collections covering a range of activities, such as build-
ing monasteries (e.g., the Kriyasamgraha).
Treatises.Often attracting attention before the more
extensive narrative and ritual materials, there are im-
portant treatises, s ́astras, compiled by known histori-
cal individuals in order to expound specific doctrinal
positions, sometimes doctrines voiced in sutra sources.
Among these we should note the encyclopedic ABHI-
DHARMAKOS ́ABHASYA(Treasury of Higher Teaching) of
VASUBANDHU, which sets out a survey of Sarvastivada
doctrine, which it then critiques from a SAUTRANTIKA
viewpoint in an autocommentary. Some treatises offer
exegeses of the work of earlier scholiasts; thus CAN-
DRAKIRTI’s Prasannapada is effectively a commentary
on NAGARJUNA’s Mulamadhyamakakarika (Founda-
tional Verses on the Middle Way), both being core tex-
tual authorities in the exegesis of Madhyamaka
doctrine. By contrast, Vasubandhu’s Vims ́atika and
Trims ́ika (Twenty Versesand Thirty Verses) expound
doctrine de novo. S ́ANTIDEVA’s BODHICARYAVATARA
(Introduction to the Conduct of a Bodhisattva) system-
atically outlines in evocative poetry the nature of a
bodhisattva’s practice and exemplifies the crossover
into material that we might otherwise classify as purely
poetic (Crosby and Skilton).
Poetry and drama.Sometimes undeservedly attract-
ing less attention are splendid works of self-consciously
high literary merit. These include AS ́VAGHOSA’s second-
century C.E.BUDDHACARITA, a verse biography of the
Buddha, and Saundarananda,the earliest examples of
Sanskrit kavya(high poetry) that have survived. Re-
grettably we have lost As ́vaghosa’s dramas, which in-
cluded an account of the conversions of S ́ARIPUTRAand
MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA, and they are known now only
through manuscript fragments from Central Asia.
Similar to these are the prose and verse kavyaJATAKA-
MALAof ARYAS ́URA(fourth century C.E.), a retelling
of thirty-four jatakastories in elegant court style. His
Paramitasamasa(Compendium of the Perfections) is an
important parallel to S ́antideva’s Bodhicaryavatara
(Meadows). Another important work is the Nagananda
of Harsa, a seventh-century king, a complete drama
that retells the story of the bodhisattva as Jmu-
tavahana. This last is notable in that its author was not
a Buddhist, a distinction shared with the Avada-
nakalpalata,a cycle of 108 Buddhist stories retold in
verse by the eleventh-century Kashmiri poet Ksemen-
dra. All these examples are characterized by the re-
working of existing narratives from canonical sources,
but this crossover can also be seen in the elegant kavya
meters sometimes employed in the composition of
some canonical literature. Numerous original compo-
sitions in verse survive mainly in translation. Often
concerned with praise, they are called stotra(hymns),
chief among which must be the works of Matrceta
(second century C.E.), two of which were memorized
by all monks in India, according to the Chinese pil-
grim YIJING(635–713).Nepalese Buddhist literature in Sanskrit.While
the composition of Buddhist literature died out in In-
dia after the Muslim conquests of the twelfth century
C.E., it continued in Nepal, where cultural continuity
was retained and in fact heavily augmented by refugees
from the Buddhist homelands in northeastern India.
Of later composition in Nepal are various parajika
texts, describing ritual means whereby one might avoid
the negative consequences of various kinds of killing,
and demonstrating a Hindu-Buddhist syncretism. Of
greater literary merit are seven large verse composi-
tions that retell materials familiar from Indic sources,
such as the Avadanas ́atakaand Mahavastu,but which
also borrow heavily from s ́astra-type material, such as
the Bodhicaryavatara.These include the Svayambhu-
purana, Bhadrakalpavadana, Vicitrakarnikavadana,
and the Gunakarandavyuha.These all reuse the frame
story of Upagupta and As ́oka, familiar from the Indian
avadanamalas,but supplement it with a further fram-
ing device involving two monks, Jinas ́rand Jayas ́r.
These texts also incorporate values of Nepalese Bud-
dhism, while the Svayambhupuranagoes so far as to
localize the Buddhist sacred landscape and mythology
in Nepal.See also:Agama/Nikaya; Languages; Pali, Buddhist
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