the world" is to "live at the expense of the world," upajiv). Compare Majjhima, 1375: samano hi bhante gotamo mayavi. . . Samyutta, iv. 34l; Commentary of the Theragdthd, 1209.
Vibhdsa, TD 27, p. 38bll. "The Tlrthikas slander the Buddha saying that he is a great magician who troubles the mind of the world. " And p. 139a23: The PataM-tlrthika says, "Gautama, do you know magic? If you do not know it, you are not omniscient; if you do know it, you are a magician. "
79. Vibhdsa, TD 27, p. 627cl5 and foil
80. According to the Suvarnaprabhdsa, relics are as illusory as the Buddhas (JRAS. 1906,970).
81. There is kdyanidhana, that is to say kdyand/a: the body disappears (antardhiyate) at death. . . This is the teaching of the Karanaprajfiapti.
82. On the preservation of relics and rddhi, vii. 52.
The Vydkhya explains: "The thing that the magician consecrates (adhitisfhati) saying, 'may this
thing be thus' is termedadbistbdna. This thing is the object (prayojana) of this rddhi, or this rddhi is produced in this thing: thus this rddhi is called ddhisthdniki.
83. On the four types of Garudas and Nagas (W. de Visser, The Dragon in China andJapan, 1913), and in which order the first eat the second, Dirgha, TD 1, p. 127b29, Samyutta, iii 240,246.
There are sixteen Nagas safe from the attacks of the Garudas (Sagara, Nanda, etc), note of W. de Visser. See iiL83b, Beal, 48.
84. Sarhghabhadra (7X>29, p. 467b29) mentions a second opinion, that the womb of perspiration is the most extended
85. See p. 390.
A bibliographic summary of antardbhava.
Koia, iii. 10-15,40c; iv. 53a-b, vi34a, 39.
Kathavatthu, viii2. The Theravadins deny antardbhava against the Sammitlyas and the
Pubbaseliyas. These latter stress the existence of an Anagamin called Antaraparinirvayin (see below p. 386 and iii. 40c); they do not attribute antardbhava to creatures who are going to hell, to the Asafinasattas, or to Arupyadhata
SammifiyanikayaSs'dstra, TD 32, number 1646, Third Chapter.
Kdranaprajfidptis'dstra, xi. 5 (Cosmohgie bouddhique, 341).
Sects that deny antardbhava are the Mahasarhghikas, Ekavyavaharikas, Lokottaravadins,
Kukkutikas, Mahi&asakas (Vasumitra), Mahasarhghikas, Mahigasakas, and Vibhajyavadins (Vibhd- sd, TD 27, p. 356cl4). The Vydkhyd mentions many opinions: no antardbhava; antardbhava preceding birth in the Three Dhatus; antardbhava preceding birth in Kamadhatu; finally,--the sole correct opinion,--antardbhava preceding birth in Kamadhatu and Rupadhatu.
Vibhdsa TD 27, p. 352bl8-366al: "Even though there is a difference in time and place between death and birth, because in the interval, there is no destruction following upon birth, these Schools
Footnotes 505
? 506 Chapter Three
do not admit antardbhava. " In Visuddhimagga, 604, as in Madhyamakavrtti, 544, birth immediately follows upon death: tesarh antarikd natthi.
Brahmanical sources, notably Slokavdrttika, Atmavdda, 62: "Vindhyavasin has refuted antardbhavadeha"', Goldstucker s. voc. antardbhava and ativdhika, dtivdhika; SdmkhyasUtra, v. 103. (A. B. Keith, Karmamimdmsd, p. 59, Bulletin School Oriental Studies, 1924, p. 554, thinks that this Vindhyavasin is not the Samkhya master, about which see Takakusu, "Life of Vasubandhu," JRAS, January, 1905. )
On the manner in which "the disembodied/it^, before it secures a new dyatana (body) wanders about like a great cloud" see Hopkins, Great Epic, 39, JAOS, 22, 372; the demon body which undergoes death in order to go to hell, Sdmkhyapravacanabhdsya, iii. 7.
Diverse references, JRAS, 1897,466; JAs. 1902, ii. 295; Nirvana (1925), 28; Keith, Buddhist Philosophy, 201 \ Sutrdlamkdra, p. 152, Madhyamakavrtti, 286,544. On the Bar-do, seeJaschke and Sarad Candra Das (and a very rich literature).
86. This causes a difficulty. We have seen that thegati is undefiled-neutral. Now arising is always defiled (iii. 38) and death can be good or defiled. How can one say that intermediate existence, which is to be found between death and arising, is found between two gatis, gatyor antardle? Answer. At the moment of death as at the moment of arising there exists the nikdyasabhaga, the jivitendriya, the jdtis, etc, and the kdyendriya (ii. 35), which are undefiled-neutral and are as a consequence, with no difficulty, gati by their very nature.
