Aryadeva

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Āryadeva (T. ’Phags pa lha; C. Tipo 提婆)[1] (fl. 3rd century CE). An Indian Buddhist scholar-yogi, who was a disciple of Nagarjuna and author of several texts on Madhyamaka philosophy. He is also known as Kanadeva, recognized as the 15th patriarch in Chan Buddhism, and as "Bodhisattva Deva" in Sri Lanka. In Tibetan Buddhism, he is regarded as one of the six ornaments (a group of esteemed India scholars).

After Nagarjuna, he is considered to be the next most important figure of the Indian Madhyamaka school.[2][3] He is known for his association with the Nalanda monastery in modern-day Bihar, India.[4]

Many Western scholars identify two Aryadeva's: one a Madhyamaka scholar and the other a tantric yogi.[1][5][6] However, the Tibetan tradition identifies Aryadeva as a single master, active in the third century CE.[5][6]

Biography

The Editors of Shambhala Publications state:

Birth and Training
While early biographies vary in detail and timing, traditional accounts such as those by Taranatha, Butön in his History of Buddhism, and Chandrakirti identify Aryadeva as being born in Sri Lanka in a royal family in the late first or early second century C.E. He rejected the throne and took monastic ordination and mastered all the Tripitaka (Sutra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma) as well as non-Buddhist philosophical systems.
He then left to visit the holy sites of India, ending up in Pataliputra, present-day Patna in Bihar, where he became a direct disciple of Nagarjuna. He then accompanied him to Sri Parvata or Nagarjunakonda, the Buddhist center in Andhra Pradesh, now underwater. There, he studied with Nagarjuna and received tantric training, studying and meditating.
Later Aryadeva built two dozen monasteries in the area and served the dharma in many ways. Some identify him as being one and the same with Karnaripa, one of the 84 great Mahasiddhas of India, who lived off essences and eventually attained the rainbow body.
The Nalanda Period
After some time Aryadeva was invited to Nalanda to debate Matriceta, also known as Durdharsakala, a particularly troublesome non-Buddhist philosopher and magician.
In a famous story, on his way there, he came across a woman - some accounts say she was a tree goddess, others a tirthika - who asked him for one of his eyes, which he freely gave. Upon arriving in Nalanda, the monks asked him what had happened to his eye and he replied,
Shiva has three eyes yet cannot see the true nature of reality.
Shakra has one thousand eyes and likewise has never seen the true nature.
But Aryadeva, with his single eye,
Perceives the reality of all three planes of existence.
He debated Matriceta and defeated him three times by means of logic as well as the siddhis he had attained through tantric practice. An exciting blow-by-blow account of this debate is included in the introduction to Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas. His opponent finally relented and took ordination, joining the ranks of the enlightenment factory of Nalanda.
He remained at Nalanda a long time, teaching, defeating other tirthikas, and authoring some of his works there.[5]

Works

Most of Āryadeva's works were not preserved in the original Sanskrit but mainly in Tibetan and Chinese translations.

Catuḥśataka ("Four Hundred Verses")

Main article: Catuḥśataka

The Catuḥśataka śāstra kārikā (the Four Hundred Verse Treatise) is Āryadeva's main work. It is available in fragmentary Sanskrit, in Xuanzang's Chinese translation of the second part only, and in a full Tibetan translation.[7]

There also exists a complete commentary to this text by Chandrakirti which is only extant in Tibetan.[8]

Other attributed texts

Two other texts which are attributed to Āryadeva in the Chinese tradition (but not the Tibetan) are the following:

  • Śataśāstra (Pai/Po-lun, Treatise in One Hundred Verses), which only survives in Kumarajiva's Chinese translation. However, according to David Seyfort Ruegg, the attribution of this work to Aryadeva is uncertain.[9]
  • Aksarasataka (One Hundred Syllables) and its Vritti is sometimes attributed to Nagarjuna in the Tibetan tradition, but the Chinese tradition attributes this to Āryadeva.[10]

Chinese sources attribute a commentary to Nagarjuna's Madhyamakasastra ascribed to a "Pin-lo-chieh" ("Pingala") as being a work of Āryadeva. But this attribution has been questioned by some scholars according to Seyfort Ruegg.[2]

The Hastavalaprakarana (Hair in the Hand) is attributed to Dignaga in the Chinese tradition and to Āryadeva in the Tibetan tradition. Sefort Ruegg states it is likely by Dignaga.[10]

According to David Seyfort Ruegg:

The bsTan'gyur also contains two very short works attributed to Aryadeva, the *Skhalitapramathanayuktihetusiddhi and the *Madhyamakabhramaghata. In the Chinese canon there is found a treatise attributed to the Bodhisattva Aryadeva on explanations of nirvana given by twenty sectarian teachers mentioned in the Lankavatarasutra (Taisho 1640, translated in the first part of the 6th century by Bodhiruci).153 Another work ascribed to him is a refutation of four Hinayanist schools mentioned in the Lankavatarasutra (Taisho 1639, also translated by Bodhiruci).[11]

Aryadeva (tantric author)

Several important works of Vajrayana (most notably the Caryāmelāpakapradīpa or "Lamp that Integrates the Practices" and the Jñanasarasamuccaya) are attributed to Āryadeva. Contemporary research suggests that these works are datable to a significantly later period in Buddhist history (late ninth or early tenth century) and they are seen as being part of a Vajrayana Madhyamaka tradition which included a later tantric author also named Āryadeva.[12]

Traditional historians, such as Tāranātha (1575–1634), aware of the chronological difficulties involved, account for the anachronism via a variety of theories, such as the propagation of later writings via mystical revelation. A useful summary of this tradition, its literature, and historiography may be found in Wedemeyer 2007.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Āryadeva.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Seyfort Ruegg (1981), p. 50.
  3. ↑ Women of Wisdom by Tsultrim Allione, Shambhala Publications Inc, p. 186.
  4. ↑ Niraj Kumar; George van Driem; Phunchok Stobdan (18 November 2020). Himalayan Bridge. KW. p. 253. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Aryadeva, Shambhala Publications
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Seventeen Panditas, Shambhala Publications
  7. ↑ Seyfort Ruegg (1981), p. 51.
  8. ↑ Seyfort Ruegg (1981), p. 52.
  9. ↑ Seyfort Ruegg (1981), pp. 50-51.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Seyfort Ruegg (1981), p. 53.
  11. ↑ Seyfort Ruegg (1981), p. 54.
  12. ↑ Seyfort Ruegg (1981), p. 54.

Sources

Further reading

Online:

In print:

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