According to the Sanron traditions (the Sanron is another sect, now extinct as a separate organization, which claimed Nagarjuna for its founder), there were three collections of the Buddhist Scriptures made immediately after S'akyamuni's death. The orthodox party made one, within the cave of Rajagriha; the Mahasanghikas made another, outside the cave or in another cave-monastery not far off. In the meantime, Manjus'ri (or Ananda? supra, Chap. III.) and Maitreya, who never appear in Hinayana books as disciples of S'akyamuni, but who are very active debaters in the Mahayana Sutras, formed a third collection which contained true Mahayana books. The volumes of this collection had been gradually coming down into the plains for some years, from their hiding-places among the Himalayas and by the Anavatapta Lake, and thus, little by little, had been sown in men's hearts, as they were able to bear them, the doctrines of the Mahayana as expounded by the Kegon. To Nagarjuna the honour had been reserved of bringing the whole collection to light

through the kindness of the great Naga sage at the Shrine of Adibuddha.

But the world was not worthy of this high doctrine collected by Manjus'ri and Maitreya. The Avatamsaka Scriptures consist of six different texts. Two of these have never been written. They have been "kept," says Nanjo, "by the power of the dharani or holding of the great Bodhisattvas, and not written down upon palm-leaves." The third and fourth were kept in the Dragon Palace under the sea, and not "committed to the men of Jambudvipa." The fifth was taken from the Dragon Palace by Nagarjuna and transmitted to the men of India. A portion of it was taken to China by Anshikao and his companions. The sixth reached China between

[paragraph continues] 317-420 A.D., having been translated by Buddhabadra. It is said that As'vaghosha knew something about it, and that Nagarjuna fully understood it. No other Indian teacher is connected with it, nor does it appear in China in a developed form until the commencement of the Tang period. In the same period, early in the eighth century, the Kegon reached Japan, where it had considerable vogue, but was afterwards swallowed up and amalgamated by the all-embracing Tendai.