On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c20.112

v2.c20.112

Of the "great P'usas" here mentioned by Yuan-chuang as having rendered good service to Buddhism in Nālandā by their expository commentaries three are mentioned in other parts of the Records, viz. Gunamati, Dharmapāla, and Śīlabhadra. Of these the last was the abbot of the Nālandā establishment at the time of Yuan-chuang’s visit, and became the pilgrim’s friend and teacher. Dharmapāla probably died about A. D. 600, and Guṇamati was much earlier. Contemporary with the latter apparently was another of the “great P‘usas”, Sthiramati. This scholar was the author of an “Introduction to Mahāyānism” which was translated into Chinese about A. D. 400; and he composed another short metaphysical treatise which was translated in A. D. 691.¹ Jinamitra, another of the “great P‘usas”, is known as the author of a valuable compendium of the Vinaya of the Sarvāstivādins which we have in I-ching’s translation.² The three other great luminaries of Nālandā cited by our pilgrim, viz. Chandrapāla, Jñānachandra, and Prabhamitra do not appear as authors of books in the collections of Buddhist works. The Jñānachandra mentioned by I-ching as one of the famous Brethren of West India at his time, and as attached to the Tilaḍha Monastery, may be the learned Brother of that name in the passage before us. I-ching mentions also Dharmapāla, Śīlabhadra, and Guṇamati in his list of the Buddhist sages who flourished in the period not long before his time. Mr. Takakusu makes him include also Sthiramati, but I-ching’s text has An-hui which is the translation for Sthilamati. The latter was contemporary with Dharmapāla while Sthiramati must have lived before A. D. 400.³ In Julien’s translation of the part of the present passage which tells of the “great P‘usas” of Nālandā we have “Çighrabouddha” as one of them. But this is an error of the translator, who mistook the words ming-min (明敏) for a proper name. These words here form part of the descriptive statement about Jñānachandra “whose character formed an example of bright activity”; the clause is parallel to the next one which mentions the perfect virtue of Śīlabhadra, which was in dark seclusion.