VASUBANDHU ON 'AGGREGATES, SPHERES, AND COMPONENTS': BEING CHAPTER ONE OF THE 'ABHIDHARMAKOSA'
Writer : BRUCE CAMERON, HALL
Write date : 1983
Univ : HARVARD UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION : As a literature, the Abhidharma forms one of the three parts of the Buddhist Canon in its classic form as the Tripitaka. This is the Abhidharma proper, which has been mainly accessible to English speaking students in its Pali, Theravadin, recension. If one turns to the later layers of this literature, to the (')Sastra works of writers who summarized and reinterpreted the Canonical Abhidharma, the surving text of probably the greatest importance is Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa, which draws on the Canonical tradition of the Sarvastivadins, subjects it to the critique of the Sautrantikas, and frequently opens the way for the Vijnanavadins. The aim of this thesis is to interpret some fundamental categories of the Kosa, and to present the text to a somewhat wider audience. Chapter One introduces the Sanskrit Abhidharma literature, discusses briefly the debate on Vasubandhu's identity (and by implication his role in this 'phase'), and gives a detailed bibliographical account of the transmission, rediscovery, and publication of the Abhidharmakosa. There follows a brief introduction to the Sanskrit text (which is given as Chapter Three), and some remarks on the present translation (Chapter Two). This 'Explanation of the Components' is translated here in Chapter Two, and edited in Sanskrit in Chapter Three. The thesis concludes with a Bibliography, and an Appendix consisting of 'Tables of Dharmas,' meant to clarify some of the more obscure passages of Vasubandhu's text.
Writer : BRUCE CAMERON, HALL
