A reconstructed name of the Magadha-born monk-translator called, in Chinese, Fatian, who died in 1001. He studied and taught at Nālandā before his arrival in China in 971. He left India bringing with him his brother Dalimoluochaduo, a western Indian monk and a southern Indian monk, but only he and his brother succeeded in reaching China. Forty-four of his translations are extant, including tantric works. Sen, Revival, p. 43 ff.
Mookerji, Ancient, p. 578. A pundit of Nālandā who went to work for the imperial bureau of translators in China in the Sung dynasty. Up until 981, he worked on translations of 46 works. Starting in 981, he translated another 72 works.
Ruth Dunnell, The Great State of White and High: Buddhism and State Formation in Eleventh-Century Xia, University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu 1996), p. 30. He should not be confused with Faxian, a Kashmiri monk who died in the same year as Fatian (actually in different years, 1000 and 1001).
The older studies all made a mistake in identifying Fa-hsien (Dharmabhadra) with Fa-t'ien (Dharmadeva), and this still causes confusion. Fa-hsien (d. September 4, 1000) was in fact a name given to T'ien-hsi-tsai, a contemporary and colleague of Fa-t'ien (d. June 12, 1001). Jan, Relations, pp. 34-35, 38 ff., 147.
