Kumarajiva (ca. 344-409) was an Indian Buddhist monk and one of the world's greatest translators. He provided the Chinese with competent translations of important Buddhist texts previously rendered into Chinese only in crude or even incoherent versions.

Kumarajiva was born in the central Asiatic city of Kucha, son of an Indian Brahmin and a Kuchean princess. When he was 7 years old, his mother became a Buddhist nun, and he spent the next years following her and studying Buddhist doctrine in Kucha, Kashmir, and Kashgar. He was ordained in the royal palace in Kucha at the age of 20. In Kashgar he was converted from Hinayana (mainly Sarvastivadin) Buddhism to Mahayana. He came to be known as a brilliant monk and seems to have been thoroughly versed in the Buddhist learning of the schools then current in northern India.

In 379 Kumarajiva's fame spread to China, and efforts were made to...