VASUBANDHU

9525

Because of his innumerable star-eyes, Varuna was re: garded as omniscient. His knowledge and his function as a moral judge were the chief sources of his power, as he had no remarkable achievements to his credit. He watched over human beings: When two persons conversed, he was the invisible third; when anyone sinned, Varuna afflicted the trans: gressor with disease, and until the god relented, the victim would not be restored to health. In the solemn Varunapraghasa rite, a seasonal sacrifice, the sacrificers wife : was required to confess her sin (i.e., conjugal infidelity) before the officiating priest. This is a unique instance of confession of sin in the early Vedic literature, and Varuna was the : god associated with this sacrifice. The punishment he meted out in such cases was called a seizure, hence the elaborate prayers to Varuna for forgiveness of sins. : In later literature Varunas ethical role diminishes, but : early texts frequently associate his majesty or supremacy with his function as upholder of the moral order referred to in the Rgveda as rta or, sometimes, dharma (i.e., that which up: : holds) or satya (truth). In the Avesta this all-pervasive moral order that controls and regularly maintains the cosmic forces is arata, aa, urta, or arta; a cardinal concept in Zoros astrianism, it is first mentioned in the Tel-el-Amarna Tablet : : (c. fourteenth century BCE). Rta is Varunas special domain, and it is often mentioned in connection with him. Another concept associated with Varuna is the magical : power known as maya; for example, Asuras (i.e., Varunas) : maya. In the Vedic context maya meant both wisdom and power. With his maya Varuna envelops the night and creates : the dawn. Maya predominantly links him with demons, for in later literature asura meant demon, and demons wielded maya. Varunas dark associations bring him close to the pri: marily chthonic gods such as Yama, Nirrti, Soma, and : Rudra. As a chthonic god, Varuna is associated with snakes : (indeed, in Buddhist literature he is sometimes called the king of snakes), with barren black cows, or with deformed and ugly creatures. His ritual symbols are dark, depraved, and deformed things or creatures. His son Bhrgu is said to : have descended into hell. His connection with Vasistha, however, goes back to Indo-Iranian times: In the Avesta, Asha Vahishta (Vedic, Rta Vaist: ha) is one of the Amesha : s: Spentas who were Ahura Mazdas active assistants. Varuna : is Somas brother. Of his wife, Varunani, nothing more than : her name is known. The dynamic character of Varunas mythological career : subsided in the later Vedic literature, where he is associated with the celestial waters. In the epics and Puranas, however, his domain shifted from the firmament toward the earth, and he became the overlord of the terrestrial waters, rivers, streams, and lakes, but primarily of the ocean. He dwelt in royal splendor in an underwater palace. Like Poseidon, Greek god of the ocean, he is often associated with horses. Finally, he is relegated to the position of lord of the West, another dark and chthonic association. Here the circle of his
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION

mythological career closes, because as a dikpala (lord of a quarter [of the sky]) he is no more than a wholly passive god.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Apte, V. M. Varuna in the Rgveda. New Indian Antiquary : : (Bombay) 8 (1946):136156. Deals with Varunas Vedic : background. Bhattacharji, Sukumari. Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas. Cambridge and New York, 1970. See especially pages 2247. Dandekar, R. N. Varuna, Vaist: ha and Bhakti. In Ajali: Papers : s : on Indology and Buddhism, a Felicitation Volume Presented to Oliver Hector de Alwis Wijesekera on His Sixtieth Birthday, edited by J. Tilakasiri, pp. 7782. Peradeniya, Ceylon, 1970. Dumzil, Georges. Ouranos-Varuna. Paris, 1934. A comprehensive treatise on Varuna and his Greek counterpart, Ouranos, : and the traits they share. Hiersche, Rolf, Zur Etymologie des Gtternamens Varuna. : Mitteilungen des Instituts fr Orientforschung (Berlin) 4 (1956): 359363. Explores Varunas identity from the vari: ous derivations of his name. Kuiper, F. B. J. The Bliss of Asa. Indo-Iranian Journal 8, no. 2 (1964): 96129. Lders, Heinrich. Varuna. 2 vols: Vol. 1, Varuna und die Wasser. : : Vol. 2, Varuna und das Rta. Gttingen, 19511959. : Renou, Louis. Varuna dans lAtharvaveda. Paideuma 7 (1960): 300306 (Festgabe fr Herman Lommel). Thieme, Paul. Patajali ber Varuna und die sieben Strme. In : Mlanges prsents Georg Morgenstierne loccasion de son soixante-dixime anniversaire, pp. 168173. Wiesbaden, 1964. Thieme, Paul. Varuna in the Mahabharata. In Proceedings of the : Twenty-Sixth Congress of Orientalists, edited by R. N. Dandekar, vol. 3, p. 329. Poona, 1969. SUKUMARI BHATTACHARJI (1987)

