Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c11.15

v1.c11.15

No fresh light is thrown on the question by the conjecture¹ that Bhāmaha in i 42 refers to the *Meghadūta* by his condemnation of the poetical device of employing clouds, among other things, as messengers; nor by Pāṭhak's other equally fanciful supposition that Māgha ii 86b refers to Bhāmaha i 16². Nothing, again, is gained by the controversy over the question whether Bhāmaha, the son of Rakrilagomin and worshipper of Sārva, was a Buddhist, as indicated by the opening and closing verses of his work.³ Jacobi's recent researches, however, have shown⁴ that Bhāmaha has made considerable use of the teachings of Buddhist philosophers in ch. v, and that the upper limit to Bhāmaha's date should be determined with reference to that of Buddhist Dharmakīrti, some of whose philosophical doctrines Bhāmaha has utilised, even to the repitition of Dharmakīrti's actual phraseology. Dharmakīrti is placed by Jacobi between the sojourn in India of Hiuen Tsang and I-tsing respectively (630—643 and 673—695 A. D.), as he is not known to the former, while the latter refers to him among those of late years⁵. The upper limit, therefore, of Bhāmaha's date should be fixed at the third quarter of the 7th century A. D.