ᾹRYADEVA, often called simply Deva (Tib., ʾPhagspa-lha); an important Buddhist dialectician, linked with several other names such as Kāṇadeva, Nīlanetra, Piṅgalanetra, Piṅgalacakṣuḥ, and Karṇaripa, although the identification with some of these is doubtful. In China, he is known both by the transcription of his name, Tibo or Tiboluo (Jpn., Daiba or Daibara), and by the translation of his name, Cheng-t'ien, (Jpn., Shōten).

Scholars have identified at least two Ᾱryadevas. The first, who will be referred to as "Ᾱryadeva I," was a Madhyamaka (Mādhyamika) dialectician, the most eminent disciple of Nāgārjuna, who lived between the third and fourth centuries CE. The second, "Ᾱryadeva II," was a Tantric master whose date has been variously proposed as in the seventh to tenth centuries (most probably at the beginning of the eighth century), because he cites the Madhyamakahṛdayakārik...