Career
He was a contemporary of Bhavaviveka (清辯, c 490-570 Civil Engineering), with whom he debated. Xuanzang, the famous Chinese pilgrim, tells that Dharmapāla was born in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. He studied in Nalanda as a student of Dignāgeorgia
Later he succeeded him as abbot of the University.
He spent his last years near the Bodhi tree, where he died. Dharmapāla developed the theory that the external things do not exist and consciousness only exists.
He explains the manifestation of the phenomenal world as arising from the eight consciousness. Through the teachings of his disciple Silabhadra to Xuanzang, Dharmapāla’s tenets expanded greatly in China.
