Integrity Score 570
No Records Found
No Records Found
Second great central pillar - Jnanasrimitra, wasa teacher of Atisaand the author of the sastra “Free from the Two Extremities”. Born in Gauda, he was earlier a pandita of the Sravaka Sendhavas and a scholar of their Tripitaka. Later, he revered the Mahayana and thoroughly studied all the sastras of Nagarjuna and Asanga. Once, while residing in Vikramshila, he directed a novice monk to start immediately for Gayaso as to reach by next noon, in order to save damage from predicted fire to the temple at Vajrasan, where a brahmana had invited all the monks with the priests in charge of the temple of Vajrasana to a seasonal feast. The monk went to Gaya and met the residents of Vajrasana, half of whom didn’t believe him and stayed back. When he reached the Vajrasana with the other half, it had already caught fire and both the interior and the exterior were aflame. They extinguished the fire with prayer to the deity and thus the temple was saved from further damage. The acharya arranged for the restoration of the damaged paintings and the renovation of the wooden structure.
After the 6 gate-keeper scholars, there was no continuity in the succession of the upadhyayas for some years. Then came Atisa. After him, there was no upadhyaya for 7 years. Then Mahavajrasana became the upadhyaya for a short period. After him one called Kamalakulisa became the upadhyaya. Next was Narendra-sri-jnana, who was succeeded by Danaraksita. After him Abhayakara acted as upadhyaya for a long time, and was succeeded successively by Subhakargupta, Nayakapasri, Dharmakarasanti and Sakyasri, the great pandita of Kashmir. After him, the legend of Vikramshila ended.
To be continued...