of the mind (_vasana_).

As'vagho@sa (100 A.D.) seems to have been the greatest teacher
of a new type of idealism (_vijnanavada_) known as the Tathata
philosophy. Trusting in Suzuki's identification of a quotation in
As'vagho@sa's _S'raddhotpadas'astra_ as being made from
_La@nkavatarasutra_, we should think of the _La@nkavatarasutra_ as
being one of the early works of the Vijnanavadins [Footnote ref 1].
The greatest later writer of the Vijnanavada school was Asa@nga
(400 A.D.), to whom are attributed the _Saptadas'abhumi sutra,
Mahayana sutra, Upades'a, Mahayanasamparigraha s'astra, Yogacarabhumi
s'astra_ and _Mahayanasutrala@mkara_. None of these works excepting the
last one is available to readers who have no access to the
Chinese and Tibetan manuscripts, as the Sanskrit originals are
in all probability lost. The Vijnanavada school is known to
Hindu writers by another name also, viz. Yogacara, and it does
not seem an improbable supposition that Asa@nga's _Yogacarabhumi
s'astra_ was responsible for the new name. Vasubandhu,
a younger brother of Asa@nga, was, as Paramartha (499-569) tells
us, at first a liberal Sarvastivadin, but was converted to Vijnanavada,
late in his life, by Asa@nga. Thus Vasubandhu, who
wrote in his early life the great standard work of the Sarvastivadins,
_Abhidharmakos'a_, devoted himself in his later life to Vijnanavada
[Footnote ref 2]. He is said to have commented upon a number of
Mahayana sutras, such as _Avata@msaka, Nirva@na, Saddharmapu@n@darika,
Prajnaparamita, Vimalakirtti_ and _S'rimalasi@mhanada_, and
compiled some Mahayana sutras, such as _Vijnanamatrasiddhi,
Ratnatraya_, etc. The school of Vijnanavada continued for at
least a century or two after Vasubandhu, but we are not in
possession of any work of great fame of this school after him.

We have already noticed that the S'unyavada formed the fundamental
principle of all schools of Mahayana. The most powerful
exponent of this doctrine was Nagarjuna (1OO A.D.), a brief account
of whose system will be given in its proper place. Nagarjuna's
karikas (verses) were commented upon by Aryyadeva, a disciple
of his, Kumarajiva (383 A.D.). Buddhapalita and Candrakirtti
(550 A.D.). Aryyadeva in addition to this commentary wrote at

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[Footnote 1: Dr S.C. Vidyabhushana thinks that _Lankavatana_ belongs to
about 300 A.D.]

[Footnote 2: Takakusu's "A study of the Paramartha's