Rahulata

Rāhulabhadra (Chinese: 羅睺羅多, transliterated *Rahulata*), sixteenth patriarch in the Chan list, is named in the *Jǐngdé Chuándēng Lù* as the disciple of Āryadeva and teacher of Saṃghanandi^[1]. A figure of the same name appears in Sarvāstivādin and Madhyamaka literature as a poet of the *Prajñāpāramitā-stotra* (Hymn to the Perfection of Wisdom) and as one of the early commentators on Nāgārjuna; whether the Chan patriarch is meant to be this same Rāhulabhadra is debated^[2].

Dumoulin notes that the post-Āryadeva section of the Chan twenty-eight relies on names available from earlier Sarvāstivādin and Mahāyāna sources but reorganized to fit the patriarchal frame, and Rāhulabhadra's place in the sequence reflects this compositional logic rather than a documented teacher-student relationship^[3].