Period 2: Late Antiquity
50A.D. to 550A.D.
26 texts in 7 languages
Starts with Asvaghosa (90A.D.) and ends with Wenxuan (531A.D.)
Greek, Latin | Avestan | Sanskrit | Pali, Prakrit | Chinese |
Bible | Avesta | Asvaghosa | Buddhaghosa | Wang Bi |
Origen | Vimalakirtinirdesa Sutra | Sattasai (Prakrit) | Zhuangzizhu | |
Diogenes Laertius | Manava Dharmasastra | Mahavamsa | Ge Hong | |
Plotinus | Yoga Sutra | Shishuo Xinyu | ||
Eusebius | Kalidasa | Tao Hongjing | ||
Augustine (Latin) | Pancatantra | Wenxuan | ||
Pseudo-Dionysius Aeropagite | Bhartrhari | |||
Yogacarabhumi | ||||
Umasvati | ||||
7 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 6 |
This was the golden age of the South Asian tradition, during which Buddhism spread to East Asia, where Daoism as a religious tradition started in a very intertwined way with the import and establishment of Buddhism. The ancient religions of Zoroastrianism and Jainism also got codified in canonical texts in this period. In the West, Christian tradition was founded, with most critical texts originated from the areas right outside of what we call Europe nowadays.