Aryadeva: Crash Course

Aryadeva, traditionally called Madhyamaka's second founder: the Sri Lankan prince of the biographies, the gift of an eye, the one-eyed verse that challenges three-eyed Shiva, and a debate legend ending in conversion. Alongside these stories stands the Four Hundred Verses and its reception in India, Tibet and China. A brief, honest course on a half-legendary giant, with every layer labeled. Narrated by Tara, an AI voice. Provisional interpretation, not an authoritative translation, lineage transmission or practice authorization. The life stories are labeled legend throughout and drawn from Taranatha's seventeenth-century History of Buddhism in India, read in Anton Schiefner's public-domain 1869 German translation, and from W. P. Wassiljew's public-domain 1860 account of the Chinese tradition; every used detail was verified against those texts. The one-eyed verse belongs to Bu-ston's parallel account and is paraphrased, not quoted, and labeled second-hand in the episode. The contents of the Four Hundred Verses are described from the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism entry, labeled second-hand; no verses are quoted. The four-suns comparison follows E. B. Cowell's public-domain 1894 report of Xuanzang. Aryadeva's dating is stated in the episode as inference from his teacher. Original narration and commentary CC0 1.0 Universal. Sources Taranatha, History of Buddhism in India, Schiefner translation (1869): https://archive.org/details/taranathasgesch00schigoog W. P. Wassiljew, Der Buddhismus (1860): https://archive.org/details/india.history.resource.70918 E. B. Cowell (ed.), Buddhist Mahayana Texts, SBE 49 (1894): https://archive.org/details/buddhistmahy01cowe San lun zong, Encyclopedia of Buddhism: https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/San_lun_zong Chapters The Fourth Sun The Eye The Four Hundred Verses The Second Founder