What does a commentator do? Commentarial strategies and challenges in Sthiramati’s Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya

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.