Dharmapala of Nalanda

Dharmapāla (護法, 530-561 CE.) A Brahmin^[1] Buddhist scholar, he was one of the main teachers of the Yogacara school in India. He was a contemporary of Bhavaviveka (清辯, c. 490-570 CE.), with whom he debated^[2].

Xuanzang, the famous Chinese pilgrim, tells that Dharmapāla was born in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. He was a son of a high official, and betrothed to a daughter of the king, but escaped on the eve of the wedding feast, entered the order, studied all views^[3], from Hinayana as well as Mahayana, and attained to reverence and distinction. He studied in Nalanda as a student of Dignāga. Later he succeeded him as abbot of the University. He spent his last years near the Bodhi tree, where he died^[4].

Dharmapāla developed the theory that the external things do not exist and consciousness only exists. He explains the manifestation of the phenomenal world as arising from the eight consciousness^[5].

Through the teachings of his disciple Silabhadra to Xuanzang, Dharmapāla’s tenets expanded greatly in China^[6]. His works survive in Chinese translations.

References

1. ^ P. 293 India - A Travel Guide By Dr. B.R. Kishore, Dr. Shiv Sharma
2. ^ Williams, Paul (1989) Mahayana Buddhism. The doctrinal foundations. London: Routledge, p.88
3. ^ Beal, Samuel (2001) Life of Hiuen-Tsiang , Routledge, pp 138-9
4. ^ Lusthaus, Dan (2002) Buddhist phenomenology, a philosophical investigation of Yogacara Buddhism. Routledge, Chap. Fifteen, p. 395
5. ^ Swati Ganguly, Xuanzang, et al (1992) Treatise in thirty verses on mere consciousness , Motilal Banarsidass , p.11
6. ^ Williams, P.,id. p.88