VASUBANDHU (fifth or fourth century CE) was an eminent Indian Buddhist teacher. Said to be a younger brother of the great Mahayana teacher Asanga, Vasubandhu was first ordained in the Hnayana Sarvastivada school but later con verted to the Mahayana. Like his brother Asanga, Vasuband hu became a great exponent of the Yogacara-Vijanavada teachings. He is believed to be the author of the Abhidharmakoa and many Mahayana treatises. s
Various problems continue to vex historians concerning the biography of Vasubandhu. The Bosoupandou fashi zhuan (Biography of Master Vasubandhu, T.D. no. 2049), translatedor rather, compiledby Paramartha (499569), one of the main exponents of Yogacara doctrine in China, is pre served in the Chinese Tripit: aka and is the only complete biography. Apart from this, fragmentary information is found in various Chinese sources, the most important of which are the writings of the great Chinese translator Xuanzang (600

9526

VASUBANDHU

664). Various histories of Buddhism written by Tibetan historians also give accounts of Vasubandhus life. But Chinese and Tibetan sources alike disagree with the Biography of Master Vasubandhu (hereafter Biography) in many places. Moreover, two or three persons in Buddhist history bear the name Vasubandhu: According to some texts, a Vasubandhu is the twenty-first patriarch in the transmission of the Buddhas Dharma; elsewhere, Puguang (one of the direct disciples of Xuanzang) refers to an ancient Vasubandhu who belonged to the Sarvastivada school; and both Puguang and Yaomitra, s a commentator on the Abhidharmakoa, refer to a third, s known as Sthavira-Vasubandhu. The identification of and relationship between these three persons is still unclear. BIOGRAPHY. Vasubandhus Biography can be divided into three sections. The first section is introductory. It begins with a legend of Purusapura (modern Peshawar), the native : city of Vasubandhu, and then introduces his family: his father, the brahman Kauika, and the latters three sons, s Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Viricivatsa. After a brief refer ence to Viricivatsas life, an account is given of Asangas life, including the famous story of his meeting with the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tusita Heaven. Vasubandhus life comprises the second section. It begins by sketching the history of the Sarvastivada school in Kashmir and tells of the composition of the Abhidharma treatises and the great commentary on them, the Mahavibhas: a, there. Knowledge of the Mahavibhas: as con tents was jealously kept secret from outsiders, the account alleges, but somehow it became known in Ayodhya (near mod ern Faizabad), a city far removed from Kashmir. At the time, Vasubandhu was residing in Ayodhya, then the capital of the Gupta dynasty. Vindhyavasin, a Samkhya teacher and a dis : ciple of Varsaganya, came to Ayodhya to challenge the Bud : dhists there to a debate while Vasubandhu and his colleague Manoratha were absent. Their fellow teacher Buddha-mitra thus had to meet the challenge alone, but because of his age he was defeated. This defeat deeply mortified Vasubandhu, who wrote a treatise, Paramarthasaptatika, in order to con fute Vindhyavasin. It was after this that Vasubandhu com posed his magnum opus, the Abhidharmakoa (hereafter s Koa), in six hundred verses (karikas). The Koa was an elos s quent summary of the purport of the Mahavibhas: a, and it is reported that the Kashmiri Sarvastivadins rejoiced to see in it all their doctrines so well propounded. Accordingly, they requested a prose commentary (bhas: ya), which Vasu bandhu wrote. But the Kashmiris soon realized, to their great disappointment, that the work in fact refuted many Sarvastivada theories and upheld the doctrines of the Sautrantika school. With the composition of the Koa, how s ever, Vasubandhu came to enjoy the patronage and favor of two Gupta rulers, Vikramaditya and his heir Baladitya, who can be identified, respectively, as Skandagupta (r. about 455467) and Narasimhagupta (r. about 467473). : Vasurata, a grammarian and the husband of the younger sis ter of Baladitya, challenged him to a debate but was defeated. Then Samghabhadra, a Sarvastivada scholar from Kashmir, :

