Inception of Yogacara-vijnanavada

Often designated as Yogacara, Vijnanavada, or Yogacara-Vijnanavada, the second comprehensive branch of philosophical development within Indian Mahayana Buddhism generated a large textual corpus of considerable conceptual heterogeneity. Confronting this evidence entails complex problems of understanding for contemporary buddhologists, not least when addressing important questions of synchronicity and diachronicity. While elaborating the fundamental need to historically distinguish between an Early Yogacara phase and a subsequently evolving Yogacara-Vijnanavada phase (the latter sublating, yet assimilatively preserving, the former), the present monograph is mainly concentrated on critically investigating the most essential features of the Inception of Yogacara-Vijnanavada.