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tioned by Subandhu the author of Vāsavadattā". Subandhu was earlier than Bāṇabhatta who lived in the court of king Harshavardhana of Kanauj (beginning of the 7th century). Bāṇabhatta has praised the work Vāsavadattā in his work Harşacharita?. Thus only this much can be mentioned with certainty that Dignāga, Dharmakirti and Vasubandhu could not have flourished later than the sixth century. Dr. Jacobi says "He (Udyotakara ) may therefore have flourished in the early part of the sixth century or still earlier "3.
But Vasubandhu and Dignāga might have lived long before the 6th century A. D. Yuan Chwang who came to Nālandā Vihāra in 637 A. D. has written that within a thousand years from the death or the Nirvāņa of Buddha, Monaratha and his disciple Vasubandhu livedo. Samuel Beal in his note to the above passage has written that at that time the Chinese Buddhists, accepted the date of Nirvāņa of Buddha as 850 B. C. On this calculation
1. rifeerfaria squinea-F97914,1" Vāsavadattā. 2. Watarameet Tri aragalu" Harşa-charitam.
3. The Dates of the Philosophical Sūtras of the Brahmaņas by Hermann Jacobi [Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 31, 1911 ].
4. "This Master ( Manoratha ) made his auspicious advent within the 1000 years after the Buddha's decease...Manoratha... sent an account of the circumstances to his disciple Vasubandhu and died.” (Ta-T'ang-Hsi-yü-chi by Yuan Chwang ).
Thomas Watters writes : “According to Yuan-Chwang Manoratha flourished within 1000 years after the decease of Buddha. This, taking the Chinese reckoning would place the date of the Šāstra-master before A.D. 150”.
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