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Bodhiruci (or: Bodhiruchi, Bodairushi ; Chinese : 菩提流支), was an Indian translator and Buddhist monk from South India He was originally called Dharmaruci. He is supposed to have lived 156 years, died in 727. He went to China at the end of the 7th century, where he translated numerous texts, sutras and commentaries from Sanskrit into Middle Chinese.

Biography

Bodhiruci (or: Bodhiruchi, Bodairushi ; Chinese :菩提流支), was born into a family of Brahmins of the Kashyapa Gotra, from South India. The year of his birth is not certain, either 562 or 571 CE. He died in 727, supposedly at the age of 156. He was educated according to the principles of his caste, but when he reached adulthood, he chose the path of Buddhism.

The Emperor Gaozong of Tang invited him to come to China in 663 CE, but he would wait thirty years, until 693, to go there, during the reign of empress Wu Zetian, who asked him to change his name from Dharmaruci to Bodhiruci.

He first settled in the monastery of Foshoujisi, in Chang'an, the ancient Chinese capital, now Xi'an. He also stayed in Luoyang, the secondary capital of the empire named Dongdu (東都), the "Eastern Capital", where in 699 he took part, under the direction of Śikṣānanda (652–710), in the second translation of the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, better known as the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.

In 706, he moved to the monastery of Chongfusi where he translated the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra. It took him seven years to complete the translation of the 49 sutras that make up the whole. By 713, the completed edition contained 120 scrolls. During his long life, he also translated other texts, sutras and commentaries.

At the age of 90, he renounced worldly life to devote himself entirely to meditation and devotion. He isolated himself completely and stopped writing, reading only his manuscripts written in Sanskrit

In the early 6th century in North India, there was another Buddhist monk also called Bodhiruci. He should not be confused with the Bodhiruci who is the subject of this article.

Translations

There does not seem to be a complete list of the sutras and other texts translated by Bodhiruci.

The following sutras listed below appear in the Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue, by Lewis Lancaster and Sun-bae Park, in which 69 sutras are mentioned. These include texts by the two Bodhiruci, who often translated the same sutras each on their own, a century apart. Only those of the Bodhiruci that interests us here are mentioned.

Notes and references

Notes

1. If Bodhiruci died in 727 at the age of 156, this means that he was born in 571 (although 562 is sometimes mentioned by historians).
2. Most of the texts that Bodhiruci translated into Chinese have not, to date, been translated into English or any other Western language. For this reason, in the "English translations" column of the table, a question mark (?) has been included, instead of the words "Not available", because one day, perhaps, translations published in English will be able to constitute reliable sources.
3. Concerning the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra K.22, which is made up of 49 sutras, only 27 are listed in the The Korean Buddhist Canon. This means that there are 27 different web links. Not all of them have been listed here, it would have taken up too much space in the "References" section of this article. They are easily accessible via the web link Bodhiruci. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
4. Nilakantha: this title can refer to several texts (Sutras or Dharanis), all of which have been translated under the generic title Nīlakaṇṭha. Some are invocations addressed to Avalokiteśvara, in her feminine form Guanyin; others, including the Bodhiruci one mentioned here, are addressed to the triad Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara and Mahasthamaprapta). For further information on Nilakantha, see also the article Eleven-Faced Avalokitesvara Heart Dharani Sutra.

References

1. ^ Martha Cheung. An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation. Vol.1: From Earliest Times to the Buddhist Project, 2014, p. 203.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
2. P.V. Bapat,2500 Years of Buddhism, 1959, p. 218. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
3. ^ Robert Buswell Jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism , 2013, pp. 133–134. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
4. Paul.W. Kroll. Critical Readings on Tang China, Vol. 4, 2018, p.1655. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
5. ^ The Korean Buddhist Canon. « Bodhiruci » in section "Authors, editors, translators" (then sutra number).. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
6. The Korean Buddhist Canon :K.18.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
7. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.22.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
8. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.36.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
9. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.287.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
10. 84000. coThe Sovereign Ritual of Amoghapāśa. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
11. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.293.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
12. Source: The Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara, Vol. 1, p. 44; 238–9., by Lokesh Chandra, 1988. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
13. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.298.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
14. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.351.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
15. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.422.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
16. The Korean Buddhist Canon: K.489.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.

Bibliography

• P.V (Purushottam Vishvanath) Bapat (1959). 2500 Years of Buddhism. Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, New Delhi. p. 492. ISBN 9788123023045.
  (Note: The book has been republished several times since 1959, with a different total number of pages from that shown here). Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• Lokesh Chandra (1988). The Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara. Vol. 1. Abhinav Publications, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. p. 303. ISBN 81-7017-247-0. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• Martha Cheung (2014). An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation. Volume 1: From Earliest Times to the Buddhist Project. Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames,Royaume-Uni. p. 268. ISBN 978-1-317-63928-2.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• Paul W. Kroll (2018). Critical Readings on Tang China. Vol. 4. Éditions Brill, Leyde. p. 420. ISBN 978-9-004-38020-2.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• Lewis Lancaster; Sung-bae Park (1979). The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. University of California Press. Center for Japanese and Korean Studies. p. 724. ISBN 978-0-520-03159-3.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.

External links

• The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue.. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• The SAT Daizōkyō Text Database at the University of Tokyo. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA). Retrieved 6 January 2025.
• NTI Buddhist Text Reader. Retrieved 6 January 2025.

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