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Sce. 4. HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE T. S.
among th: scholars yet, for instance, the 4th century A.D, is held by Radhakrishnan, 400 A.D. by Dasgupta, c. 450 A.D. by Ui (History of Indian Philosoyhy), c. 500 A.D. by Kanakura and Nakamura (Hisory of Ancint India, v. 2), 650-850 A.D. by Woods, and the 7th century A.D. by Strauss.93 It is thus difficult for us to utilize his date for assigniag the upper limit of the date of the T.S.
Vasubandu's date is likewise still controversial, for instance, 283-360 A.D. maintained by Smith, 320-400 A.D. by Ui, 400--80 A.D. by Higata, 420-500 A,D. by Takakusu, 320-400 A.D. as of Mahāyānist Vasubandhu and 400-480 A.D. as of the author of the Abhidharmakośa by Frauwallner, and 470-500 AD. by Dasgupta.94 However from the aforegoing description of the historical accounts involving Vasubandhu, it is evident that he was flourishing in the middle of the 5th century A.D. The date of the composition of the Abhidharmakosa is unknown, which however comes before his conversion to Mahāyānism that took place in his later time.
Considering all these relevant factors, we may under the circumstances, assign the date of the T.S. somewhere in the late middle of the 5th century A.D. It was con): so netin: after the completion of the Abhidhırmakasa and sometime before the date of the Niryuktis. Vasubandhu, Umāsvāti and Bhadrabāhu II were thus contemporaries in the 5th century.
(2) His works
The tradition informs us that Umāsvāti composed five hundred prakaranas (for instance, Haribhadrasūri mentions it in his commentary on the Prasamarati) He seems to have written more than a few texts handed down to us because it is pointed out that what the later work like the Uttaradhyayanavrtti of Bhāvavijaya says that Vācaka said so and so is not traceable in his extant works.95 The Prasamarati, Jambūdvipasamāsa, Pūrāprakarana and Savayapannatti are ascribed to him in tradition, of which the first two are generally accepted to be his works, but not the last two. None of them bears his name. It seems that he imposed upon himself the composition of the T. S. alone to be his prime task in life. The nature of these works shall be briefly discussed below.
The Prasamarati takes up the theme of rāga-dveşa (rāga defined as mamakāra of which content is said to be māyā-lobba, and dveşa as ahamkāra of which content is said to be krodha-māna) as the causes of the karmie bondage in sam āra and their vairāgyamārgas which consist o five vratas, twelve anuprekşās (said as blāvanās), ten dharmas, threefold pathways to liberation and dhyāna. Unlike the T. S. which is a stiff philosophical treatise, the Prasamirati is an ethical verse of more popular nature addressed to the monks ani laynen, of which content does not go much beyond what is covered by the T. S. The parallel lines between the T. S. and the Prasamayati are found as follows:
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