Northern-Wèi translator-monk from North India (北天竺). Sanskrit name Buddhaśānta; Chinese rendering both 佛陀扇多 (preferred form in DILA) and the variant 佛馱扇多 used in catalog meta. The semantic translation of the Sanskrit name is Jué-dìng 覺定 (“Awakened-and-Composed”).
Active in Luòyáng and at Bái-mǎ-sì 白馬寺 during the late Northern Wèi (孝昌–永安 era, ca. 525–539), Buddhaśānta worked alongside Bodhiruci I 菩提流支 (the Northern-Wèi Bodhiruci, distinct from the Tang Bodhiruci II) on the major Yogācāra translation programme. His best-known independent work is the Shè dà-shèng lùn 攝大乘論 (T1592, KR6n0001 — Asaṅga’s Mahāyāna-saṃgraha in two fascicles, the earliest Chinese translation of that key Yogācāra treatise). He also translated the Yín-sè-nǚ jīng 銀色女經 (T179), Fó-shuō zhèng gōng-jìng jīng 佛說正恭敬經 (T1496), the Rú-lái shī-zǐ-hǒu jīng 如來師子吼經 (T835), the Jīn-gāng shàng-wèi tuóluóní jīng 金剛上味陀羅尼經 (T1344), and the present Fó-shuō Ānántuó-mù-qū-ní-hē-lí-tuó-lín-ní jīng KR6j0208 (T1015). Worked in close collaboration with Huì-guāng 慧光. Lifedates not preserved.
Sources
- Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳, T50 no. 2060, p. 429a (within 《菩提流支傳》).
- DILA Buddhist Studies Person Authority A000440.