Suchandra

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Suchandra, also known as Dawa Sangpo, was a king of Shambhala in the northeast of India. He asked the Buddha for a path that would let him practice the dharma without giving up his royal duties or pleasures. In response, the Buddha gave the first Kalachakra tantra initiation and teachings at Amaravati in southeastern India, while he was teaching Prajñā-Pāramitā sutras at Vulture Peak in Rajgir. Besides Suchandra, 96 minor kings and emissaries from Shambhala also received the teachings. Suchandra is said to be an emanation of Vajrapani, and a bodhisattva on the 10th ground. Through Kalachakra practice, Shambhala became an enlightened kingdom with Suchandra as its ruler. He is said to have written down the Kalachakra teachings, creating a 12,000-verse root text called the Mula (which has not survived). He also built a large three‑dimensional Kalachakra mandala in the center of his realm. Suchandra died only two years after receiving the teachings.

The six kings who followed him are called dharmarajas, or “truth kings,” and each is said to have ruled for more than a hundred years. After them came twenty-five rulers known as Kalki kings.

According to later Kalachakra traditions, on the full moon Caitra after his enlightenment, the Buddha displayed the mandala of the Glorious Lunar Mansions and, at the king Suchandra’s request, taught not just Kalachakra but all tantras. Countless beings achieved realizations, and the Dharma spread to many realms. Suchandra reportedly wrote more tantras and expanded the Mūlatantra (the 12,000-verse root text, though the works themselves are now lost). Divine workers built a jewel-filled Kalachakra mandala palace, about 400 cubits wide. He taught the mantrayāna to many people, and many achieved the highest realization. In the second year after teaching the Mūlatantra, he installed his son Sureśvara as regent and then passed on. Later lineages recount other emanations of tenth-level Bodhisattvas—Sureśvara, Tejī, Somadatta, Viśvamūrti, and Sureśāna—who carried on spreading the teachings just as Suchandra did.