Dear colleagues,

I have been doing a literature search for biographical information about Yaśomitra, author of the Sphuṭārthā commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakoṣabhāṣya and the vyākhyā on Asaṅga's Abhidharmasamuccaya.  I am finding almost no information at all.  I see the date 580 in Potter's EIP, but I don't know where he gets it.  I have looked in Poussin's, Stcherbatsky, Law's introductions, in SARDS3 (several promising articles, but I don't read Japanese :-( ), Panditproject, Google Scholar, etc.  While his views and interpretations of the mūla texts get attention, I find no discussion about his biographical information.

If you know of any scholarship specifically on Yaśomitra's personal background, evidence for his date, place of dwelling, lineage, etc., I would be very grateful for the information.  Is he the same Yaśomitra who owned the so-called Bower MS, for example?

Best,

Dominik