A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s7.21

c33.s7.21

Of more philosophical content is the *Laṅkāvatārasūtra*⁵ in which nihilistic and idealistic doctrines are found, but the work is useless for chronological conclusions, as it refers to the Guptas and to barbarians who succeed them, and so cannot have been composed as we have it before *c.* A. D. 600, though one version was made into Chinese in 443. The *Daçabhūmīçvara Mahāyāna-sūtra*⁶ deals with the ten stages to Buddhahood, and was translated by 400. The *Samādhirāja*⁷ deals with meditation. The *Suvarṇaprabhāsa*⁸ again, though in high repute in Nepal, Tibet, and Mongolia, is a work of inferior type, including many Dhāraṇīs, spell formulae, and inclining to the nature of a Tantra; it was translated into Chinese in the sixth century. In the *Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā*,¹ translated before 618, we find an interesting satire on the laxity of contemporary Buddhism, then waning in strength; the work is written in poor Sanskrit with verses in Prākrit and still worse Sanskrit.