Vasasita

Vasiṣṭha (transliterated *Vasasita* in the Chinese sources), twenty-fifth patriarch in the Chan list, is named in the *Jǐngdé Chuándēng Lù* as the disciple of Siṃha Bhikṣu and the teacher of Puṇyamitra^[1]. He belongs to the legendary stratum of the late Indian lineage; the traditional accounts emphasize the continuity of transmission through the period of the Mihirakula persecution rather than supplying independently verifiable biographical detail.

Dumoulin notes that the post-Siṃha section of the lineage functions narratively as a survival sequence: the Dharma is preserved through three further generations under conditions of political hostility, and is then released eastward by Prajñātāra to Bodhidharma^[2].