Explore the Indian Mahayana Buddhist masters whose teachings shaped Tibetan Buddhism, including Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Asanga, and Shantideva.
See Also: Profiles of early Indian Mahayana figures | Tibetan Masters of the 8th Century | Tibetan Masters of the 10th-11th Centuries
Indian Mahayana Masters from the 2nd-8th Centuries
The Seventeen Pandits of Nalanda
2nd through 11th centuries
Tibetan Buddhism is none other than the Buddhism of India in the tradition of Nalanda, the great center of Buddhist learning that was located in present-day Bihar, India. There are seventeen great Indian master scholars profiled here, including Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Asanga, Vasabandhu, Buddhapalita, Dignaga, Bhavaviveka, Vimuktisena, Chandrakirti, Dharmakirti, Shantideva, Shantarakshita, Kamalashila, Haribhadra, Gunaprabha, Shakyaprabha. and Atisha.
The Tibetan traditions all look back to India as the source of wisdom. There were countless Buddhist masters all over India, north and south, east (including present-day Bangladesh) and west (including present-day Pakistan). The Mahayana reached its full expression during this period, and what follows is a partial but growing list of Reader Guides to these masters.
Nagarjuna
2nd century...and beyond
The great Indian Mahayan master closely associated with the Perfection of Wisdom
Aryadeva
3rd century
Nagarjuna's direct student and critical elucidator of Madhyamaka.
Asanga
4th century
The great Indian Mahayana master who is a key explicator of Yogacara, and also received the Five Maitreya texts from Maitreya.
Shantideva and the Way of the Bodhisattva
8th century
The great Indian master Shantideva is the author of two very important texts. The first is the Śikṣāsamuccaya, or Training Anthology which is a compilation of many works. The second is the Bodhicharyavatara, or Way of the Bodhisattva. This Reader Guide focuses on the latter work.
Xuanzang (602-664 CE
7th century
While not an Indian master, we wanted to include Xuanzang, certainly one of the most important figures in Buddhist history. His 16 year pilgrimage from his home in China throughout the Buddhist world is almost The Odyssey of the Buddhist literature. His translation and preservation of texts, as well as the account of his journey, had come down to us through the ages and is well worth a deep exploration.