appeared to dispute the Koa. He composed two treatises, s one consisting of 10,000 verses and another of 120,000 verses. (According to Xuanzangs report, it took twelve years for Samghabhadra to finish the two works.) He challenged : Vasubandhu to a debate, but Vasubandhu refused, saying, I am already old, so I will let you say what you wish. Long ago, this work of mine destroyed the Vaibhasika (i.e., the : Sarvastivada) doctrines. There is no need now of confronting you. . . . Wise men will know which of us is right and which is wrong. The third section of the biography describes Vasubandhus conversion to Mahayana Buddhism. According to this account, Vasubandhu, now proud of the fame he had acquired, clung faithfully to the Hnayana doctrine in which he was well versed and, having no faith in the Mahayana, de nied that it was the teaching of the Buddha. His elder brother, Asanga, a Mahayanist, feared that Vasubandhu would use his great intellectual gifts to undermine the Mahayana. By feigning illness he was able to summon his younger brother to Purusapura, where he lived. There Vasubandhu asked : Asanga to explain the Mahayana teaching to him, where upon he immediately realized the supremacy of Mahayana thought. After further study the depth of his realization came to equal that of his brother. Deeply ashamed of his former abuse of the Mahayana, Vasubandhu wished to cut out his tongue, but refrained from doing so when Asanga told him to use it for the cause of Mahayana. After Asangas death, Va subandhu composed commentaries on various Mahayana sutras, including the Avatamsaka, Nirvana, Saddharma : : pundarka, Prajaparamita, Vimalakrti, and Srmaladev. : : He himself composed a treatise (or treatises) on the repre sentation only (vijaptimatra) theory and commented on the Mahayanasamgraha, *Triratna-gotra, *Amrta-mukha, : : and other Mahayana treatises. He died in Ayodhya at the age of eighty. The Biography contains legendary or even mythical elements; the time sequence of events is ambiguous and differs greatly in places from the accounts in Xuanzangs Xiyu ji. For example, the Biography has Vasubandhu composing the Koa s at Ayodhya and states that his conversion takes place at Purusapura; the Xiyu ji places the composition of the Koa : s in the suburbs of Purusapura, and the conversion at : Ayodhya. According to the Biography, Vasubandhus teacher was called Buddhamitra, who, it relates, was defeated in a debate by Vindhyavasin. The Xiyu ji, however, never mentions Buddhamitra and names Manoratha as the teacher of Vasubandhu. In the Biography, Vasubandhu engages in his literary activity on behalf of the Mahayana after Asangas death. Xuanzang, however, tells a strange story that suggests that Vasubandhu died before Asanga. Paramartha and Xuanzang are the two most credible authorities for Vasubandhus life, but serious discrepancies still exist between their accounts.

THE DATE OF VASUBANDHU. Vasubandhus life has been variously dated at 900, 1,000, and 1,100 years after the Buddhas nirvana. The figure 900 appears in the Biography, but :
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION

VASUBANDHU

9527

elsewhere Paramartha is also said to have given another figure, 1,100. The figure 1,000 is found in Xuanzangs report, but the figure 900 seems also to have been adopted by his disciples. Various theories concerning the date have been offered by scholars. Nol Pri and Shiio Benkyo give as Vasu bandhus dates the years 270 to 350 CE. Ui Hakuju places him in the fourth century (320400). Takakusu Junjiro and Kimura Taiken give 420 to 500, Wogihara Unrai gives 390 to 470, and Hikata Ryusho gives 400 to 480, placing him in the fifth century. In order to resolve these issues, Erich Frauwallner (1951) proposed a new theory whereby two Vasubandhus, Vasubandhu the elder and Vasubandhu the younger, are distinguished. The elder would be the younger brother of Asanga. It is his activity that, according to this theory, is de scribed in the first and third sections of the Biography and may be dated at around 320 to 380. The younger would be the author of the Koa. His activity constitutes the second s section of the Biography. Since he was associated with the two Gupta rulers, he may be dated around 400 to 480. Frauwallner supposes that Paramartha confused the two Vasuband hus and conflated them into a single person. This mistake, he maintains, was inherited by later historians, including Xuanzang. Frauwallners lucid and revolutionary theory has been endorsed by many scholars. But it does not seem to convince all. Especially doubtful is his treatment of early Chinese documents, many of which have been claimed by scholars to be spurious. Japanese scholars, who opposed the theory of dating in the fourth century by negating the evidence employed in its support, would reject Vasubandhu the elder for almost the same reasons. At any rate, Frauwallners theory and the issues it raises remain a hypothesis. LITERARY ACTIVITY. Vasubandhu is renowned as the author of one thousand works, five hundred in the Hnayana tradi tion and five hundred Mahayana treatises. However, only some forty-seven are extant, nine of which survive in the Sanskrit original, twenty-seven in Chinese translation, and thirty-three in Tibetan translation. Among the independent expositions of Vasubandhus own philosophy and doctrines, the Abhidharmakoa is the s most voluminous. In the countries of northern Buddhism, including Tibet, it came to be regarded as a fundamental text to be studied by all students of the tradition. The Karmasiddhi (Demonstration of Karma) is a short, quasi-Hnayana treatise colored, as is the Abhidharmakoa, by Sautrantika s leanings. From the Yogacara point of view the most impor tant of Vasubandhus works are the Vimatika (Twenty :s verses), Trimika (Thirty verses), and Trisvabhavanirdea :s s (Exposition on the three natures). Although these three texts are all very brief (and the last was totally unknown in China), they form a sort of trinity and represent Vasubandhus final accomplishment as a Yogacara-Vijanavada teacher. The Trimika is especially important in that it became the basic :s text of the Faxiang (Jpn., Hosso) school. The Foxing lun
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION

