Parahitabhadra
From Buddha-Nature
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परहितभद्र
Parahitabhadra(b. 11th Century - )
གཞན་ལ་ཕན་པ་བཟང་པོ་
Kashmiri Paṇḍita who became an important teacher and collaborator for several influential Tibetan scholars and translators that spent time studying in Kashmir in the 11th Century. According to Karl Brunnhölzl in When the Clouds Part:
- Parahitabhadra was a student of the Kashmirian Mahāpaṇḍita Somaśrī and also studied Madhyamaka with Ratnavajra. Parahitabhadra's main Indian student was Mahāsumati, and he also taught Ngog Lotsāwa, Patsab Lotsāwa, Sangkar Lotsāwa Pagpa Sherab (a student of Jñānaśrībhadra), Sherab Gyaltsen (a student of Atiśa), Shönnu Cho, Su Gawé Dorje, and Marpa Dopa. Together with these translators, Parahita translated or revised many sūtras, tantras, and treatises (more than twenty works in the Tengyur, among them the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga). There is also evidence that he collaborated with Sajjana, as their common revision of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra shows. In addition, the Tengyur contains three works authored by Parahitabhadra (a Śūnyatāsaptativṛtti, a Maṇḍalābhiṣekavidhi, and a rather extensive commentary on the first two verses of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra). Besides Kashmir, he was active in Toling in western Tibet. It seems that he was more of a Madhyamaka and Pramāṇa specialist, but there is no doubt that he was a part of the eleventh-century Kashmirian paṇḍita scene that was involved with the Maitreya texts and transmitted them to Tibet (he is also mentioned in one of the Tibetan transmission lineages of the Uttaratantra). (88)
Other names
- Parahita · other names
Affiliations & relations
- Somaśrī · teacher
- Ratnavajra · teacher
- rngog blo ldan shes rab · student
- mar pa do pa chos kyi dbang phyug · student
- gzus dga' ba rdo rje · student
- gzhon nu mchog · student
