Śākyaśrībhadra
Śākyaśrībhadra | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | c. 1127 CE |
| Died | c. 1225 CE |
| Education | |
| Senior posting | |
| Teacher | Jñanasrimitra |
Students | |
Śākyaśrībhadra (T. ཤཱཀྱ་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲ།) (1127–1225), also known as Śākyaśrī, was an Indian pandit from Kashmir who was a key figure in the history of both Indian and Tibetan Buddhism of the 12th and 13th centuries.
In India, he served as abbot of the monasteries of Nalanda and Vikramashila. He was the last abbot of Vikramashila before it was destroyed by invading Muslim troops.[1]
In the later part of his life, he traveled to Tibet, where he was known as "the Kashmiri Mahapandita," (T. kha che pan chen).[2] He played an important role in the later dissemination (phyi dar) of the Buddhist teachings from India to Tibet.[1]
David Jackson states:
- He was remembered by Tibetan historians for at least four major contributions to the development of Buddhism in their land. The first contribution was his founding of a famous Vinaya ordination lineage and fully functioning monastic community. This community became the basis for the so-called "four communities" (tshogs pa bzhi) of his tradition. The second contribution was his establishing in Tibet a revised translation and trustworthy teaching line of Dharmakirti's greatest work, the Pramāṇavārttika. This he did in collaboration with his pupil Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (1182-1251). The third was his calculation of a Buddhist chronology which differed considerably from that of the other Tibetan traditions before then, being much closer to the estimates of modern scholars on the probable dates of the Buddha Shakyamuni and possibly deriving from a Singhalese Theravadin tradition. The fourth was his cooperation with Tropu Lotsāwa on the building of the great Maitreya statue at Khro-phu in western Tsang.[2]
Biography
Śākyaśrībhadra (a.k.a. Śākyaśrī) was born in Daśobharā in modern-day Kashmir.[3] There are conflicting opinions regarding the year of his birth, with some sources saying 1127 CE and others pointing to a period around the 1140s.[3][4] He had a brother named Buddhacandra.[3]
At the age of 10, he began to study grammar under a Brahmin named Lakṣmīdhara.[3] By the age of 23, he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and given the monastic name of Subhadra.[3]
When he was 30, Śākyaśrī travelled to the region of Magadha in modern-day Bihar after receiving invitations from multiple monks including Ṥāntākaragupta, Daśabala, and Dhavaraka. Śākyaśrī eventually became the abbot of both Nalanda and Vikramashila monasteries. Notably, he was also the last abbot of Vikramashila and witnessed its destruction at the hands of invading Muslim troops.[1]
Following this event, Śākyaśrī fled with his followers to Jagaddala Mahavihara in Bengal where he stayed for three years.[5]
The Tibetan scholar Tropu Lotsāwa Jampa Pel travelled to northern India via the Chumbi Valley in search of Śākyaśrī; they met in a town called Vaneśvara.[6][7] Tropu Lotsāwa invited Śākyaśrī to Tibet and Śākyaśrī accepted the invitation.[7] Declaring that Buddhism had been "destroyed" in India, he travelled to Tibet in the company on nine panditas from India and Nepal.[1] His companions included: Sugataśrī, an expert in Madhyamaka and Prajñāpāramitā; Jayadatta, in Vinaya; Vibhūticandra, in grammar and Abhidharma; Dānaśīla, in logic; Saṅghaśrī, in Candavyākaraṇa; Jīvagupta, in the books of Maitreya; Mahābodhi, in the Bodhicaryāvatāra; and Kālacandra in the Kālacakra.[3]
Śākyaśrī and his group arrived in Tibet in 1204. He is said to have brought with him relics of the Buddha that were passed on to him by a Sri Lankan arhat.[2]
In Tibet, Śākyaśrī travelled to, and gave teachings at, many dharma centers, including Trophu monastery and Sakya monastery.
Notably, he gave teachings to the Sakya Pandita on multiple occasions: including when they first met in 1204 (when Śākyaśrī gave teachings on logic) and again in 1208 (when Śākyaśrī served as the upadhyaya in Sakya Pandita's ordination ceremony). In 1210 Śākyaśrī gave Sakya Pandita extensive teachings on Kālacakra, Vinaya, linguistics, poetics, logic and epistemology, and Abhidharma. The two worked on a re-translation of Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika.[3]
Among his other notable disciples in Tibet were: Chak Lotsāwa Choje Pel (chag lo tsA ba chos rje dpal, 1197-1263/4), Tsang Sowa Sonam Dze (gtsang so ba bsod nams mdzes, d.u.), and Chel Lotsāwa Chokyi Zangpo (dpyal lo tsA ba chos kyi bzang po).[3]
In 1214, Śākyaśrī left Tibet returned to his native Kashmir where he continued to teach Buddhism and repair temples. He died in 1225.[3][2]
Notes
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University- Gardner, Alexander (2011), "Śākyaśrībhadra", Treasury of Lives
- Jackson, David (1990), "Two Biographies of Śākyaśrībhadra: The Eulogy by Khro-phu lo-tsā-ba and its Commentary by bSod-nams-dpal-bzang-po: Texts and Variants from Two Rare Exemplars in the Bihar Research Society, Patna", Tibetan and Indo-Tibetan Studies, vol. 4. Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, University of Hamburg, pp. 1–48
- Martin, Dan (2008), "Tropu Lotsāwa Jampa Pel", Treasury of Lives
- Nath Dhar, Triloki (2004), Saints and Sages of Kashmir, APH Publishing. Archive version
External links
Śākyaśribhadra, Wikipedia
Śākyaśrībhadra, Tsadra Commons
