The University of Nalanda c11.75

c11.75

We would have given up the attempt to make Śaṅkara a contemporary of Dharmakīrti, as we know even the actual date of his birth,¹ but for Dr. Pathak’s remark that Śaṅkarācārya precedes Śāntarakṣita,² who, we know, lived in the first half of the eighth century A.D. He thus raises the possibility of Śaṅkara being a contemporary of Dharmakīrti, both having probably lived in the latter half of the 7th century A.D. Pathak seems to base his statement on the fact that Śāntarakṣita refers to the *Vivarta-vāda* in the following verse³: