Kumarata

Kumārata (Sanskrit *Kumāralāta*), nineteenth patriarch in the Chan list, may correspond to the historically attested Kumāralāta, founder of the Sautrāntika school of abhidharma in the third or fourth century CE and author of the *Dṛṣṭāntapaṅkti* (Garland of Examples), a Sanskrit collection of edifying narratives^[1]. The Sautrāntika Kumāralāta is one of the more substantively documented figures of post-Sarvāstivādin Indian scholasticism.

Whether the Chan tradition's nineteenth patriarch is meant to be this same figure or a different teacher of similar name is unresolved. Dumoulin treats the identification as plausible but not demonstrable, noting that the *Jǐngdé Chuándēng Lù* gives no detail that would securely tie Kumārata to the Sautrāntika master^[2]. The Chan account names him as the disciple of Saṃghayaśas and teacher of Jayata.