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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR
Dharmatrāta is well-known as one of the four renowned ācāryas of the Vaibhāșika school, the other three being Ghosaka of Tukhāra, Vasumitra of Maru, and Buddhadeva of Vārāṇasi.' One Dharmatrāta, according to the Chinese tradition, is the uncle of Vasumitra, to whom is attributed the authorship of the Pañcavastu-vibhāsāśāstra, Samyuktābhidharma-hrdaya-śāstra, etc.? In the Sui Vihāra copper-plate inscriptionone Dharmatrāta is mentioned as the disciple of Bhava (Bhavya) and teacher of Nagadata (Nāgadatta). In the present state of our knowledge, it is not possible to state whether the Dharmatrātas are one and the same person or different. Vasumitra is another famous figure of Kashmir, but there are five authors bearing this name.* In the Tattvasamgraha, Kamalaśila discusses the opinions of Dharmatrāta and Vasumitra but we do not know which Dharmatrāta and Vasumitra were in his mind. The Sautrāntika teacher Grilābha was an inhabitant of Kashmir. He was a disciple of Kunāla. Samghabhadra was another Kashmirian ācārya, who was a profound scholar of the Vibhāṣā śāstras of the Sarvāstivāda school.” He wrote a commentary on Vasumitra's Prakaranapāda and was the author of the Abhidharmāvatāra-śāstra.' One of his distinguished students is Vasubandhu,s who studied with him the Vibhāsās, the śāstras of the 18 schools, the Sūtras and Vinayas, the six systems of philosophy and the art of dialectics. He compressed the Abhidharma texts and their Vibhāṣās in his Abhidharmakosa and Bhāsya, and sent them to the Kashmir Vaibhāşikas who were greatly pleased with them.' Vasubandhu later on turned from the Sarvāstivāda point of view to the Sautrāntika as is evidenc
3 CII., II, 1, p. 141.
1 Watters, I, p. 241-5; Schicfner, p. 297. 2 See Nanjio, p. 375. 4 ror details, sec Asia Major, II, P: 7-8. 5 Schicfner, pp. 67, 79. 7 Watters, I, p. 280. 9 Watters I, p. 210-1; Bu-ston II, p. 143.
6 Watters, I, p. 325. 8 Bu-ston, II, p. 142.
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