The Mahâyâna doctrine has developed on two lines, viz. that of S'ûnyavâda or the Mâdhyamika doctrine and Vijñânavâda. The difference between S'ûnyavâda and Vijñânavâda (the theory that there is only the appearance of phenomena of consciousness) is not fundamental, but is rather one of method. Both of them agree in holding that there is no truth in anything, everything is only passing appearance akin to dream or magic. But while the S'ûnyavâdins were more busy in showing this indefinableness of all phenomena, the Vijñânavâdins, tacitly accepting
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[Footnote 1: _A@s@tesâhasiihâprajñâpâramita_, p. 16.]
the truth preached by the S'ûnyavâdins, interested themselves in explaining the phenomena of consciousness by their theory of beginningless illusory root-ideas or instincts of the mind (_vâsanâ_).
As'vagho@sa (100 A.D.) seems to have been the greatest teacher of a new type of idealism (_vijñânavâda_) known as the Tathatâ philosophy. Trusting in Suzuki's identification of a quotation in As'vagho@sa's _S'raddhotpâdas'âstra_ as being made from _La@nkâvatârasûtra_, we should think of the _La@nkâvatârasûtra_ as being one of the early works of the Vijñânavâdins [Footnote ref 1]. The greatest later writer of the Vijñânavâda school was Asa@nga (400 A.D.), to whom are attributed the _Saptadas'abhûmi sûtra, Mahâyâna sûtra, Upades'a, Mahâyânasamparigraha s'âstra, Yogâcârabhûmi s'âstra_ and _Mahâyânasûtrâla@mkâra_. None of these works excepting the last one is available to readers who have no access to the Chinese and Tibetan manuscripts, as the Sanskrit originals are in all probability lost. The Vijñânavâda school is known to Hindu writers by another name also, viz. Yogâcâra, and it does not seem an improbable supposition that Asa@nga's _Yogâcârabhûmi s'âstra_ was responsible for the new name. Vasubandhu, a younger brother of Asa@nga, was, as Paramârtha (499-569) tells us, at first a liberal Sarvâstivâdin, but was converted to Vijñânavâda, late in his life, by Asa@nga. Thus Vasubandhu, who wrote in his early life the great standard work of the Sarvâstivâdins, _Abhidharmakos'a_, devoted himself in his later life to Vijñânavâda [Footnote ref 2]. He is said to have commented upon a number of Mahâyâna sûtras, such as _Avata@msaka, Nirvâ@na, Saddharmapu@n@darîka, Prajñâpâramitâ, Vimalakîrtti_ and _S'rîmâlâsi@mhanâda_, and compiled some Mahâyâna sûtras, such as _Vijñânamâtrasiddhi, Ratnatraya_, etc. The school of Vijñânavâda continued for at least a century or two after Vasubandhu, but we are not in possession of any work of great fame of this school after him.