12. Aśvaghoṣa

Aśvaghosa, the Twelfth Patriarch, was a brilliant philosopher and poet from Baranasi. Initially a formidable debater, he was converted to Buddhism and became a Great Bodhisattva. He possessed immense spiritual power, once summoning a golden dragon to defeat a demonic storm. He taught the concept of the Ocean of Innate Nature, explaining that all phenomena depend on this original essence. Before his extinction, he transmitted the awakened understanding to Kapimala and vanished into the form of a sun-disc.