Buddhadatta Thera was a 5th-century
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
Buddhist writer from the town of Uragapura in the
Chola kingdom
The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE ...
of
South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
.
[Potter, Karl H; Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies: Buddhist philosophy from 350 to 600 A.D. pg 216] He wrote many of his works in the Bhūtamangalagāma monastery and his patron was
Accutavikkanta of the
Kalamba dynasty (''Kalambhakulavamsa jāte Accutavikkamanāme Colarājini Colarattham samanusāsante'').
Buddhadatta traveled to Sri Lanka's Mahāvihāra in
Anurādhapura to study and translate the commentaries on the Buddha's teachings from
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka
* Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language
** Sinha ...
to
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
. He is said to have met
Buddhagosa at sea while returning to India, his work unfinished. Buddhadatta asked Buddhagosa to send him his translations and commentaries and used them in the writing of his
Abhidhammāvatāra.
[ The Abhidhammāvatāra (Pali: “The Coming of the Abhidhamma”) is one of the earliest and most important Abhidhamma manuals. It is a systematized overview of the doctrines in the Abhidhamma Pitaka, written largely in 24 verse chapters. Buddhadatta's other works include the Vinaya-Vinicchaya (“Analysis of the Vinaya”), the Uttara-Vinicchaya, the Rūpārūpa-Vibhāga.
]
Works
#Uttaravinicchaya
#Vinayavinicchaya - a Vinaya manual
#Abhidhammavatara - an Abhidhamma manual
#Ruparupavibhaga
#Madhuratthavilasini - a commentary on the Buddhavamsa.
References
5th-century Buddhist monks
Indian Buddhist monks
Theravada Buddhist monks
Indian scholars of Buddhism
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