Jayananda

Jayananda (Skt. Jayānanda; Tib. རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་དགའ, Gyalwa Künga, Wyl. rgyal ba kun dga') (11th-12th c.) was an Indian scholar and the author of an important commentary on the Introduction to the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamakāvatāra).

He went to Tibet, where he met and debated with the great translator Ngok Lekpé Sherab, one of Atisha’s translators and disciples. Jayananda lost the debate, which was a bit of an insult for an Indian scholar, and he returned very discouraged to India, where he engaged in a practice of Manjushri for many years. Eventually Manjushri appeared to him in a vision, and he became a great scholar. He went back to debate with Ngok Lotsawa again, but by that time, he had died. Subsequently, Jayananda wrote his large commentary on the Madhyamakavatara.

Further Reading

• David Seyfort Ruegg, The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981). pp. 113-114
• Leonard van der Kuijp, 'Jayânanda: A Twelfth Century Guoshi from Kashmir Among the Tangut.' Central Asiatic Journal 37 no 3/4 (1993) pp. 188-197.
• Kevin A. Vose, Resurrecting Candrakirti: Disputes in the Tibetan Creation of Prasangika, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2009