The Saddharma-Pundarika Or The Lotus of The True Law

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The Saddharma-pundarika is one of the nine Dharmas which are known by the titles of-1. Ashtasahasrika Pra- gnaparamita; 2. Ganda-vyūha; 3. Dasabhumisvara; 4. Sa- mâdhi-råga; 5. Lankavatara; 6. Saddharma-pundarika; 7. Tathagata-guhyaka; 8. Lalita-vistara; 9. Suvarna-pra- bhasa.

These nine works, to which divine worship is offered, embrace (to use the words of the first investigator of Nepalese Buddhism¹) 'in the first, an abstract of the philosophy of Buddhism; in the seventh, a treatise on the esoteric doctrines; and in the seven remaining ones, a full illustration of every point of the ordinary doctrine and discipline, taught in the easy and effective way of example and anecdote, interspersed with occasional in- stances of dogmatic instruction. With the exception of the first, these works are therefore of a narrative kind; but interwoven with much occasional speculative matter.'

As to the form, it would seem that all the rank as narrative works, which, however, does not exclude in some of them a total difference in style of composition and character. The Lalita-vistara e.g. has the movement of a real epic, the Saddharma-pundarika has not. The latter bears the character of a dramatic performance, an undeveloped mystery play, in which the chief interlocutor, not the only one, is Sakyamuni, the Lord. It consists of a series of dialogues, brightened by the magic effects of a would-be supernatural scenery. The phantasmagorical parts of the whole are as clearly intended to impress us with the idea of the might and glory of the Buddha, as his speeches are to set forth his all-surpassing wisdom. Some affinity of its technical arrangement with that of the regular Indian drama is visible in the prologue or Nidana, where Mangusri at the end prepares the spectators and auditors-both are the same for the beginning of the grand drama, by telling them that the Lord is about to awake from his mystic slumber and to display his infinite wisdom and power