87. The first term refers to the action which projects the existence (divine, human, etc. ), the second to actions which complete the existence (caste, stature, etc), according to iv. 95.
Or rather: the place where the retribution projected by the action is manifested, namely the ndmarupa, and where the saddyatana is completed
88. Four schools, the Mahasamghikas etc, do not admit antardbhava, see the Commentary to the Samayabheda of Vasumitra in the Materiaux ofJ. Przyluski; the same for the Mah&asakas (Saeki).
89. The Vydkhyd says: atrdcdrya Gunamatih sahatisyendcdryaVasumitrena svanikdydnurdgabhd- vitamatir vydkhydnavydpdram apdsya pratyavasthdnapara eva vartate / vayam iha s'dstrdrtha- vivaranam praty ddriydmahe na taMUsanam nihsdratvdd bahuvaktavyabhaydc ca.
Yasomitra, in the introductory stanzas to the Vydkhyd,notes that he follows "the commentators, Gunamati, Vasumitra, etc. ", in the places where they are correct; in the commentary to i. l, p. 7 (Petrograd edition), he condemns the explanation that Gunamati and his student Vasumitra give to tasmai namaskrtyaJFrom the gloss that we have here, it results that Gunamati and Vasumitra belong to another sea or school (nikdya). Details are lacking.
90. Compare Chavannes, Cinq cents contes, ii. 200.
91. See above, note 29.
92. Majjhima, ii. 156: jdnanti pana bhonto yathd gabbhassa avakkanti hoti / jandma mayam bho yathd gabbhassa avakkanti hoti / idha mdtdpitaro ca sannipatitd honti mdtd ca utuni hoti gandhabbo ca paccupaffhito hoti / evam ttnnam sannipdtd gabbhassa avakkanti hoti. The same
formula, Majjhima, i. 265. {A propos these formulas, Rhys Davids-Stede say that the Gandharva "is said to preside over child-conception") (For other modes of conception, asucipanena, etc, see Samantapdsddikd, i. 214, Milinda, 123, which repeats the formula of the Majjhima. )
(We can compare the avakrdnti of ndmarupa which takes place when the vijridna is pratispbita, Sarhyutta, ii. 66; elsewhere we find avakrdnti of the vijridna, ibid ii. 91).
A different redaction, Divya, 1. 440: traydndm sthdndndm sammukhtbhavdt putra jayante duhitaras ca / katamesdm traydndm / mdtdpitarau raktau bhavatah samnipatitau / mdtd kalyd bhavati rtumati / gandharvah pratyupasthito bhavati / esdm traydndm . . . (The reading gandharvapratyupasthitd that Windisch retains, Geburt, p. 27, is certainly faulty: four Mss. have pratyupasthito).
Our text has garbhdvakrdntih, descent of the embryo (and not: ptardjayante. . . ); it places the
? qualities of the woman before the union of the parents; for the rest it follows the Dwya. Discussed in Vibhasa, TD 27, p. 363b2; kafya signifies "not sick"; details on rtumatl
On the Gandharva, see the sources mentioned in note 85. Also the remarks in Hist, de I'lnde
(Cavaignac, Hist, du Monde, vol iii), i. 287.
Oldenberg, Religion du Veda, 209, has indeed shown that the Buddhist Gandharva is "the animated seed which, passing from an old existence to a new existence, waits and instantly grasps on to the act of generation in order to become an embryo, or garbha" (Against Hillebrandt, who makes the Gandharva a genie of fertility; same conception in Rhys Davids-Stede: the Gandharva "is said to preside over child conception. " Also against Pischel who makes the Gandharva an embryo). Gandharva is the "Veda-ized" or "Brahmanisized" name of the disembodied spirit as "primitives" conceived it.
93. According to the Lotsava. Hsiian-tsang: " . . . a Gandharva is made ready. If he is not the intermediate being, what will the Gandharva be? How could a dissolution of the former skandhas be made ready? If they do not read this text, how do they explain the AfvaldyanasMra}. . . " We are led to believe that the meaning is: "The school that we are combating pretends that the word gandharva signifies maranabhava or skandhabheda . . . "
Vydkhya: skandhabheda/ca pratyupasthita iti maranabhavah.
