Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher and poet, traditionally identified as the eighth-century yú-jiā zhōng-guān pài 瑜伽中觀派 / Yogācāra-Mādhyamika synthesist of Nālandā. Modern Western scholarly consensus (Pezzali, Crosby/Skilton, Williams) places his life-dates approximately 685–763, though earlier Tibetan tradition and some Chinese accounts place him in the sixth-seventh century. Born to King Kuśalavarman / Dégǎi-wáng 德鎧王 of Surāṣṭra / Sūluó-shíchǐ-guó 蘇羅室蹉國 in southern India, with the birth-name Jì-kǎi 寂鎧 (Śāntavarman); fled court life on the eve of his coronation, served twelve years at the court of the Sīnharaja of eastern India, then took ordination at Nālandā under Shèngtiān 勝天 (Jayadeva), receiving the new name Jì-tiān 寂天 (Śāntideva).
His principal works are the Śikṣāsamuccaya (學處要集 / Compendium of Trainings) and the Bodhicaryāvatāra (入菩薩行論 / Introduction to the Bodhisattva’s Conduct), the latter the principal classical text on the cultivation of bodhicitta and bodhisattva conduct. The Bodhicaryāvatāra was first translated into Chinese in 985 CE by Tiānxīzāi as Pútí xíng jīng 菩提行經 (T32n1662, eight chapters, attributed to Nāgārjuna in error); the full ten-chapter Tibetan version was transmitted to Tibet by Atiśa and elevated by Tsongkhapa and the dGe-lugs-pa school as one of the Bka’-gdams six fundamental treatises (Bka’-gdams gzhung-drug).
Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6v0044 Rù púsà xíng lùn guǎngjiě — Lónglián’s twentieth-century Tibetan-to-Chinese translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra plus rGyal-tshab Dar-ma rin-chen’s commentary.