Revisiting Some Topics on the Proof of the Mahāyāna’s Authenticity in the Tarkajvālā

Most of the fourth chapter of Bhāviveka's (c.500-570) Tarkajvālā (TJ) discusses the authenticity of the Mahāyāna, which covers more than 50 folios in the Derge edition and offers detailed and wide-ranging arguments on the subject.While studies discussing Eckel ( 2008) to date have clarified much of its contents, the difficulty of the text's material limitations, which remain only in Tibetan, has made some of its arguments unclear.Nevertheless, a close examination of the Tibetan translation under the assumption of the original Sanskrit and with reference to related material such as Vasubandhu's (c.350-430) Vyākhyāyukti will allow for a more accurate reading or even rereading of these passages.In this paper, I revisit mainly the two arguments therein: the discussion on the Mahāyāna doctrine that Śākyamuni Buddha is a manifestation (nirmān 4 a) and the discussion on the dream of King Kr4 kin.By doing so, I intend to reveal several meticulous strategies that the TJ undertook to defend the authenticity of the Mahāyāna.