The University of Nalanda c11.27

c11.27

1. If we take the Śaka Saṃvat then we arrive at the year 347 A.D., which is absurd if our Sthiramati is the famous Sthiramati, who was the disciple of Vasubandhu⁴ and who composed several treatises. And Vasubandhu, we know, lived in the latter half of the 5th century A.D.⁵ Consequently he could not have lived earlier than that date. Probably he flourished in the latter half of the 5th century and the first half of the 6th century A.D. Adoption of the Gupta era exactly fits in with the date arrived at. For the grant is made in Saṃvat 269, and if we add 319 years required for reducing Gupta Saṃvat to the Christian, we get 588 A.D. Now the grant says, “To the Vihāra, built by Sthirmati”. So, it follows that the monastery was constructed some years earlier