1882.] 
Sarat Chandra Das —Contributions on Tibet. 
55 
He acquired great proficiency in argumentative philosophy and vya- 
karana. Once, in the course of twenty days, he finished reading 100 volumes 
of Sutras and Tantras, and in thirty days he unravelled the intricacies of 
those books. His acquirements in the Alankara Vidya (rhetoric) and 
in Upadesa were considerable, for he was found capable of explaining three 
volumes of such works daily. He was possessed of rare gifts of elocution. 
In fact, being an inspired orator, in the midst of a crowded assembly con¬ 
sisting of several thousand men, he could make himself heard to the 
satisfaction of all. His delivery is said to have been uniform and engaging, 
being without variation in the pitch of his voice. Being free from any 
kind of disease either of mind or body, he preached with untiring zeal in the 
daytime and during the night time. He used to sit in yoga in communion 
with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. “ Such rare talents and assiduity” 
remarks a Tibetan author 2 “ have never been noticed in any of the 
Tibetan Lamas of ancient or modern times.” The works composed by 
Tsonkhapa are replete with sense and profound reasoning. Excellence 
of style, perspicuity and conciseness are their never-failing attributes. Few 
authors can boast of such excellencies as embellish his extraordinary writings. 
They are scrupulously free from errors and blunders of any kind. Arrange¬ 
ment and judicious order are no unimportant characteristics of his writings. 
His works are faultless in the qualities called anga, pratyanga and vnula , 
in consequence of which they a,re easy and intelligible to the general 
reader. In Grammar and Dialectics his reputation stands unrivalled 
in High Asia. He held long discussions with the learned philosophers 
of Tibet and Amdo. The well known Dharma Rinchhen and Ge-leo'- 
pal-ssang were forced to acknowledge his superiority. He discussed the 
merits of the prasanga mddliyamika school with the celebrated Tag-tshang- 
Lochhava and Sherab Ein-chhen whom he vanquished by his powerful 
logic and obliged to compose 80 slokas or verses in his praise. From 
that date his fame spread all over the country. The pride of rival 
savants was humbled when they came in contact with him, and they 
prostrated themselves before him in reverence and awe. These were 
the causes which led to the wide diffusion of his reforms. Prior to his 
advent, Buddhism, though widely spread in Tibet, had greatly degenerated 
through having assimilated much of the Bon heresy, and especially 
on account of the clergy having shewn some disregard for moral discipline 
and the teaching of Buddha. Every one behaved as he pleased under 
the shelter of its corrupt doctrines, and practised diabolical acts in the 
name of the Tantras. There were few among the Tibetan clergy who 
abstained from women and wine. It was Tsonkhapa who preached strict 
2 sGyal clY an mKhanpo, the late abbot of the Sera monastery who wrote a 
voluminous life of Tsoh-khapa. 
