Indian scholars of Buddhism

Nāgārjuna (, ; ) was an Indian philosopher and Mahāyāna Buddhist monk of the Madhyamaka (Centrism, Middle Way) school. Nāgārjuna is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers. He was the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy and a defender of the Mahāyāna movement. His Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Root Verses on Madhyamaka, MMK) is the most important text on the Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness. The MMK inspired a large number of commentaries in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean and Japanese and continues to be studied today.

Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. He is also popularly regarded as the founder of Shaolin kung fu, an idea popularized in the 20th century, but based on the 17th century Yijin Jing and the Daoist association of daoyin gymnastics with Bodhidharma.

thumb|Rewalsar Lake#Colossus of Padmasambhava|Colossus of Padmasambhava, 123 ft. (37.5 m) high, in mist overlooking [[Rewalsar Lake, Himachal Pradesh, India]]

', also transliterated Ashvaghosha' (, ; lit. "Horse-Cry"; ; ) ( CE), was a Buddhist philosopher, dramatist, poet, musician, and orator from India. He was born in Saketa, today known as Ayodhya.

Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Indian Buddhist monk and scholar. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary on the Abhidharma, from the perspectives of the Sarvastivada and Sautrāntika schools. After his conversion to Mahayana Buddhism, along with his brother, Asanga, he was also one of the main founders of the Yogacara school.

Atiśa (c. 982–1054 CE) was a Buddhist religious teacher and leader from Bengal. He is generally associated with his body of work authored at Vikramaśīla Monastery in Bihar. He was a major figure in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and traveled to Sumatra and Tibet. Atiśa, along with his chief disciple Dromtön, is regarded as the founder of the Kadam school, one of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In the 14th century, the Kadam school was supplanted by the Gelug tradition, which adopted its teachings and absorbed its monasteries.

Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Sinhalese Theravādin Buddhist commentator, translator, and philosopher. He worked in the great monastery (mahāvihāra) at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajyavāda school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese mahāvihāra.

Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; ; ; ; ) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Abhayadatta Sri also lists Shantideva as one of the eighty-four mahasiddhas and is known as Bhusuku Pa (布苏固巴).

thumb|upright|Japanese art|Japanese wood statue of Asaṅga from 1208 CE Asaṅga (Sanskrit: असंग, , ; Romaji: Mujaku) (fl. 4th century C.E.) was one of the most important spiritual figures of Mahayana Buddhism and the founder of the Yogachara school. Traditionally, he and his half-brother Vasubandhu are regarded as the major classical Indian Sanskrit exponents of Mahayana Abhidharma, Vijñanavada (awareness only; also called Vijñaptivāda, the doctrine of ideas or percepts, and Vijñaptimātratā-vāda, the doctrine of 'mere representation) thought and Mahayana teachings on the bodhisattva path. He is

Dharmakīrti (fl. ) was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā. He was one of the key scholars of epistemology (pramāṇa) in Buddhist philosophy, and is associated with the Yogācāra and Sautrāntika schools. He was also one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism. His works influenced the scholars of Mīmāṃsā, Nyaya and Shaivism schools of Hindu philosophy as well as scholars of Jainism.

Chandrakirti (; Sanskrit: चंद्रकीर्ति; ; , meaning "glory of the moon" in Sanskrit) or "Chandra" was a Buddhist scholar of the Madhyamaka school who was based out of the monastery of Nalanda. He was a noted commentator on the works of Nagarjuna () and those of his main disciple, Aryadeva. He wrote two influential works on Madhyamaka, the Prasannapadā and the Madhyamakāvatāra.

'''''' (Sanskrit: शान्तरक्षित; , 725–788), whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particularly for the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Śāntarakṣita was a philosopher of the Madhyamaka school who studied at Nalanda monastery under Jñānagarbha, and became the founder of Samye, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.

Indian scholar and author (1893 – 1963)

right|275px|thumb|Aryadeva

Dignāga (also known as Diṅnāga, ) was an Indian Buddhist philosopher and logician. He is credited as one of the Buddhist founders of Indian logic (hetu vidyā) and atomism. Dignāga's work laid the groundwork for the development of deductive logic in India and created the first system of Buddhist logic and epistemology (pramāṇa).

Nāropā (c. 1016 - 1100 CE) (Prakrit; , Naḍapāda or Abhayakirti) was an Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, of Niguma. As an Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa's instructions inform Vajrayana, particularly his six yogas of Naropa relevant to the completion stage of anuttarayogatantra. He was also one of the "gatekeepers" of Vikramashila monastery and was also associated with Nalanda monastery where he rose to the position of abbot.

right|thumb|200px|Tilopa.

Indian mathematician (*1907 - †1966)

thumb|Acharya|Ācārya Bhāviveka Converts a Nonbeliever to Buddhism, [[Gelug 18th-century Qing painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art]]

Kamalaśīla (Skt. Kamalaśīla; Tib. པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་, Pemé Ngang Tsul; Wyl. pad+ma'i ngang tshul) (c. 740-795) was an Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher of Nalanda Mahavihara. Notably he accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at the request of Trisong Detsen.

Indian Buddhist monk and translator active in China (499–569)

Buddhapālita (; , fl. 5th-6th centuries CE) was an Indian Mahayana Buddhist commentator on the works of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. His Mūlamadhyamaka-vṛtti is an influential commentary to the Mūlamadhyamakakarikā.

