About Buddhadatta

Buddhadatta Thera was a 5th-century Theravada Buddhist writer from the town of Uragapura in the Chola kingdom of South India. He wrote many of his works in the Bhūtamangalagāma monastery and his patron was Accutavikkanta of the Kambala dynasty. Buddhadatta traveled to Sri Lanka's Mahāvihāra in Anurādhapura to study and translate the commentaries on the Buddha's teachings from Sinhalese to Pali. He is said to have met Buddhagosa at sea while returning to India, his work unfinished. Buddhadatta asked Buddhagosa to send him his translations and commentaries and used them in the writing of his Abhidhammāvatāra. The Abhidhammāvatāra is one of the earliest and most important Abhidhamma manuals. It is a systematized overview of the doctrines in the Abhidhamma Pitaka, written largely in 24 verse chapters. Buddhadatta's other works include the Vinaya-Vinicchaya, the Uttara-Vinicchaya, the Rūpārūpa-Vibhāga.
Thai monks blessing the King of Thailand in Wat Nong Wong

Theravada Buddhist monks – Guardians of the monastic code

is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed Theravādins, have preserved their version of Gautama Buddha's teaching or Buddha Dhamma in the Pāli Canon for over a millennium. Aided by the patronage of Mauryan kings like Ashoka, this school spread throughout India and reached Sri Lanka through the efforts of missionary like Mahinda. Starting at around the 11th century, Sinhalese Theravāda monks and Southeast Asian elites led .