New Evidence for Mahayana in Early Gandhāra

Mark Allon And Richard Salomon, The Eastern Buddhist 41/1 1-22 (2010)

THIS ARTICLE is based on a lecture of the same title presented jointly by the authors at an international symposium entitled “The Mahāsāṃghika School, Mahāyāna, and Gandhāra: The Encounter of Buddhist Art Historians and Archaeologists and Buddhist Philologists” held at Soka University, Hachioji, Japan (29-30 November 2008), and a similar lecture by Richard Salomon at Otani University, Kyoto, Japan (1 December 2008).

I. INTRODUCTION: NEW SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON THE EARLY MAHAYANA IN GANDHĀRA

This article focuses on new textual evidence from inscriptions and manuscripts for a Mahayana presence in Gandhāra during the first three centuries CE.
The evidence comes from several large collections of manuscripts from Pakistan and Afghanistan that have emerged since the 1990s, written in Gāndhārī and Sanskrit.
These discoveries are changing the understanding of early Buddhism in Greater Gandhāra.

II. SURVEY OF NEW DOCUMENTS BEARING ON EARLY MAHAYANA IN GANDHĀRA

II.a. Epigraphic and Manuscript Discoveries Bearing on Mahayana in Gandhāra, Published up to 2002

A 3rd-century CE Gāndhārī inscription from Xinjiang is the earliest epigraphic evidence of the word mahāyāna, describing a king as having “set out on the Mahayana path.”
A Sanskrit manuscript fragment from Bamiyan refers to the 2nd-century CE Kuṣāna emperor Huviṣka as an adherent of the Mahayana.
An inscription from Mathurā (c. 153 CE), during Huviṣka’s reign, records the establishment of an image of the Buddha Amitābha, an important Mahayana practice.
A controversial Gāndhārī inscription may refer to Amitābha and Avalokiteśvara, but the interpretation is disputed.
A manuscript fragment of the Aṣtasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā from Bamiyan, dated to the late 3rd century CE, was previously the oldest known Mahayana text in an Indian language.

II.b. Recent Unpublished Discoveries of Mahayana Texts in Gāndhārī Manuscripts

Fragments of a Gāndhārī version of the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra were found among the Bamiyan manuscripts.
A small fragment of the unquestionably Mahayana Sarvapunyasamuccayasamādhi-sūtra was identified in the Schøyen collection.
A Gāndhārī fragment of the Bodhisattvapitaka-sūtra was found, predating a Sanskrit version also discovered at Bamiyan.
The Bajaur collection contains a long Gāndhārī manuscript of a sutra about the Buddha Akṣobhya, dated to the 1st-2nd centuries CE, supporting the theory that the Akṣobhya cult was prominent in early “Pure Land” Buddhism.
The “split” collection includes a Gāndhārī manuscript of the Aṣtasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, radiocarbon dated to the late 1st or early 2nd century CE, making it the earliest dated Mahayana manuscript.
A fragmentary Gāndhārī scroll from the 1st or 2nd century CE contains a Mahayana sutra about the Buddha’s encounter with Vimalakīrti’s son, Sucitti.

III. EARLY MAHAYANA IN GANDHĀRA: A NEW EVALUATION

III.a. Mahayana in Gandhāran Manuscripts: A Shifting Picture

Initial manuscript discoveries (British Library, Senior collections) contained only mainstream, non-Mahayana texts.
Later finds from Bamiyan included some Mahayana texts from a later period (late 2nd-4th centuries CE).
The most recent discoveries (Bajaur, “split” collections) include Mahayana texts from an earlier period (1st-2nd centuries CE), proving Mahayana was present in Gandhāra earlier than previously thought.

III.b. The Mahayana and the Mainstream as Seen in Gandhāran Manuscripts

Mahayana texts have been found within larger collections of mainstream Buddhist texts.
This supports the view that early Mahayana followers were members of mainstream monastic communities (nikāyas), not a separate sect.
The presence of Mahayana texts in collections associated with different nikāyas (e.g., Mahāsāṃghika, Dharmaguptaka) suggests Mahayana ideas were not confined to a single school.
Caution is needed, as the presence of a text does not automatically prove its acceptance; it could have been collected for criticism or scholarly purposes.

III.c. Manifestations of the Mahayana in Manuscripts and Inscriptions

The previous lack of Mahayana references in early inscriptions was interpreted as evidence of its marginal status.
The new manuscript evidence suggests an alternative interpretation: since Mahayana adherents were part of mainstream monasteries, donative inscriptions would name the monastery’s official nikāya affiliation, making the individual’s yāna affiliation irrelevant for the inscription.
Therefore, the silence of inscriptions does not prove the absence of Mahayana.

III.d. The Language(s) of the Mahayana

The discovery of very early Mahayana sutras in Gāndhārī challenges the traditional association of Mahayana with the Sanskrit language.
These Gāndhārī versions predate known Sanskrit ones, suggesting the original “language of conception” for many early Mahayana texts was a vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan language like Gāndhārī, not Sanskrit.

IV. CONCLUSION

New Gāndhārī manuscript discoveries provide concrete evidence for the presence of Mahayana in Gandhāra at a very early period.
The evidence suggests Mahayana existed as a movement within mainstream monastic communities.
These findings complicate the history of early Mahayana, and further study and discoveries will continue to change our understanding.