An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c9.86

c9.86

§ 153. It is probable, though not certain, that each of the classical treatises was accompanied by a commentary prepared by the author; but unfortunately, if these existed, no single one of them has survived. Of all existing commentaries on the six manuals, only two seem to belong to our period, namely, Śabara Svāmin’s Bhāshya on the Purva-mīmāmsā-sūtras, and Vātsyāyana’s Nyāya Bhāshya. Jacobi conjectures¹ that both these works belong to the fifth century. It seems clear that Vātsyāyana’s Bhāshya at least falls within the limits of our period; for he comes before Dignāga,² the Buddhist writer, whose date is about A.D. 550,³ while the archaic character of Śabara's work is sufficient to justify our inclusion of it within the same limits.