A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t4.303

v2.c19.s6.t4.303

² In the year 1912 I repeatedly had the opportunity to converse with my friend Prof. *Takakusu* verbally as well as by letter, regarding the question of the authorship of the Mahāyāna-Śraddhotpāda. In a letter of the 18th July, 1912, he wrote to me: “Either the poet Aśvaghoṣa is different from the philosopher Aśvaghoṣa (for Buddhists generally believe there were more than one Aśvaghoṣa) or that Sāstra of a different origin has been attributed to him simply because of his great renown. I think the latter is the case, *for an earlier Catalogue of Chinese texts omits the name Aśvaghoṣa*. In any case the Mahāyāna-Śraddhotpāda does not belong to him. Nor do the contents show any probability of his authorship. It is later than Laṅkāvatāra in which Nāgārjuna's appearance is prophesied by Buddha, and only a step earlier than Vijñānamātravāda.” R. *Kimura*, Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna, Calcutta, 1927, pp. 41, 180 ff., is inclined to attribute the work to the beginning of the 5th century A.D. On the doctrines of the Mahāyāna-Śraddhotpāda, cf. Y. *Sōgen*, Systems of Buddhistic Thought, p. 252 ff.; S. N. *Dasgupta*, History of Indian Philosophy, I, 129 ff.; K. J. *Saunders*, Epochs in Buddhist History, p. 97 ff.; *Stcherbatsky*, Nirvāṇa, p. 32; *McGovern*, Introduction to Mahāyāna Buddhism, p. 60 ff.