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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
with the help of internal evidence. Tracing, e.g., the term 'bhrānta' which Siddhasena uses to the Buddhist logician Dharmakīrti, they inferred that Siddhasena must have lived after Dharmakirti and thus placed him in the second half of the 7th century A.D. This theory was, however, proved to be untenable by Pts. Sanghavi and Doshi.” Another argument adduced in favour of a later date by Pt. Mukhtar" and based on a stanza which Siddhasena's Sanmati-tarka appears to share with Samantabhadra's Śrāvakācāra was likewise refuted by them.
On the basis of this material (excluding the above Items No. 2, details of 6, 7, and 10 ), the editors of the Sanmati-tarka came to the conclusion that Siddhasena “most probably flourished in the fifth century of the Vikrama era", i.e. in the 'Gupta Period'92. In his Foreword to the English translation, it is true, Dalsukh Malvania had expressed the opinion that some Buddhist books published recently promised to "lead us to fix the date in question in the sixth or the seventh century A.D."93 In obvious supersession, however, Pt. Sanghavi has again confirmed his previous view, saying" that in the light of fresh researches re the time of the composition of Jinabhadragani's Viseșāvaśyaka-Bhāsya, in which Siddhasena's doctrines are discussed ( vide above, Item No. 6), he now believes Siddhasena to have flourished in parts of the 5th and 6th centuries of the Vikrama era, which comes to the 5th century A.D.
Against this fixing of Siddhasena's time, however, the objection can be raised that, properly speaking, it confines itself to the terminus ante quem which it is true, stands beyond doubt, while, on the other hand, the fixing of crminus a quo cannot be said to have been achieved. Nor does it seem likely that it could be achieved with the method hitherto resorted to, viz., by drawing conclusions from the dates of heterodox works which happen to contain technical terms or doctrines criticized by Siddhasena. For in view of the vast literature, which, though testified to have existed, is no longer available, it must be admitted that our knowledge of early
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