A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.73

v2.c19.s6.t3.73

published a translation of this work, as far back as the year 1829, and L. Wilkinson edited the text in 1839, they were quite charmed with the democratic spirit with which the author defends the equality of all classes of men, "as they are equal as regards joy and sorrow, life, intellect, profession and trade, death and birth, fear and sexual love." For the sake of the quotations from Brahmanical texts, if on no other grounds, this work would be of great importance in the history of literature, if only we had any certain data about the author and the date of the work. There are some serious objections to ascribing the authorship to Aśvaghoṣa. The Vajrasūcī is not enumerated either by I-tsing or in the Tibetan Tanjur among the works of Aśvaghoṣa; and in the catalogues of the Chinese Tripiṭaka a Vajrasūcī, which is said to contain "a refutation of the four Vedas," and which was translated into Chinese between 973 and 981 A.D., is ascribed to a man named Dharmakīrti.¹