garbha and the three bodies of Buddha. It would be dangerous
to say that these ideas did not exist in the time of Kanishka, but
what is known of the development of doctrine leads us to expect their
full expression not then but a century or two later and other
circumstances raise suspicions as to Asvaghosha's authorship. His
undoubted works were translated into Chinese about 400 A.D. but _The
Awakening of Faith_ a century and a half later.[207] Yet if this
concise and authoritative compendium had existed in 400, it is strange
that the earlier translators neglected it. It is also stated that an
old Chinese catalogue of the Tripitaka does not name Asvaghosha as the
author.[208]

The undoubted works of Asvaghosha treat the Buddha with ornate but
grave rhetoric as the hero of an epic. His progress is attended by
miracles such as Indian taste demands, but they hardly exceed the
marvels recounted in the Pali scriptures and there is no sign that the
hero is identified, as in the Ramayana of Tulsi Das or the Gospel
according to St. John, with the divine spirit. The poet clearly feels
personal devotion to a Saviour. He dwells on the duty of teaching
others and not selfishly seeking one's own salvation, but he does not
formulate dogmas.

The name most definitely connected with the early promulgation of
Mahayanism is Nagarjuna.[209] A preponderance of Chinese tradition
makes him the second patriarch after Asvaghosha[210] and this agrees
with the Kashmir chronicle which implies that he lived soon after
Kanishka.[211] He probably flourished in the latter half of the second
century. But his biographies extant in Chinese and Tibetan are almost
wholly mythical, even crediting him with a life of several centuries,
and the most that can be hoped is to extract a few grains of history
from them. He is said to have been by birth a Brahman of Vidarbha
(Berar) and to have had as teacher a Sudra named Saraha or
Rahulabhadra. When the legend states that he visited the Nagas in the
depths of the sea and obtained books from them, it seems to admit that
he preached new doctrines. It is noticeable that he is represented not
only as a philosopher but as a great magician, builder, physician, and
maker of images.

Many works are attributed to him but they have not the same
authenticity as the poems of Asvaghosha. Some schools make him the
author of the Prajna-paramita but it is more usually regarded as a
revelation. The commentary on it known as Ma