A History of Pali Literature v1.c8.4

v1.c8.4

(1) Jñānaprasthāna by Āryakātyāyaniputra.—The author is one of the famous Sarvāstivāda teachers and lived in Kashmere three hundred years after the parinibbāna of the Buddha. The work was translated into Chinese in 383 A.D., by a Kashmiriin monk named Gautama Saṃghadeva. The second word of the title Prasthāna corresponds to Paṭṭhāna in Pāli. Hence Kern was led to believe that the two works were probably related to each other. Dr. Barua has tried to convince us with some cogent reasons that although the arrangements of topics differ, the topics treated of in the Jñānaprasthāna Shāstra and the Pāli Paṭisambhidāmagga are almost the same. The final decision of this point is to be waited for till we have the complete English translation of the Chinese version of the Jñānaprasthāna Shāstra to enable us to make a thorough comparison between the contents of the two texts.