Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c19.s2.1

c19.s2.1

Of the literature of the Mahāyāna itself and of schools with Mahāyānist leanings much indeed has been preserved, but infinitely more has disappeared, and of what has been left a great part as yet exists only for us in Chinese or Tibetan versions. Unfortunately, the Chinese records render it extremely difficult to determine the precise condition of the texts translated and, despite the numerous notices which we have of the dates when translations were made, it is not always easy to ascertain to what precise text the date is applicable. The texts, which are preserved in mixed Sanskrit, or Sanskrit, present also grave difficulties of chronology; the impression is often inevitable that they are conglomerates, in which old matter and new are confused, and to which therefore it is impossible to ascribe any one period.