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HAJIME NAKAMURA
could be interpreted in different ways.
(2) Hithertofore it has been generally supposed that Bhartphari died forty years before I-tshing sojourned in India, following the information given by I-tsing himself.2. Accordingly Bharthari was regarded by J. Takakusu to have died in 651-652 A. D. If we examine this passage more closely, however, it becomes clear that in I-tsing's information there is something amiss. I-tsing said that Bharthari "was a contemporary of Dharmapāla”, 25 and yet also that Dharmapāla composed a commentary upon Bharthari's verses "26 These two are not consistent with each other.) Let us discuss this problem. ' : Dr. Hakuju Ui?? took the passage as meaning that Bharthari died forty years before the beginning of I-tsing's stay in the Nālandā monastery. According to his calculation Bharthari died c. 630 A.D. In the above-cited passage, however, he is said to have been a contemporary of Dharmapāla who commented upon the Prakīrņaka of Bhartshari. The date of Dharmapāla is wellknown; he lived 530-561 A. D. Now, Bhartphari must have been somewhat Dharmapala's senior Suppose that the former was older than the latter by, say, ten years; then Bharthari should have lived c. 520–630. If we adopt Takakusu's view, he must be supposed to have lived c. 520-652. Needless to say, this supposition is absurd. We are brought to the conclusion that either (1) the information that "Bhartphari died forty years before I-tsing" is wrong or (2) the information that Dharma pāla commented upon Bharthari's work is wrong. We shall take up this problem in another light. Mr. H. R. Rangaswamy Iyengar28 made clear the fact that Bhartshari lived in an age not so remote from that of Vasubandhu. He asserts as follows:
"In the second Kānda of the Vakyapadīya, while describing how the science of grammar, which had been almost extinct, was restored and propagated by the great grammarians, Chandra and Vasurāta, Punyarāja, the commentator of the Vākyapadiya, mentions several times Vasurāta as the teacher of
Bharthari.29 In the Kärikä 490 of the Vakyapadiya 30 Bharthari himself seems . to refer to his teacher Vasurāta by 'Guruņā'as is evident from the words of
"It is forty years since his death (A. D. 651-652)." (J. Takakusu: A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago. Oxford 1896. p. 180) 25 J. Takakusu: op. cit., p. 179.
WinPINA 9, Taisho, vol. LIV, p. 229. 27 T55- vol. V, p. 130.
28 H. R. Rangaswamy Iyengar: "Bharthari and Dignaga" (Sri Atmananda Prakasa, published by " Jain Atmananda Sabha ", Bhavnagar, 1952, p. 27 f. The author obtained a copy by courtesy of Mr. Muni Jambuvijay).
1) na ten stadguros tatrabhavato Vasurătâd anyah kaścid imam bhäşyârnavam avagâhitum alam ity uktam bhavati (Punyarāja ad II, 486). kenacic ca brahınaraksasaniya Candracarya-Vasuritaguruprabhrtinim datta iti/te (taih?) khalu yathāvat vyákaranasya svarūpam tata upalabhya satatan ca siyanām vyākhyāya bahuśākhitvam nito vistararn prăpita ity anuśruyate (ad II, 489).
30 CC. II, 490b:... pranito gurunāsınākam ayam agamasamngrahah.
