Sages' Biographies

[Will]

Buddha's direct disciples I know of and some major Theravadin figures in the 19-20th centuries, but that leaves a vast period of time I am ignorant of. Aside from Buddhagosha and Ashoka there must have been many Arahants or sages that Theravadins admire.

So please give us some short bios here or references to books about sages from the Southern tradition between, say, 300 bce and 1800.

[Cittasanto]

Hi Will
Arahant Upatissa who wrote the Vimuttimagga

[Will]

Hi Will
Arahant Upatissa who wrote the Vimuttimagga

Thanks Manapa.

Now maybe others will add more and fill in the blanks about Bhante Upatissa. When did he live, where did he live & any bios in English?

Good ole Wiki has a little - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upatissa_of_Sri_Lanka. So he was a King of Lanka around 500bce.

By the way, is Buddha's parinibbana date settled firmly now? If so, what is it?

[Cittasanto]

no it was about 1AD the work I mentioned was written, http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDeta ... 30&MATCH=1

[gavesako]

Buddha's direct disciples I know of and some major Theravadin figures in the 19-20th centuries, but that leaves a vast period of time I am ignorant of. Aside from Buddhagosha and Ashoka there must have been many Arahants or sages that Theravadins admire.

As far as I know, neither Buddhaghosa nor Asoka are regarded as arahants (except as product of much later glorification).

Have you seen R. Ray's book "Buddhist Saints in India"? It deals with this subject.

[Will]

Buddha's direct disciples I know of and some major Theravadin figures in the 19-20th centuries, but that leaves a vast period of time I am ignorant of. Aside from Buddhagosha and Ashoka there must have been many Arahants or sages that Theravadins admire.

As far as I know, neither Buddhaghosa nor Asoka are regarded as arahants (except as product of much later glorification).

Have you seen R. Ray's book "Buddhist Saints in India"? It deals with this subject.

No Bhante, I am not familiar with that title. But Reginald Ray is a Mahayanaist, so I suspect most of the saints mentioned would be of that variety. Besides the couple of blurbs I read about suggest it is more of an academic study about Buddhist sainthood. I am looking for simple biographies of Theravadin sages, that need not be Arahants, in the time frame mentioned above.

Surely such bios exist, Mahayana has traditional lives of Milarepa, Nagarjuna, Asanga, Chih-I etc. so there must be some out there giving traditional stories of revered latter-day followers of Buddha.

If little or none exist, in English, then there is a need.