Sthiramati

Sthiramati (Tib. བློ་གྲོས་བརྟན་པ་, Wyl. blo gros brtan pa) (c.510-570) — a disciple of Vasubandhu, who was particularly renowned for his mastery of abhidharma. 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]?". This boy was Sthiramati. It is said that during his time, as most of the centres of the Dharma established by the previous acharyas had become defunct, he 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