While the early works and proponents of the Yogācāra tradition did not necessarily see themselves as representing a radically new tradition, later commentators such as Sthiramati (c. 6th century) had a much clearer vision of Yogācāra as a distinct school. Accordingly, along with other commentators, he faced the difficult task of forming a coherent tradition and bringing together ideas from the diverse and often contradictory earlier materials. This paper focuses on various commentarial strategies Sthiramati adopted to overcome these challenges in his commentary on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā, the Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya.
The paper will begin by examining the tripartite narrative framework that Sthiramati offers for explaining the overarching aims of Vasubandhu’s text. As we shall see, while some of these religious and philosophical narratives follow the apparent intent of the Triṃśikā quite closely, Sthiramati often (over)emphasises certain Mahāyāna and Yogācāra ideas or doctrines in order to make explicit the distinctive features of the tradition and to consolidate the school’s identity. In doing so, the paper offers some reflections on the methods used by Sthiramati to defend, legitimise and even create a paradigm for the interpretation of a key Yogācāra source.
The paper will also highlight some of the major difficulties that Sthiramati faced as a commentator in his attempt to reconcile interpretations from different layers of the Yogācāra tradition. This has sometimes led to an eclectic and seemingly contradictory mix of interpretations, which has been criticised in modern scholarship for overlooking the fundamentally divergent strata of the tradition. Some of these apparent tensions and contradictions, however, can be dissolved, if not resolved, by reflecting on the role of commentators in general, and appreciating Sthiramati’s efforts in dealing with a complex, multi-layered textual heritage in particular.
While the early proponents of Yogācāra did not necessarily see themselves as representing a radically new tradition, later commentators such as Sthiramati had a much clearer vision of it as a distinct school. Accordingly, he faced the difficult task of consolidating the school’s identity and bringing together ideas from the diverse and often contradictory earlier materials. This paper focuses on various commentarial strategies Sthiramati adopted to overcome these challenges in his commentary on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā, the Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya. The paper first examines the tripartite narrative framework Sthiramati gives for explaining the overarching aims of Vasubandhu’s text, and offers some reflections on the methods he uses to defend, legitimise and create a paradigm for the interpretation of a key Yogācāra source. The talk also highlights the major difficulties Sthiramati as a commentator encountered in his attempt to reconcile interpretations from different layers of Yogācāra, and explains how he dealt with them.