ATISHA
DIPANKARA SHREEJNANA
LATE
RADHAKRISHNA CHOUDHARY
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| Atisha |
The most
distinguished among the leading luminaries of the University of Vikramashila
was Atisha Dipankara Shreejnana, a widely travelled man and possessing
enclyclopaedic knowledge. He made the university internationally famous. At the
time when the Tibetans had come to invite Atisha to Tibet, there were fifty
seven Panditas of great intellectual eminence and they were like stars of
heaven. ....
Atisha was
born at Sahor in A D 982 and his father’s name was Kalyanshree. (Rahul
Sankrityayana identifies Sahor with Sabour, Bhagalapur, but the identification
is not accepted by Alaka Chattopadhyaya). His parents were intimately connected
with the University of Vikramashila. He is known in Tibet as Dpal-Mar-Mad-Mdsa-Yes-Sy
and is also called Jor-Vor-Je-Pal-Don-Atisha. His
original name was Chandragarbha. He was placed under Jetari for
education and training. At the age of nineteen he took the sacred vow from Shilarakshita,
the Mahasanghika Acharya of the monastery of Odantpuri, who gave him the
name of Shree Dipankara Shreejnana. He also studied at Nalanda. He acquired
proficiency in the three Pitakas of the Mahayana School, the high
metaphysics of the Madhyamika Yogachara School, and four classes of the Tantras.
When he began the study of the Buddhist sciences in a Vihara, he was given the
name of Guhyajnanavajra and was then initiated into the mysteries of esoteric
Buddhism. It is believed that he was initiated into the mysteries of Buddhism
and the lands of the Shramanas by Bodhibhadra, the principal Acharya of
Nalanda.
After
completing his education, he proceeded to Suvarnadweepa. He stayed there for
full twelve years and remained engrossed in the study of Buddhism and allied
sciences. He made a great name at Suvarnadweepa. Though born in a royal family,
Atisha renounced the world and became a Bhikshu. He was invited to join
the University of Vikramashila in the reign of Mahipala or Nayapala (who is
believed to have been his disciple) as the principal Acharya.
His fame as
a Buddhist scholar spread far and wide and he was invited by the Tibetan ruler
for purifying Buddhism. It was Shantirakshita, also known as Acharya Bodhisattva
in Tibet, from Nalanda who had laid the foundation of Buddhism in Tibet in the
seventh century A D. It was he who for the first time introduced Buddhist
monasticism in Tibet which later came to be known as Lamaism. ....By the middle
of the eleventh century, Buddhism in Tibet had degenerated into worst form and
it was therefore thought proper to invite Atisha to reform it. At that time,
Atisha was at the peak of his intellectual glory. ..Many missions had come to
take Atisha to Tibet but all of them had failed. Veeryasimha had come
with sufficient gold but Atisha refused gold and did not go. Jayasheela
(Nag-Tsho) was then commissioned to bring Atisha to Tibet. He was then
studying at Vikramashila. ..The authorities of Vikramashila were not willing to
allow Atisha to go to Tibet. Atisha had told Nag-Tsho to keep the matter of his
mission a secret. ....But the news broke out. Having learnt the news Shilakara
said, ‘You are stealing away our Pandita.’ Atisha was advised to go to Tibet
for three years only and Jayasheela agreed to the proposal. .. About three
dozens of scholars accompanied him to Tibet. ....
Atisha
revised the practice of Mahayana doctrine, cleared Tibetan Buddhism of foreign
and heretical elements and started a movement which may be called Lamaist
reformation. He set in motion the wheel of Law in Tibet and his arrival forms a
landmark in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. The true rebirth of Buddhism took
place there in the second half of the eleventh century A D and the reformed
sect, known as Kadam-pa, later became the established church of
Tibet under the name of Ge-lug-Pa (Gelukapa).
Over and
above his works in connections with the dissemination of Buddhism, he is
credited with having written, compiled, translated over two hundred books on
Buddhist religion, philosophy and tantras. ....
Atisha died
at the age of seventy three.
[Extracts
from late Radhakrishna Choudhary’s ‘THE UNIVERSITY OF VIKRAMASHILA’, The
Bihar Research Society, Patna, 1975.]
(Concluded)
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