Atià Âa (c. 982âÂÂ1054 CE) was a Buddhist religious teacher and leader from Bengal. He is generally associated with his body of work authored at Vikramaà Âëla Monastery in Bihar. He was a major figure in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and traveled to Sumatra and Tibet. Atià Âa, along with his chief disciple Dromtön, is regarded as the founder of the Kadam school, one of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In the 14th century, the Kadam school was supplanted by the Gelug tradition, which adopted its teachings and absorbed its monasteries.
Atià Âa was born as Candragarbha in c. 982 CE as the second of three sons to a ruling family in Bengal most probably in the village of Vajrayogini in Vikrampura, the latter was one of the capitals of the Pala Empire. His father was a king known as KalyÃÂnaà Ârë and his mother was Prabhavati Sri. The early part of his life was typical of noblemen of the period, and he was trained in various fields, including art.
As a young man, he began to study tantra in what is now Rajgir, where he was tutored by a monk named RÃÂhulaguhyavajra. Under RÃÂhulaguhyavajra, Atià Âa was initiated into Hevajra and taught specific meditations. He then studied for seven years under a master named Avadhà «tipÃÂ, where he focused on yoga and engaged in tantric feasts known as Ganachakra.
According to Tibetan sources, Atià Âa was ordained into the MahÃÂsÃÂá¹Âghika lineage at the age of twenty-eight by the Abbot à Âëlaraká¹£ita in Bodh Gaya and studied almost all Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools of his time, including teachings from Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Tantric Hinduism and other practices. He also studied the sixty-four kinds of art, the art of music and the art of logic and accomplished these studies until the age of twenty-two. Among the many Buddhist lineages he studied, practised and transmitted the three main lineages were the Lineage of the Profound Action transmitted by Asaá¹ ga and Vasubandhu, the Lineage of Profound View transmitted by Nagarjuna and Candrakërti, and the Lineage of Profound Experience transmitted by Tilopa and Naropa. Atià Âa engaged with many notable teachers during this period, including RatnÃÂkaraà ÂÃÂnti, Naropa and Jitari. He also studied Dharmaraká¹£ita at the monastery of Odantapuri.
Atià Âa rose to become a senior scholar at the monastery of Vikramaà Âëla at a time when it had no more than one hundred ordained monks present. Tibetan hagiographies on his life have a tendency to portray him as one of the greatest scholars to stay at Vikramaà Âëla, who would be noted for his strict adherence to the ethics of Mahayana Buddhism. It was during this period that the King of the Tibetan polity of Guge, Lha bla ma Ye shes 'od began to send missions to Vikramaà Âëla to invite scholars to visit Guge so that they could teach the "pure form of Buddhism".
Atià Âa finally departed Vikramaà Âëla in 1040 CE. The then abbot of Vikramaà Âëla, Ratnakara, gave his permission for Atià Âa to leave but on the condition that he return in three years.
Tibetan sources record that Atià Âa spent 12 years in Sumatra of the Srivijaya empire, and he returned to India in 1025 CE which was also the same year when Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty invaded Sumatra.
Upon his return, he received much attention for his teachings and skills in debate and philosophy. On three separate occasions, Atià Âa was acclaimed for defeating non-Buddhist extremists in debate. When he came into contact with what he perceived to be a misled or deteriorating form of Buddhism, he would quickly and effectively implement reforms. Soon enough he was appointed to the position of steward, or abbot, at Vikramaà Âëla which was established by Emperor Dharmapala. He is also said to have "nourished" Odantapuri.
Atià Âa's return from Suvarnabhumi, where he had been studying with Dharmakërtià Ârë, and his rise to prominence in India coincided with a flourishing of Buddhist culture and the practice of Buddhism in the region, and in many ways Atià Âa's influence contributed to these developments. According to the Blue Annals, a new king of Guge by the name of Yeshe-àsent his academic followers to learn and translate some of the Sanskrit Buddhist texts. Among these academics was Naktso, who was eventually sent to Vikramaà Âëla to study Sanskrit and plead with Atià Âa to come teach the Dharma in his homeland.
Travelling with Naktso and Gya Là Âtsawa, Atià Âa journeyed through Nepal on his way to Tolung, the capital of the Purang Kingdom. (Gya Là Âtsawa died before reaching Tolung.) On his way, he is said to have met Marpa Là Âtsawa. He spent three years in Tolung and compiled his teachings into his most influential scholarly work, Bodhipathapradëpa, or Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. This short text in sixty-seven verses lays out the entire Buddhist path in terms of the three vehicles: HënayÃÂna, MahÃÂyÃÂna, and VajrayÃÂna, and became the model for subsequent texts in the genre of Lamrim, or the Stages of the Path, and was specifically the basis for Tsongkhapa's Lamrim writings. Here Atià Âa met Dromtön, or Dromtonpa, who would become his primary disciple, regarded as both an enforcer of later propagation ethical standards and a holder of Atià Âa's tantric lineage.
According to Jamgon Kongtrul, when Atià Âa discovered the store of Sanskrit texts at Pekar Kordzoling, the library of Samye, "he said that the degree to which the Vajrayana had spread in Tibet was unparalleled, even in India. After saying this, he reverently folded his hands and praised the great dharma kings, translators, and panditas of the previous centuries."
In 2004, Atià Âa was ranked 18th in the BBC's poll of the greatest Bengalis of all time.
His writings include: