131. 128 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT POETICS

128 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT POETICS

out any work on logic by wHT nor has any quotation been taken by any one from aHr's work as a logician either in Sanskrit, Tibetan or Chinese; while धर्मकीर्ति is regarded as the most eminent among Buddhist logicians, probably equalled only by दिङनाग. One may argue that भामह is not necessarily referring to धर्मकीर्ति but to one of his predeoessors; to suggest however (as Mr. Batuknath does in his Intro. to arHF at p. 46) that it may be equally cogent to say that धर्मकीर्ति was indebted to arHg smacks toomuch of enthusiastic partisanship. Dharmakirti flourished according to Dr. Vidyabhushan1 about 635-650 (p. 103 of his History of Medieval Indian logic and of his History of Indian logic pp. 303-305). It may be noted that Yuan Chwan who was in India from 629 to 645 does not mention धर्मकीर्ति, while I-tsing who travelled in India during 671-695 A. D. and composed his work in 691 declares how vnalfd made further improvements in Logic (Takakusu's translation p. 182). I-tsing gives three classes of Buddhist savants viz. नागाजुन, देव, अश्वघोष, 'of an early age'; वसुबन्धु, असङ्ग,, संघमद्र, and भवविवेक 'in the middle ages' and जिन, धमपाल, धमकीर्ति शीलमद्र &c. 'of late years' (Takakusu's tr. p. 181). So धर्मकीर्ति (who was a pupil of धर्मपाल) as said above flourished about 650 or 660. It is not necessary for our purposes to establish positively that भामह refers to धर्मकीर्ति. It has already been shown from other evidence that aHe could not have flourished earlier than 700 A. D. Therefore it is quite possible that he borrows Dharmakirti's words. The matter may be allowed to rest there. (z) The date of Dandin can also be arrived at in another manner. शाङ० (No. 108), जहय (सूक्तिमुक्तावलि p. 47) and other anthologies quote a verse of a poetess विज्जका 'नीलोत्पलदलश्यामां विज्जकां मामजानता । वृथव दसिडना प्रोक्तं सर्वशक्ला सरस्वती ।',2 She quotes in this verse the last pada of the first verse of the araert. धनद्देव is quoted in the शार्ङ० (No. 163) as enumerating विज्जा among poetesses. In the verse नीलोत्पल० cited above the word

1. vide Vidyabhushan in J. R. A. S. for 1914 pp. 601- 606 and also I. H. Q. XI pp. 1-31 for the relation of efant and धर्मकीर्ति. 2. Vide 'Sanskrit Poetesses Vijjā and Morikā' by Dr. J. B. Choudhuri in I. H. Q. vol. XVI pp. 543-560.