Concerning the person of the author and his time, nothing certain is known. That he was called Ârya _S_ûra is told in the manuscripts, and is corroborated by Chinese tradition; the Chinese translation of the _G_âtakamâlâ, made between 960 and 1127 A.D., bears Ârya _S_ûra on its title as the author's name (see Bunyiu Nanjio's Catalogue, No. 1312). Tibetan tradition, too, knows _S_ûra as a famous teacher, and as the author of our collection of stories. Târanâtha identifies him with A_s_vaghosha, and adds many more names by which the same great man should be known. It is, however, impossible that two works so entirely different in style and spirit as the Buddha_k_arita and the _G_âtakamâlâ should be ascribed to one and the same author. As to his time, Dr. d'Oldenburg observes that the terminus ante quem is the end of the 7th century A.D., since it seems that the Chinese traveller I-tsing speaks of our 'Garland of Birth-stories.' If No. 1349 of Bunyiu Nanjio's Catalogue of the Chinese Tripi_t_aka, being a Sûtra on the fruits of Karma briefly explained by Ârya _S_ûra, is written by our author--and there seems to be no reasonable objection to this--_S_ûra must have lived before 434 A.D., when the latter work is said to have been translated into Chinese. This conclusion is supported by the purity and elegance of the language, which necessarily point to a period of a high standard of literary taste and a flourishing state of letters. Prof. Kern was induced by this reason to place _S_ûra approximately in the century of Kâlidâsa and Varâhamihira, but equally favourable circumstances may be supposed to have existed a couple of centuries earlier. I think, however, he is posterior to the author of the Buddha_k_arita. For other questions concerning the _G_âtakamâlâ, which it would be too long to dwell upon here, I refer to Prof. Kern's preface and d'Oldenburg in Journ. Roy. As. Soc. 1893, pp. 306-309.