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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.orgAcharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
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Jnānaprasthāna Šāstra, which is the most important of seven Abhidharma treatises was composed in the 2nd century B.C. (i.e., four centuries after Buddha's demise) and that its language was a local Sanskrit dialect of Kashmir! We cannot but admit that there is a discrepancy of at least one century in the Chinese tradition which can as well be detected by the aid of Vasumitra's own work, the treatise on The Points of Controversy among the Buddhist Schools.' This important treatise, now translated in three European languages from the Tibetana and the Chinese, 8 goes to show that Vasumitra flourished at least four centuries after Buddha's demise. He was acquainted with the views of some of the schismatic schools and sects that sprang up during the 4th century B.E. These are the schools and sects which, according to the Chronicles of Ceylon, arose in rost-Asokan times. The names of these schools, as also those of the Andhaka, the Avantika, the Uttarāpathaka and the Vajiriya, 4 are significant as pointing to a time when not only Buddhism was propagated outside the geographical limits of the Middle Country or Mid-India,' but so many influential local schools of thought were formed throughout India. King Asoka is justly credited with having sent Buddhist missions for the first time in history to various regions outside the Middle Country, and there must have clapsed some time before it was possible for so many local schools to come into being. From this it will appear quite reasonable to think that the closing date of the Abhidharma Pitaka of the Sarvåstivāda or Sautrāntika canon was about a century after Asoka, 3.c., tho reigns of Pusyamitra and Menander which might also be premised as a closing date of the entire Sarvistivāda
"J. P. T. S. 1905, p. 67 ff. · Wassilicf's Buddhismus' of which thero is a French translation.
English translation by Mr. J. Moguda in tho Journal of tho Department of Lottors (C.U.), Vol. I.
Mahävamaa, V. vv. 12-13; Diparninga, V. v. 54; Kathavatthu Comy, p. 6 l. and Index ; Maldyyutpatti, 275.
Dipavansa, VIII; Mahdyaman, XII.
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