Sthiramati

Sthiramati (Tib. བློ་གྲོས་བརྟན་པ་, Wyl. blo gros brtan pa) (c.510-570) — a disciple of Vasubandhu. His writings include commentaries on Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes and Ornament of Mahayana Sutras and on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosha, Thirty Stanzas and Analysis of the Five Skandhas.

Taranatha recounts the story that when Vasubandhu was reciting the Collection of a Hundred Thousand Slokas in Ninety-nine Sections, an intelligent dove listened with reverence. When the dove was reborn as a boy, immediately he asked "where is the acharya [Vasubandhu]?"

It is said that during his time, as most of the centres of the Dharma established by the previous acharyas had become defunct, this acharya established hundreds of Dharma centres.

Works

• Commentary on Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes (Skt. madhyānta-vibhāga-ṭīkā; Tib. དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་, Wyl. dbus dang mtha' rnam par 'byed pa'i 'grel bshad) . Tibetan text: དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་ (Derge Pedurma)

Further reading

• Chimpa, Alaka Chattopadhyaya & Lama, Taranatha’s History of Buddhism in India, Edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2010), pages 179-181 and 399-400