116 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [{N.S., XV, 
have indeed been hitherto examined or answered. Perhaps 
the most important of them is this :—How far has Buddhaghosa 
— himself in his commentaries headed by the Visuddhi- 
In other words. what reba sane of Buddhaghosa’s 
life can be culled from his works ? er questions that may 
arise are all subsidiary to this. We La ask, for example, (1) 
Supposing, as the Mahavamsa would have us believe, that 
uddhaghosa was born in a Brahmin family of Gaya, mastered 
the Vedic literature with all its auxiliary sciences and arts 
and learnt the views of Patanjali so well that he could cite 
by arguments in a philosophical discussion ? (3) Can we adduce 
any substantial proof in support of the tradition that he wrote 
his Atthasalini while in India? (4) at reminiscences of 
Ceylon are to be found in his commentaries? (5) What light 
is thrown by his works on the social, political, philosophies 
literary, and artistic history of India of his time (6) What is 
the relation of Buddhaghosa to Buddhadatta ha other teach- 
ers of South India in regard to the interpretation of Buddhist 
philosophy ? (7) Whatare his special contributions to Buddhist 
or to Indian philosophy ?. (8) In what way was Buddhaghosa a 
connecting link between Northern India, ‘the Deccan and Cey- 
lon? (9) Can we discover in Buddha aghosa any anticipation 
of Sankara ? (10) What is the place of Buddhaghosa as a writer 
and philosopher in the history of India, particularly in the 
history of Buddhism? (11) How is it that Buddhaghosa makes 
no reference to Mahayana Buddhism? (12) What is the imme- 
diate background of Buddhaghosa’s philosophy ?. (13) What is 
the ieee we of eee to the Buddhist kings and 
teachers of Ceylon? As e of these questions requires a 
separate oe we shall pare ourselves in the following 
pages with attempting to answer only one with the help of the 
records well within our reach. 
Cuaprer III. 
Buddhaghosa in his Commentaries. 
iat has left for us no other record of his life than 
Bi 
d 
his commentari he information that comes from other 
s is mips Mr. Gray was the first to collect in his 
these works are hardly anything but anecdotes which may 
summed up as follows. 
Buddhaghosa was born in a Brahmin family in the vicinity 