94. The Assaldyanasutta, Majjhima, ii. 157, gives a more archaic recension of our text.
95. Samyukta, 37. 20, Dirgha, TD 1, p. 51cl2, Digha, iii. 237; Koia, vi. 37.
Whatever we may think of the Antaraparinirvayin of the Kathdvatthu, viii. 2 and the
Puggalapanfiati (quoted below note 97), the definition that the Anguttara, ii 134, gives of this saint, presupposes a belief in intermediate existence (See below iii. 40c - 4la).
96. Madhyama, TD 1, p. 427all, Anguttara, iv. 70, Ko/a, vi40. I have compared the Sanskrit version, reproduced in full in the Vydkhya, with the Pali version, JRAS, 1906,446.
97. One should compare this explanation of the Vibhajyavadins with that of the PudgaUpaMati, 16. The Antaraparinibbayin realizes the path upapannam va samanatara apattam va vemajjham ayupamdnam: the Upaliaccaparinibbayin realizes the path atikkamitvd vemajjham ayupamdnam
upahacca. . . upahacca vdd kalakrtyam (According to the commentary, upahacca = upagantvd, thus "holds firm to the place of death"). Buddhaghosa,^/ Kathdvatthu, iv. 2 (If one can become an Arhat
by birth) reproaches the Uttarapathakas for substituting upapajjaparinibbdyin for upahacca-.
98. There is premature death (antardmarana) in Arupyadhatu; thus a being of Arupyadhatu can enter into Nirvana before having completed his thousands of kdpas of existences in Arupyadhatu.
99. For an explanation of this iloka, see Cosmologie bouddhique, 141,235, Anguttara, iv. 422.
100. Hsiian-tsang: After a long time (gloss: after 900 years) the sovereign master of the Law has entered into Nirvana; the great generals of the Law (Gloss: Sdradvatiputra, etc) have also entered intoNirvanna . . .
101. Madhyama, TD 1, p. 620cll; Majjhima, i. 332, where we have Kakusandha and Vidhura (Vidura=mkhas mgu); Theragdthd, 1187 (with the variants Vidhura and Vidura). Mrs Rhys Davids, "Dussi is a name for Mara in a previous life"; the Vydkhya: dUsindma mdrah.
We may recall that a heretic of the Kathavatthu, viii. 2, thinks that existence in hell is not preceded by an intermediate existence.
102. Hsiian-tsang: Or rather, who does not admit that antardbhava is "arising"? The word "infernal, hellish being" also designates antardbhava; when antardbhava is produced immediately following a death of existence, one can also speak of arising (upapatti), because it is the means of the arising. The Sutra says that the criminal is immediately born as a "hellish being"; it does not say that at this moment there is an arising of existence.
103. Samyukta, TD 2, p. 403c6, Vibhasa, TD 27, p. 356c21.
Version of Hsiian-tsang: "Desiring to go on the road to the east, you do not have any provisions;
Footnotes 507
? 508 Chapter Three
desiring to stop, there is no stopping place in the interval" RecensionofDhammapada251:upanUavayovaddnisi/ sampaydtosiYamassasantike/ vdso
pi ca te n'atthi antard / pdtheyyam pi catena vqjati.
104. On the action which projects the intermediate existence, etc, iv. 53a. Same doctrine attributed to the heretics in the Kathdvatthu, viii. 2 (p. 106): 'There is no particular action which produces intermediate existence. . . "
105. Suppose, says Hsuan-tsang that there are five embryos which give rise to five antarabhavas, each one calling for a different realm of rebirth; thus one says that these five antarabhavas, although formed in a single womb, do not touch one another nor burn one another.
106. The Vyakhyd: "By reason of the transparence (acchatvdt) of the body (dtmabhdva) of intermediate beings, there is no reciprocal adherence (anyonyam): thus no burning. . . It is for this reason that the womb is not burned"
107. This constitutes a Trisahasramahasahasra (iii. 74), that is to say, a buddhaksetra.
108. After the beginning of the "one hundred kalpas," iv. 108.
109. The Vyakhyd quotes, in full, a recension of the dreams of Krkin which may be compared with the recension of the Mah&asakas, TD 22, number 1421, in Chavannes, Cinq cents contes, iL343.
On the dreams of Krkin, Burnouf, Introduction, 565; Feer, Cat. des papiers de Burnouf, 65; Tokiwai, Studien zum Sumdgadhdvaddna (Darmstad, 1898); Minayev, Recherches, 89; Oldenbourg, Zapiski, 1888,/&45,1893,509; notes in Cosmologie bouddhique, 2bl. Many points of contact with the dreams of Bimbisara, for example I-tsing, Takakusu, 13; Chavannes, ii. 137.
Dreams of the mother of an Arhat and of a Cakravartin (elephant, etc) SBE xxii, 231,246. 110. The same master is quoted iii. 59a-c, where we have grouped some references.
