Gunabhadra (394–468) was a monk and translator of Mahayana Buddhism from Magadha, Central India. His biography is contained in the work of a Chinese monk called Sengyou entitled Chu sanzang ji ji.

Life

Gunabhadra was said to have originally been born into a Brahman family but studied the Miśrakābhidharmahṛdaya under a Mahayana master which led to his conversion to Buddhism. He traveled to China by sea with Gunavarma in 435 after first visiting Sri Lanka. They were both treated as honored guests by Emperor Wen of Liu Song, the ruler of South China at the time. In China, he translated one of the key Mahayana sutras, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, from Sanskrit to Chinese, and Vekhanasa Sutra, which forms "a volume from the Issaikyō (a Buddhist corpus), commonly known as Jingo-ji kyō," as it was handed down at the Jingo-ji temple. Before translating the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, he translated another important sutra, the Saṃyuktāgama into Chinese. He continued to be active in other translations and preaching. His Chinese biography also details that he mastered the Tripiṭaka.

Translations

CBETA lists the following sutra translations as Gunabhadra's: