Paramārtha
499 CE–569 CE · Ujjayinī (Ujjain)
499–569 CE
Paramārtha (499–569 CE) was an Indian monk-translator, traditionally from Ujjayinī (Ujjain), and one of the most important transmitters of Indian philosophy to China. Working in southern China through a period of political chaos, he translated Yogācāra works and Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, and his renderings of 'mind-only' (Yogācāra) thought laid groundwork for the She-lun tradition and influenced later Chinese schools. He ranks with Kumārajīva and Xuanzang among the great translators of the Chinese canon.
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Ujjayinī (Ujjain)
What they did here
TRADITION: remembered as his place of origin in western India before he traveled east.
About Ujjayinī (Ujjain)
Ujjayinī, modern Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, India, was an ancient royal and intellectual city on the Shipra river. It is given as the birthplace of the sixth-century Indian monk Paramārtha (Kulanātha), who travelled to China and became a principal transmitter of the Yogācāra teachings there.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Paramārtha’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Graeco-Roman world
Islamic world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.