Dhammapala

Dhammapāla was the name of two or more great Theravada Buddhist commentators. The earlier, born in Kanchipuram, is known to us from both the Gandhavamsa and the writings of Xuanzang to have lived at Badara Tittha Vihara south of modern Chennai, and to have written the commentaries on seven of the shorter canonical books and also the commentary on the Netti, perhaps the oldest Pali work outside the canon.