Buddhaghosa
| English Phonetics | Buddhaghosa |
|---|---|
| Sort Name | Buddhaghosa |
| Birth: | 5th century CE |
|---|
Tibetan calendar dates
Biographical Information
Buddhaghosa. (S. Buddhaghosa) (fl. c. 370-450 ce). The preeminent Pāli commentator, who translated into Pāli the Sinhalese commentaries to the Pāli canon and wrote the Visuddhimagga ("Path of Purification"), the definitive outline of Theravāda doctrine. There are several conflicting accounts of Buddhaghosa's origins, none of which can be dated earlier than the thirteenth Century. The Mon of Lower Burma claim him as a native son, although the best-known story, which is found in the Cūḷavaṃsa (chapter 37), describes Buddhaghosa as an Indian brāhmana who grew up in the environs of the Mahābodhi temple in northern India. According to this account, his father served as a purohita (brāhmaṇa priest) for King Saṅgāma, while he himself became proficient in the Vedas and related Brahmanical Sciences at an early age. One day, he was defeated in a debate by a Buddhist monk named Revata, whereupon he entered the Buddhist saṃgha to learn more about the Buddha's teachings. He received his monk's name Buddhaghosa, which means "Voice of the Buddha," because of his sonorous voice and impressive rhetorical skills. Buddhaghosa took Revata as his teacher and began writing commentaries even while a student. Works written at this time included the Ñāṇodaya and Aṭṭhasālinī. To deepen his understanding (or according to some versions of his story, as punishment for his intellectual pride), Buddhaghosa was sent to Sri Lanka to study the Sinhalese commentaries on the Pāli Buddhist canon (P. tipiṭaka; S. Tripiṭaka). These commentaries were said to have been brought to Sri Lanka in the third Century BCE, where they were translated from Pāli into Sinhalese and subsequently preserved at the Mahāvihāra monastery in the Sri Lankan Capital of Anurādhapura. At the Mahāvihāra, Buddhaghosa studied under the guidance of the scholar-monk Saṅghapāla. Upon completing his studies, he wrote the great compendium of Theravāda teachings, Visuddhimagga, which summarizes the contents of the Pāli tipiṭaka under the threefold heading of morality (sīla; S. śīla), meditative absorption (samādhi), and wisdom (paññā; S. prajñā). Impressed with his expertise, the elders of the Mahāvihāra allowed Buddhaghosa to translate the Sinhalese commentaries back into Pāli, the canonical language of the Theravāda tipiṭaka. Attributed to Buddhaghosa are the vinaya commentaries, Samantapāsādikā and Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī; the commentaries to the Suttapiṭaka, Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, Papañcasūdanī, Sāratthappakāsinī, and Manorathapūraṇī; also attributed to him is the Paramatthajotikā (the commentary to the Khuddakapāṭha and Suttanīpāta). Buddhaghosa's commentaries on the Abhidhammapiṭaka (see Abhidharma) include the Sammohavinodanī and Pañcappakaraṇaṭṭihakathā, along with the Aṭṭhasālinī. Of these many works, Buddhaghosa is almost certainly author of the Visuddhimagga and translator of the commentaries to the four nikāyas, but the remainder are probably later attributions. Regardless of attribution, the body of work associated with Buddhaghosa was profoundly influential on the entire subsequent history of Buddhist scholasticism in the Theravāda traditions of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. (Source: "Buddhaghosa." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 152. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
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