Candragomin

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བཙུན་པ་ཟླ་བ་

Candragomin(b. 6-7th Century? - ) 

Notes on dates:

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While there is no complete scholarly consensus, the majority of modern scholarship seems to place Candragomin in either the 5th-6th centuries CE (the earlier estimate) or more commonly in the 7th century CE (approximately 600-650 CE- See Mark Tatz research), with the latter being the more widely accepted timeframe among contemporary scholars.

Candragomin. (T. Btsun pa zla ba). Fifth-century CE Indian lay poet and grammarian, who made substantial contributions to Sanskrit grammar, founding what was known as the Cāndra school. A junior contemporary of the great Kālidāsa, Candragomin was one of the most accomplished poets in the history of Indian Buddhism. His play Lokānanda, which tells the story of the bodhisattva king Maṇicūḍa, is the oldest extant Buddhist play and was widely performed in the centuries after

its composition. He was a devotee of Tārā and composed several works in her praise. Tibetan works describe him as a proponent of Vijñānavãda who engaged in debate with Candrakīrti, but there is little philosophical content in his works that can be confidently ascribed to him. Among those works are the "Letter to a Disciple" (Śiṣyalekha), the "Confessional Praise" (Deśanāstava), and perhaps the "Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva Precepts" (Bodhisattvasaṃvaraviṃśaka). (Source: "Candragomin." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 165. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)