Buddhaghoṣa

Buddhaghoṣa (Skt.; Pāli, Buddhaghosa). A monk, born at the beginning of the 5th century and considered to be the greatest of commentators on the Pāli Canon. The hagiographic accounts of his life report that because his speech, like that of the Buddha, was profound and his words spread throughout the world he came to be called Buddhaghoṣa, literally meaning ‘Buddha utterance’. Later tradition ascribes to him an exaggerated number of texts. It is said that while living in India he composed the Ñāṇodaya and the Atthasālinī, and also began to write a concise commentary (Parittaṭṭhakathā) on the Tripiṭaka (Pāli, Tipiṭaka). In order to complete his task, he went to Sri Lanka and studied the Sinhalese commentaries at the Mahāvihāra. When his studies ended he wrote the Visuddhimagga, and having won the approval of the monks of the Mahāvihāra, he rendered the Sinhalese commentaries into Pāli. According to the Theravādin tradition the commentaries came to Sri Lanka with the first Buddhist missionaries in the 3rd century bce. When this task was accomplished, Buddhaghoṣa returned to India. Besides the above-mentioned works Buddhaghoṣa is credited with composing the Samantapāsādikā and the Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī commentaries on the Vinaya Piṭaka, and the Manorathapūraṇī commentary on the Sūtra Piṭaka. He is also said to have compiled commentaries on the Khuddakapāṭha, the Sutta Nipāta and on the Dhammapada. Some also ascribe to him the commentary on the Jātakas (Jātakaṭṭhakathā). In fact the Vinaya commentary is probably not his work, and the author of the Abhidhamma commentary states that he is writing it at the request of Buddhaghoṣa. It is probably safest to attribute to Buddhaghoṣa only the Visuddhimagga and the commentaries on the four Nikāyas or āgamas. The rest is best viewed as the work of the ‘school of Buddhaghoṣa’. Whatever their exact provenance, these works have exerted a major influence upon the doctrine of the Theravāda orthodoxy in Sri Lanka, and the teachings of Theravāda Buddhism as we know them today.