Shantideva (Sk: Śāntideva; Zh: 寂天; Tib: ཞི་བ་ལྷ། (Shyiwa Lha, Wylie: zhi ba lha); Mn: Шантидэва гэгээн) was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar at Nalanda University and an adherent of the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nagarjuna. The Chan Ssu Lun of the Chinese Madhyamika school identifies two different individuals given the name "Shantideva": the founder of the Avaivartika Sangha in the 6th century, and a later Shantideva who studied at Nalanda in the 8th century who appears to be the source of the Tibetan biographies. Archaeological discoveries support this thesis. Two Tibetan sources of the life of Shantideva are the historians Butön and Jetsun Tāranātha. Recent scholarship has brought to light a short Sanscrit life of Shantideva in a 14th century Nepalise manuscript. An accessible account that follows the Butön closely can be found in Kunzang Pelden, The Nectar of Manjushri's speech.
Shantideva was born as a Brahmin in the southern country of Saurastra (in modern Gujarat), the son of the King Kalyanavarman and he went by the name Shantivarman.