111. Hsiian-tsang: "There is no reason to explain this text because it is not in the Three Pitakas, and because the authors of these stanzas go beyond the Truth (? ). "
Paramartha: "This is not in the Sutra. . . this is merely an arrangement of words. Wise men desire to arrange the meaning in Sastras . . . "
Vasumitra says: The Mahasamghikas think that the Bodhisattvas do not take up the nature of kalala, arbuda, etc; that they enter into the womb having become great elephants; that they are born by cutting open the womb. In the same way, Bhavya, for the Ekavyavaharikas (Wassilief, 236, Rockhill, 188).
112. Vibhdsd, TD 27, p. 362bl4.
113. The Bhiksuni dkar mo, or hsien-pai ^-^i i according to Hsiian-tsang; shu-ko-lo $$Rliii in Paramartha. Avaddnafatakd, ii. 15 (73).
Translated according to Paramartha who expands the original. Hsiian-tsang: "From world to world, she has autogenous clothing which never leaves her body and which transforms itself according to the seasons, until finally, at Nirvana, the clothed body will be burned. " (Compare the story of &anavasa, Hsiian-tsang, Julien, i. 39, quoted in Przyluski, Funerailles, 111; and that of Nagasena, Dernieville, MUinda, 80).
The Pali sources (Therigdthd, 54, Sarhyutta, 1512) have nothing similar.
114. These four bhavas are enumerated in Mahavyutpatti, 245,1271, with maranabhava placed
first.
115. Vyakhyd: suviiuddham ity ekjdafadivyacaksurapaJksdlavarjitam. These eleven apaksdlas are, according to the Sutra, vicikitsd, amanasikdra, kdyadausfulya, stydnamiddha, auddhatya, atydrabhya- vtrya, audilya, chambitatva, ndndtvasampSd, abhijalpa, atidhydyitvam jneyesu.
116. Vibhdsd, TD 27, p. 364b8. Do intermediate beings see one another? Yes. Who sees whom? There are different opinions. According to certain masters, hellish intermediate beings see only
? hellish intermediate beings. . . heavenly intermediate beings see only heavenly intermediate beings. According to other masters, animal intermediate beings see hellish and animal intermediate beings . . . According to other masters, the five classes see the five classes.
117. According to the heretics of the Kathavatthu: satto dibbacakkhuko viya adibbacakkhuko iddhimd viya aniddhhnd. . .
118. His body is accha, viii. 3c.
119. The Vibhdsd discusses this point, TD 27, p. 360a9. According to the Darstantikas, it is false that an intermediate being cannot change his Dhatu, his realm of rebirth, or the place of his new existence. All of the actions which comprise the five dnantatyas can be "changed. " . . . An intermediate being who goes to be reborn into the Fourth Dhyana can generate a false view; he is then destroyed and is immediately replaced by a hellish intermediate being . . .
120. The Lotsava and Paramartha omit the grammatical explanation which is partially translated by Hsiian-tsang. Dhdtupdpha, L615, arva himsdydm. fakandhu, vi 1. 94.
121. Alpeidkhya, that is to say, anuddra hinavifyaWe have ispa itiiah / alpa iio'lpeiah / alpeia dkhydyasya so'lpefakhyak. Trenckner, Milinda, 422 (-appaparhdra). Hsiian-tsang: "of little merit," Paramartha: "of little merit-virtue. "
122. This is the fourth opinion expressed in the Vibhdsd, TD 27, p. 361bl4; the others are below under b, c, d. Vasubandhu prefers this fourth opinion according to the Chinese commentators.
123- We understand that an intermediate being can last a very long time since it is projected by the cause which projeas the duration, frequently long, of the existence properly so-called. See above, note 104.
124. According to the principle sdmagrim prdpya kdlam ca phalanti khalu dehindm, Divydvaddna, 54, passim.
125. Third opinion of the Vibhdsd.
126. Second opinion of the Vibhdsd, TD 27, p. 36lb8, that of Samadatta (? ). The heretics of the Kathavatthu: sattdham vd atWekasattddham vd tipphati. For the theories found in Tibet, Jaschke and Candra Das, sub voc. bar do:. . .
longer duration, ordinarily under 49 days . . . yet no more than 49 days.
of a shorter or
127. First opinion of the Vibhdsd [From this passage can we conclude that, according to Vasubandhu, the Vaibhasikas admit the opinions indicated in first place in the Vibhdsd? See note 153].
128. If an intermediate being must be reborn as a horse, then his actions will cause horses to mate out of season.
129. Ghosaka (Vibhdsd, TD 27, p.