Buddhadatta
Buddhadatta Thera was a 5th-century
Theravada Buddhist writer from the town of Uragapura in the
Chola kingdom of
South India. He wrote many of his works in the Bhūtamangalagāma monastery and his patron was
Accutavikkanta of the
Kalamba dynasty (''Kalambhakulavamsa jāte Accutavikkamanāme Colarājini Colarattham samanusāsante''). Buddhadatta traveled to Sri Lanka's Mahāvihāra in
Anurādhapura to study and translate the commentaries on the Buddha's teachings from
Sinhalese to
Pali. He is said to have met
Buddhagosa at sea while returning to India, his work unfinished. Buddhadatta asked Buddhagosa to send him his translations and commentaries and used them in the writing of his
Abhidhammāvatāra. The
Abhidhammāvatāra (Pali: “The Coming of the Abhidhamma”) is one of the earliest and most important
Abhidhamma manuals. It is a systematized overview of the doctrines in the
Abhidhamma Pitaka, written largely in 24 verse chapters. Buddhadatta's other works include the Vinaya-Vinicchaya (“Analysis of the Vinaya”), the Uttara-Vinicchaya, the Rūpārūpa-Vibhāga.
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