Punyamitra

Punyamitra was the 26th Indian Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. A legendary figure, little information about him exists outside of Buddhist hagiographic texts. He is estimated to have died late in the 4th Century CE.

After Bashyashita's death, Punyamitra traveled to eastern India, where a group of Brahmins who practiced black magic attempted to oppose him. Punyamitra defeated them by banishing an illusion of a magical mountain and became advisor to the king who had previously patronized the Brahmins. Punyamitra declared that a sage lived in the king's country who would succeed him, and later encountered the orphan Prajnatara in the streets.