No details of his life are known, and no other translations of his appear to be extant. Based on what is known of his collaborators, he most likely lived during the eleventh century.
The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, a refashioning of the similarly-named Pāli sutta, is narrative of the final days of the Buddha according to Mahāyāna doctrine. It is one of the earliest and most important sources for the doctrine of tathāgatagarbha, or buddha-nature. Two other translations of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra were made it Tibet. The first of these (D120, corresponding to T376) was done in the early ninth century by Jinamitra, Jñānagarbha, and Devacandra. The second (D121) was made in the eleventh century by Kamalagupta and Rinchen Zangpo (rin chen bzang po, 958–1055).
... read more at
Library Items
The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra is one of the main scriptural sources for buddha-nature in China and Tibet. Set around the time of Buddha's passing or Mahāparinirvāṇa, the sūtra contains teachings on buddha-nature equating it with the dharmakāya—that is, the complete enlightenment of a buddha. It also asserts that all sentient beings possess this nature as the buddhadhātu, or buddha-element, which thus acts as a cause, seed, or potential for all beings to attain enlightenment. Furthermore, the sūtra includes some salient features related to this concept, such as the single vehicle and the notion that the dharmakāya is endowed with the four pāramitās of permanence, bliss, purity, and a self.