Bodhiruci

Bodhiruci was a Buddhist monk from North India (6th century CE) active in the area of Luoyang, China. He was appointed as master translator at Yongning (永寧寺) temple by emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei. In his translations, Bodhiruci was assisted by the central Indian monk Ratnamati (勒那摩提).

Bodhiruci translated various important texts including the Ten Stages Sutra and the commentary on this sutra by Vasubandhu (Shidi jing lun 十地經論). He translated the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra as well as Vasubandhu's commentary titled Stances of the vow to be reborn [in the Pure Land] in the Sūtra [of the Buddha] Infinite Life (Wuliangshou jing youbotishe yuansheng jie 無量壽經優波提 舍願生偈). He also translated Sūtra of the descent to Laṅka (Ru lengqie jing 入楞伽經), and a Sūtra of Buddha names (Foming jing 佛名經).

By the time of his death Bodhiruci had translated between 20 and 30 texts.

Bodhiruci is regarded as the patriarch of the Dashabhumika school, which used his Ten Stages Sutra and Vasubandhu's commentary as its chief object of study. Bodhiruci's disciple, Daochong (道寵), founded of the northern Dilun branch which focused on the practice of reciting the names of the Buddhas. Bodhiruci was also the master of Tanluan (曇鸞), one of the patriarchs of the Pure Land tradition.

This Bodhiruci should not be confused with 8th century Bodhiruchi who translated Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra.