Prajñāvarman’s View of the Compilation of the Udānavarga

The Udānavargavivaraṇa, a commentary on the Udānavarga, is an important source for understanding how the Udānavarga was received in later periods. This paper focuses on the process of compilation of the Udānavarga, which may provide a clue to the ideological position of the author of its commentary, Prajñāvarman. He presents a biography of Dharmatrāta in the opening part of the Udānavargavivaraṇa, claiming that Dharmatrāta compiled the Udānavarga during the lifetime of the Buddha. He then presents a supposed objection that there may be a “contradiction with the Vaibhāṣika theory” and a response to it. This argument has already been taken up in a preceding study as suggesting that Prajñāvarman was not a Vaibhāṣika, and this paper re-examines this interpretation with reference to parallel passages found in texts related to the Sarvāstivāda. As a result, by considering the “contradiction with the Vaibhāṣika theory” as a question of the compilation period of the Udānavarga, I show that Prajñāvarman can be understood as acknowledging the authority of the Vaibhāṣikas, and that it is not possible to conclude that Prajñāvarman was not a Vaibhāṣika from this discussion alone.