[Footnote 147:  There is another somewhat similar collection of sutras in the Chinese Canon called Ta Tsi or Mahasannipata but unlike the Ratnakuta it seems to contain few well-known or popular works.]

[Footnote 148:  I know of these works only by Raj.  Mitra’s abstracts, Nepal.  Bud.  Lit. pp. 95 and 101.  The prose text is said to have been published in Sanskrit at Calcutta, 1873.]

[Footnote 149:  Raj.  Mitra, Nepalese Buddhist Lit. pp. 285 ff.  The Sanskrit text was published for the Buddhist Text Society, Calcutta, 1898.]

[Footnote 150:  Avadana is primarily a great and glorious act:  hence an account of such an act.]

[Footnote 151:  The Avadana-sataka (Feer, Annales du Musee Guimet, XVIII) seems to be entirely Hinayanist.]

[Footnote 152:  Edited by Senart, 3 vols. 1882-1897.  Windisch, Die Komposition des Mahavastu, 1909.  Article “Mahavastu” in E.R.E.]

[Footnote 153:  So too do the words Horapathaka (astrologer), Ujjhebhaka (?  Uzbek), Peliyaksha (?  Felix).  The word Yogacara (I. 120) may refer simply to the practice of Yoga and not to the school which bore this name.]

[Footnote 154:  Edited by Cowell and Neil, 1886.  See Nanjio, 1344.]

[Footnote 155:  Edited by Bendall in Bibl.  Buddhica.]

[Footnote 156:  Nanjio, No. 1466.  For a learned discussion of this work see Levi and Chavannes in J.A. 1916, Nos.  I and II.]

[Footnote 157:  It is not likely that the Tathagata-guhya-sutra which it quotes is the same as the Tantra with a similar name analysed by Rajendralal Mitra.]

[Footnote 158:  Watters, J.R.A.S. 1898, p. 331 says there seems to have been an earlier translation.]

[Footnote 159:  Many works with this title will be found in Nanjio.]

[Footnote 160:  But the Chinese title seems rather to represent Ratnarasi.]

[Footnote 161:  See Nanjio, pp. xiii-xvii.]

[Footnote 162:  Mahayana-sutralankara.  See Levi’s introduction, p. 14.  The “Questions” sutra is Brahma-paripriccha.]

CHAPTER XXI

CHRONOLOGY OF THE MAHAYANA

In the previous chapters I have enumerated some features of Mahayanism, such as the worship of Bodhisattvas leading to mythology, the deification of Buddhas, entailing a theology as complicated as the Christian creeds, the combination of metaphysics with religion, and the rise of new scriptures consecrating all these innovations.  I will now essay the more difficult task of arranging these phenomena in some sort of chronological setting.

The voluminous Chinese literature concerning Buddhism offers valuable assistance, for the Chinese, unlike the Hindus, have a natural disposition to write simple narratives recording facts and dates.  But they are diarists and chroniclers rather than historians.  The Chinese pilgrims to India give a good account of their itinerary and experiences, but they have little idea of investigating and arranging past events and merely recount traditions connected with the places which they visited.  In spite of this their statements have considerable historical value and on the whole harmonize with the literary and archaelogical data furnished by India.