Maitreya-nātha (c. 270–350 CE) is a name whose use was pioneered by Buddhist scholars Erich Frauwallner, Giuseppe Tucci, and Hakuju Ui to distinguish one of the three founders of the Yogācāra school of Buddhist philosophy, along with Asanga and Vasubandhu. Some scholars believe this Maitreya to be a historical person in India who authored various Yogācāra texts known as the Maitreya corpus. The traditions themselves have held that it is referring to the bodhisattva Maitreya, the future buddha.

Bengali scholar and author (1853-1931)

thumb|Virūpa, 16th century. It depicts a famous episode in his hagiography when he stopped the sun in the sky. Virupa (; Tib. bi ru pa or bir wa pa, ), also known as Virupaksa and Tutop Wangchuk, was an 8th–9th century Indian mahasiddha and yogi, and the source of important cycles of teachings in Vajrayana Buddhism.

Maitrīpāda ( 1007–1085, also known as Maitreyanātha, Advayavajra, and, to Tibetans, Maitrīpa), was a prominent Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha associated with the Mahāmudrā transmission of tantric Buddhism. His teachers were Shavaripa and Naropa. His students include Atisha, Marpa, Vajrapani, Karopa, Natekara (also known as Sahajavajra), Devākaracandra (also known as Śūnyatāsamādhi), and Rāmapāla. His hermitage was in the Mithila region (also known as Tirhut), somewhere in northern Bihar and neighboring parts of southern Nepal.

Indian historian

Bodhisena or Bodaisenna (704–760 CE) was a Buddhist scholar and monk from India known for traveling to Japan and China and establishing the Kegon school, the Japanese transmission of the Huayan school of Chinese Buddhism. He is the first known Indian visitor to Japan.

Indian philosopher (530-561)

Buddhadatta Thera was a 5th-century Theravada Buddhist writer from the town of Uragapura in the Chola kingdom of South India. He wrote many of his works in the Bhūtamangalagāma monastery and his patron was Accutavikkanta of the Kalamba dynasty (Kalambhakulavamsa jāte Accutavikkamanāme Colarājini Colarattham samanusāsante). Buddhadatta traveled to Sri Lanka's Mahāvihāra in Anurādhapura to study and translate the commentaries on the Buddha's teachings from Sinhalese to Pali. He is said to have met Buddhagosa at sea while returning to India, his work unfinished. Buddhadatta asked Buddhagosa to se

Dhammapāla was the name of two or more great Theravada Buddhist commentators.

Śīlabhadra () (529–645) was a Buddhist monk and philosopher. He is best known as being an abbot of Nālandā monastery in India, as being an expert on Yogācāra teachings, and for being the personal tutor of the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang. Another notable student of his was Prabhakāramitra.

Indian philosopher (1872-1941)

Shavaripa (Sanskrit: Śabara) was an Indian Buddhist teacher, one of the eighty-four Mahasiddhas, honored as being among the holders of the distant transmission of Mahamudra. He was a student of Nagarjuna and a teacher of Maitripa. He is one of the forefathers of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Shavaripa is loosely related to the goddess Parnashavari and Janguli by relationship of the Shavari tribe of north-east India.

Sthiramati (Sanskrit; Chinese: Anhui 安慧, and Jianhui 堅慧; Tibetan: Blo gros brtan pa) was a 6th-century Indian Buddhist scholar-monk. Sthiramati was a student of a Yogācāra scholar named Gunamati, and he was also a contemporary of another 6th century Yogācāra scholar, Dharmapala of Nālandā. Sthiramati is connected with Valābhi university (present-day Gujarat), and also with Nālandā. Evidence from two inscriptions indicate that a figure named Sthiramati founded a monastery at Valābhi.

8th-century Indian Buddhist philosopher

Jain Scholar and Philosopher from India

Indrabhuti (alternatively King Ja) is a name attributed to a number of individuals that have become conflated in Vajrayana Buddhism. One Indrabhuti, considered a Mahasiddha, was a disciple of Lawapa.

thumb|275px|Mahasiddha Chandragomin, Black Schist, Bangladesh, 12th century thumb|upright=1.25|An 11th-century Shisyalekha manuscript, originally authored in 5th-century CE by Chandragomin. It is a Buddhist Sanskrit text in the [[Devanagari script discovered in Nepal. Chandragomin's composition is an ornate epistolary genre Buddhist poetry about a monk who falls in love and breaks his celibacy vow.]] Chandragomin (Skt. Candragomin) was an Indian Buddhist lay scholar and poet. The Tibetan tradition believes he challenged Chandrakirti. Chandragomin was a teacher at Nalanda Monastic University du

Ratnākaraśānti (also known as Ratnākara, Śāntipa, and Śānti) (late 10th-century CE to mid 11th-century CE) was an influential Buddhist philosopher and vajrayana tantric adept and scholar. He was the "gate scholar" of Vikramaśilā university's eastern gate (modern-day Bihar in India), a key post in the university's leadership. Ratnākara was known by the title kalikālasarvajña ("the Omniscient One of the Degenerate Age") and is depicted as one of the eighty-four mahāsiddhas (great yogic masters).

Bengali scholars (1878-1959)

Buddhist monk of the Sarvastivada school who flourished in the 2nd century CE

Indian historian (1903-1981)