(Treatise on Buddha nature), although thought to be apocryphal by not a few scholars, exerted great influence on SinoJapanese Buddhism by advocating the concept of tathagata-garbha, or Buddha nature. Vasubandhus works also include books on logic, polemics, and other sciences. Vasubandhus commentaries on sutras and astras are s by no means less important than the above-mentioned independent treatises. He wrote commentaries on three treatises: the Madhyantavibhaga (Discrimination between the middle and the extremes), Mahayanasutralamkara (Ornament of the : Mahayana Sutras), and Dharmadharmatavibhaga (also, -vibhanga; Discrimination between existence and essence). These three treatises are all ascribed to Asangas teacher Maitreya and are therefore fundamental texts for the Yogacara school. Vasabandhu also composed a commentary : on Asangas Mahayanasamgraha (Compendium of Mahayana), the first systematic presentation of the Yogacara-Vijanavada doctrines. His commentary (upadea) s on the Sukhavatvyuha Sutra is important in that it became a basic treatise of the Pure Land faith in China and Japan. The Indian Yogacara-Vijanavada is represented in China by three schools, all of which developed around Vasubandhus works. The first to appear, the Dilun school (established in the first half of the sixth century), took his commentary on the Daabhumika Sutra as its central text. The second, the s Shelun school, emerged in the second half of the same century organized around a Paramarthas translation of the Mahayana-samgraha. The last to appear, the Faxiang school, : founded by Xuanzang and his disciple Kuiji in the seventh century, took the Trimika as its basic text. :s With these works, Vasubandhu proved to be a highly influential Mahayana teacher. He is reverently called a bodhi sattva, or even the second Buddha, in various traditions from India to China. Vasubandhu brought to fruition doctrinal developments in the Mahayana, especially in the Yogacara-Vijanavada tradition, that had been begun by Maitreya and Asanga and advanced by other unknown teach ers. He thus marks a culmination in Buddhist history. Before him, his school concerned itself chiefly with Buddhist practice (hence the name Yogacara); after him, it emphasized the oretical problems such as the analysis of consciousness (hence the name Vijanavada), so that various ontological, episte mological, and logical investigations became more and more conspicuous. Compared with Asanga, who was gifted as a re ligious leader, Vasubandhu seems more scholarly, abhidharmic, and theoretical.
SEE ALSO Asanga; Buddhism, article on Buddhism in India; Buddhism, Schools of, articles on Chinese Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism; Maitreya; Yogacara.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
A bibliography appended to Erich Frauwallners On the Date of the Buddhist Master of the Law, Vasubandhu (Rome, 1951) is highly helpful in that it exhausts almost all discussions, hence almost all evidences, relevant to Vasubandhus date.

