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mūle) he completed the VP for the benefit of the pious Śrāvikā, Sampat; ii) Āryanandi who encouraged him to complete the VP; and iii) Nāganandi whose šisya he calls himself. Some Acāryas of these names are known from inscriptions etc., but one cannot propose identity simply from the similarity of names, because there have been many Ācāryas of the same name. It is obvious that the place of the literary activity of Asaga was the Telugu-Karnātaka area, and he flourished in the middle of the Sth century A.D.
One Āryanandit was the teacher of Virasena who completed his Dhavală in c. 815 A.D. But this would be too early a date for the teacher of A saga. The Gokak Copper-plates of Indranandi donate a grant of 50 Nivartanas of land made to one Aryanandi who belonged to Jambuk handi-gana. Evidently the grant is made to a guild for the purpose of worshipping the idol of Arhat, for (the support of) preceptors and ascetics. The grant was made with the permission of the Rāştraküta king Gojja, i. e., Govinda IV (918-33 A.D.), in the year Saka 845 or 923 A.D.2 Then in an inscription (date not specified) at Vallimalai, it is noted that one Aryanandi, disciple of Bālacandra, got engraved an image of the teacher Govardhana.3 In Tamil Nadu, Arcot Dt., at Kalagu Malai and Pañchapāndavamalai there is an epigraph to state that an image of Yakşiņi was worshipped by the teacher Nāganandi. But this is in the Tamil area and the date is not given. It is tentatively assigned to the 8th century A. D. Nandipottarasa is identified with Pallava Nandivarman (A, D. 717-770). But there is no mention of Srinātha here as Cola Samanta, nor is the source of this information given by the editor. There is an inscription in Ranebinnur (Dt. Dharwar), date 8 0 A. D. and belonging to the period of Rāshtrakūta Amoghavarşa I. It mentions the grant of some lands to Nāganandi Ācārya of the Sinihavüra-gana. The date and locality suit for identification with Nāganandi mentioned by Asaga, but one cannot be definite. Aparäjitasüri had studied under Nāganandi at whose instance he composed his commentary on the (Bhagavati-) Ārādhanā. Nāganandi in the Sravana Belgo! inscriptions is not a monk at all. Another Någanandi, who was Bhattäraka, belongs to the 11th century A. D. or a little earlier according to the Nisidhi record at Tagadur in Mysore. Any way we have no clearcut evidence to identify any one of these with the teacher of Asaga, 1. N. Premi: aina Sāhitya aura Itihāsa, Bombay 1956. p. 128. 2. Karnataka Historical Review, Vol. ii, pp. 43 ff. 3. E. Hultzsch : E.I., IV. No. 15. +. V. Venkayya : E. I., IV, n. 6 and n, 17 A R.A.S., p. 20. Also P. B. Desai, ibid.
L. Rice has noted (Mysore Inscriptions Translated, Bangalore 1879) one Nāganandi who was a Guru of the three princes of the Ganga Dynasty : Kala Vallabharāya, Govinda kaya and Caturbhuja · Kanaradeva. But this needs
verification, 5. See my Introduction, p. 56, to the Bphat-kathākośa, Bombay 1943, 6. E. R. of Mysore, 1938, p. 173.
