The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a more comprehensive and detailed overview of the Svatantrika system than has hitherto been available in the West, dwelling at length on a number of central issues. Chapter One deals with the Madhyamika school in general, delineating those tenets which the Svatantrikas and(' )Prasangikas share. The second and third chapters consider the issues on which the two schools part company, such as the use of autonomous syllogisms (svatantraprayoga) and consequences (prasanga)(' )as a means of causing an opponent to understand emptiness (sunyata), as well as the question of whether the selflessness of phenomena (dharmanairatmya) is taught in the H(')inayana sutras. Chapter Four analyzes the Svatantrika views on the nature of ignorance which is the root cause of suffering and Chapter Five provides a detailed study of one of the reasonings which the Svatantrikas found most effective in destroying that ignorance--the reasoning of the lack of being one or many. Chapter Six deals with the two truths (satyadvaya), their divisions, and relationship in Svatantrika and(' )Prasangika. Chapter Seven provides a summary of the assertations of the Sautrantika-Svatantrikas and the Yogacara-Svatantrikas.The chief sources for the dissertation are the Svatantrika chapters of the two most important tenets (grub mtha') texts of the Ge-luk-ba (dGe-lugs-pa) order of Tibetan Buddhism, Jam-yang-shay-ba's ('Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa, 1648-1721) Great Exposition of Tenets (Grub mtha' chen mo) and Jang-gya's (lCang-skya-rol-pa'i-rdo-rje, 1717-1786) Presentation of Tenets (Grub pa'i mtha'i rnam par bzhag pa). In addition, the discussion of Svatantrika in the writings of Tsong-kha-pa (1357-1419) were consulted extensively. The major works of Bhavaviveka, Jnanagarbha, (')Santaraksita, Kamalas(')ila, and Candrak(')irti are also primary sources.In addition to the chapters mentioned above, the dissertation includes a translation of the entire Svatantrika chapter of Jang-gya's Presentation of Tenets together with an edited version of the Tibetan text. A glossary of Sanskrit and Tibetan technical terms is also provided.
