On the *Madhyamakayogācārabalābalaparīkṣā: A Newly Surfaced Sanskrit Work

Abstract

The present paper deals with a newly surfaced Sanskrit work entitled *Madhyamakayogācā-rabalābalaparīkṣā, whose original manuscript is preserved at the Norbulingka in the TAR, and whose copy is preserved in a box labeled number 37 at the CTRC, Beijing. The manuscript is incomplete. In total, 11 folios (palm-leaf) are currently available. Since the text suddenly ends in the middle of running text in fol. 11, the colophon is currently unavailable, and thus, the author of the text is unknown. The title *Madhyamakayogācārabalābala­parīkṣā is found on the cover-page folio (written by a later hand; this title is listed in Luo Zhao’s catalogue).

As the text quotes the Pramāṇavārttika, we can date the text after Dharmakīrti, but no precise date of the work is known. At the beginning of the text, the work presents a prayoga (probably from the Yogācāra position), and there follow a critic from the Madhyamaka side against the prayoga, and further debates between the two schools discussing the prayoga. The present paper is a preliminary report on the text, dealing with some crucial points of the debates and other basic characteristics of the text.