The University of Nalanda c11.70

c11.70

But this account of Taranath raises very important issues. First, if the Dharmakīrti, he speaks of, is the same Dharmakīrti referred to by I-Tsing,¹ then we shall have to shift the hitherto known dates of Kumārila and Śaṅkara, provided the latter also are identical with the great Mīmāṃsaka and the first Advaitist, Kumārila and Śaṅkara respectively. Supposing that the two Dharmakīrtis are identical, then the probable period during which he flourished may be put down as the first half of the seventh century A.D. I-Tsing, who toured India in 671-695 A.D., says that Dharmakīrti was one of the famous men "of late years",² and classes him with Dharmapāla, and Śīlabhadra, whom we know for certain to have flourished in the first half of the seventh century. We can, however, still narrow the limits of the period in which Dharmakīrti worked. This period appears to be from 639 to 671 A. D. because Hiuen Tsiang, who was in India from 635 to 639 A. D. and visited the most important centres of learning, does not seem to have ever heard of Dharmakīrti. While I-Tsing, who came some 30 years after, speaks of him as if he had not seen him. For, were he really living while he (I-Tsing) was in India, he would not have said, "He made a further improvement in Logic," but "he has made . . . . . . . .". This implies that I-Tsing had not seen Dharmakīrti, who must have died just a few years before I-Tsing landed on the Indian shore, at Tāmralipti.