Alamban Pariksha

Author(s): Dinnaga, Dharmapala, N Aiyaswami Shastri
Publisher: Adyar Library

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on the Buddhist logic. His date may roughly be fixed about 400 A.D., as he is stated to have studied with Vasubandhu in Sri Nālandā, whose life-period has been fixed as c. A. D. 280 to 360 by V. A. Smith (History of India, 3rd ed. p. 328) on the authority of N. Peri (Bulletin de L'Ecole France d'Extreme Orient, t. XI, pp. 339-90).
Turning to Dharmapāla, his commentator, I should, at the outset, like to stress on one point, namely that he is not to be confounded with a person of his namesake viz., Dharmapāla of the Theravāda school. The latter is said to be a resident of Badaritittha (v. Visuddhimaggatīka, colophon) which is simply stated in the Sasanavamsa to have been situated in the country of Dami?a, not far from the island of Ceylon (P.T.T. edn. p. 33). However, the latest Archaeological finds help us to identify it with some place near Negapatam, a small seaport town in South India. The present commentator, Dharmapāla is nowhere mentioned to have been connected any way with Badaritittha. He, on the other hand, is stated to have fled away from Kāñci towards the north in his youth and remained there until his death. I have discussed at length all the points relating to the persons and dates of these two Dharmapālas in a separate paper entitled “On Dharmapāla ” published in the Journal of Sri Venkatesvara Oriental Institute, Tirupati, (Vol. II, part 2, p. 347 ff.). The following accounts of the life of the present Dharmapāla are narrated by the Chinese traveller :