Yogācāra Buddhism and Sanskritization

I aim to explore Yogācāra texts reflecting the Buddhist history of Sanskritization. In the northern Abhidharma and Yogācāra literature, the term vyañjana means alphabet syllable or letter for constituting expressions of Buddhist teachings. Commentators on the Abhidharmasamuccaya (AS) state that vyañjana consists of 42 arapacana syllables regarded as originally formulated in the region of Gandhāra. Following the definition of vyañjana in AS, however, the Yogācārabhūmi explains 48 alphabet syllables used for formulating Sanskrit expressions. This change reveals the Sanskritization and the Brahmanization that Yogācāra confronted and accepted. Yogācāras modified their attitude toward Sanskrit and adjusted the Buddhist terminology in accordance with the vocabulary in the Sanskrit grammar. Moreover, Yogācāra did not limit their curriculum to the Buddhist doctrine and discipline but included Sanskrit grammar, mathematics, and astronomy of the Brahman tradition. My presentation will show that the examination of Yogācāra literature helps us widen our knowledge of Sanskritization in the Buddhist tradition. Furthermore, I will also argue that Indian Yogācāra commentators in 6th C.E. were aware of this Sanskritizaiton earlier Yogācāra confronted and documented this awareness.