Buddhaghosa
? · Anurādhapura
fl. 5th c. CE (c. 370–450 traditional)
Buddhaghosa was the preeminent commentator of the Theravāda tradition, active in the 5th century CE (traditionally c. 370–450). His towering work, the Visuddhimagga, organizes the whole path under ethics, concentration, and wisdom and remains the tradition's standard practical synthesis; he also rendered into Pali the body of older Sinhala commentaries. His role and works are firmly attested. His personal life is thinner: his birthplace is traditional and contested (often given as the Bodh Gaya region of north India, though scholars do not agree), and the conversion narrative is hagiographic. The India-to-Sri-Lanka mission that frames his career is well attested in outline.
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Anurādhapura
What they did here
DOCUMENTED ROLE: at the Mahāvihāra he studied and rendered the Sinhala commentaries into Pali and composed the Visuddhimagga ('The Path of Purification'), the central systematization of Theravāda doctrine.
About Anurādhapura
Anurādhapura, in north-central Sri Lanka, was the island's ancient royal capital and the seat of the Mahāvihāra, the great monastery that became the stronghold of orthodox Theravāda Buddhism. The fifth-century commentator Buddhaghosa worked at the Mahāvihāra there, where he composed the Visuddhimagga ('Path of Purification') and his Pāli commentaries.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.