9528

VATICAN COUNCILS: VATICAN I

After Frauwallner, there is no independent biographical study on Vasubandhu, except a paper by Hikata Ryusho, A Reconsideration on the Date of Vasubandhu, Bulletin of the Faculty of the Kyushu University 4 (1956): 5374, which does not refer to Frauwallner and a criticism of Frauwallners theory by Padmanabh S. Jaini, On the Theory of Two Vasubandhus, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 21 (1958): 4853. Vasubandhus thought is the subject of numerous studies. Among the most useful are Louis de La Valle Poussins Vijaptimatratasiddhi, la siddhi de Hiuan-tsang, 2 vols. (Paris, 19281929); Sylvain Lvis Un systme de philosophie bouddhique: Materiaux pour ltude du systme Vijaptimatra (Paris, 1932); and Yuki Reimons Seshin Yuishiki no kenkyu (Tokyo, 19551956). There have been several publications of English translations of the French translations of Vasubandhus work. Among these are Abhidharmakoabhasyam, by Louis De La Valle Poussin, s English translation by Leo Pruden (Berkeley, Calif., 1988 1990), and Karmasiddhiprakarana: The Treatise on Action., by E. Lamotte, English translation by Leo Pruden (Berkeley, Calif., 1988). Stefan Anackers Seven Works of Vasubandhu (Delhi, 1984) includes translations of Vasubandhus Vadavidh, Pacaskandha-prakarana, Karmasiddhi-praka : rana, Vimatika, Trimika, Madhyantavibhagabhas: ya, and : :s :s Trisvabhavanirdea; another important translation is Her s mann Jacobis Trimikavijapti des Vasubandhu, mit bhas: ya :s des acarya Sthiramati (Stuttgart, 1932). Louis de La Valle Poussin translated the most influential work of Abhidharma as LAbhidharmakoa de Vasubandhu, 6 vols. (19231931; s reprint, Brussels, 1971). My Chukan to yuishiki (Tokyo, 1978) contains articles discussing some philosophical ideas of the Vijanavada; see also Seshin ronshu (Tokyo, 1976) by Kajiyama Yuichi, Aramaki Noritoshi, and me. NAGAO GADJIN (1987
AND

PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS. Despite the reservations of some in the Curia Romana, which caused him to delay for two years, Pius IX was encouraged by prominent members of the episcopate to announce his intention of convoking a council; on July 29, 1868, he officially summoned all the bishops of Christendom to come to Rome by December 8, 1869, along with others who had the right to attend (especially the superiors general of the major religious orders). During the preliminary consultations a number of bishops had suggested taking advantage of the council to try to renew contacts with separated Christians. Two apostolic letters, dated September 8 and 13, 1868, invited the Eastern prelates not in communion with Rome, the Protestants, and the Anglicans in order that they might be able to take part in the council. But this clumsy approach was considered very insulting by those addressed and may be regarded, from an ecumenical viewpoint, as one of the most distressing examples of a lost opportunity.
In the Catholic world the announcement of the council almost immediately intensified the opposition between currents of thought that had been in confrontation for several years: Neo-Gallicans and liberal Catholics, on the one hand, and ultramontanes and opponents of modern freedoms, on the other. The choice of the consultors who were to prepare the drafts of the conciliar decreesthe group included sixty Romans and thirty-six from abroad, almost all of them known for their ultramontane and antiliberal views disturbed those who had been hoping that the council would provide an opportunity for bishops from the outer reaches of the church to open up the church somewhat to modern aspirations and who thought they could discern a strategy at work: namely, to prepare for the council in secret, with no challenges raised by debate and with the curial viewpoint alone represented, and then to have the fathers accept without discussion a series of ready-made propositions. The unfortunate Correspondence from France that was published on February 6, 1869, in La civilt cattolica, the organ of the Jesuits in Rome, seemed to confirm this expectation by predicting a definition of papal infallibility by proclamation and thus without any possibility of restatement or discussion by the fathers. The reaction was especially intense in the Germanic countries. In particular, Ignaz von Dllinger, the well-known professor at the University of Munich, whose hostility toward the Curia had been on the increase for a number of years, published under the pen name Janus a violent and one-sided polemic against the overemphasis on papal primacy and Roman centralization. Polemical articles, though more moderate in tone, were also published in the newspapers of France, where liberal Catholics regarded as inopportune the definition of papal infallibility for which the ultramontanes were calling. The question of papal infallibility, which had not come up in the initial program for the council, suddenly became a major issue during the months preceding the opening of the council. A number of prominent bishops, such as Victor Deschamps, archbishENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION

2005)

VATICAN COUNCILS

This entry consists of the following articles:

VATICAN I VATICAN II [FIRST EDITION] VATICAN II [FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS]

VATICAN COUNCILS: VATICAN I When Pius IX decided to convoke an ecumenical council, his purpose, clarified by advice solicited from various bishops whom he regarded as trustworthy, was to complete the work of reacting against naturalism and rationalism. He had been pursuing this goal since the beginning of his pontificate by endeavoring to establish Catholic life and thought once again on the solid foundation of divine revelation. As a result of suggestions from the bishops he had consulted, he added to this purpose, first, defining the true nature of the relation between church and state while taking into account the new situation produced by the French Revolution and its consequences and, second, adapting church law in ways made necessary by the profound changes that had taken place during the three centuries since the last ecumenical council.