A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.99

v2.c19.s5.99

¹ If we are to believe the Japanese scholar M. Nagai (JPTS 1917-1919, p. 69 ff.) the Visuddhi-Magga is not the work of Buddhaghosa, but merely the revised version of a work written by a Thera Upatissa in the first century A.D., entitled Vimuttimagga, “The Path of Release,” which was translated into Chinese between 505 and 520 A.D. by the Cambodian monk Sanghapāla. Though very ingenious, the arguments of Nagai are not convincing. Until we are better acquainted with the Chinese translation of this work, I think it quite possible that it is merely a Chinese version of Buddhaghosa's work. According to Nagai himself, the contents of the Chinese Vimuttimagga bear a general resemblance to the Visuddhi-Magga, but are not free from Mahāyāna influence (l. c., p. 79). Like *visuddhi*, the word Vimutti also means “Nirvāṇa.”