A major śrāvaka disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha Śākyamuni during the last twenty-five years of his life. He was a cousin of the Buddha (according to the Mahāvastu, he was a son of Śuklodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana, which means he was a brother of Devadatta; other sources say he was a son of Amṛtodana, another brother of King Śuddhodana, which means he would have been a brother of Aniruddha).
Ānanda, having always been in the Buddha’s presence, is said to have memorized all the teachings he heard and is celebrated for having recited all the Buddha’s teachings by memory at the first council of the Buddhist saṅgha, thus preserving the teachings after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. The phrase “Thus did I hear at one time,” found at the beginning of the sūtras, usually stands for his recitation of the teachings. He became a patriarch after the passing of Mahākāśyapa.
The term bhikṣu, often translated as “monk,” refers to the highest among the eight types of prātimokṣa vows that make one part of the Buddhist assembly. The Sanskrit term literally means “beggar” or “mendicant,” referring to the fact that Buddhist monks and nuns—like other ascetics of the time—subsisted on alms (bhikṣā) begged from the laity.
In the Tibetan tradition, which follows the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, a monk follows 253 rules as part of his moral discipline. A nun (bhikṣuṇī; dge slong ma) follows 364 rules. A novice monk (śrāmaṇera; dge tshul) or nun (śrāmaṇerikā; dge tshul ma) follows thirty-six rules of moral discipline (although in other vinaya traditions novices typically follow only ten).
Indian paṇḍita and translator.
Lit. “brahma conduct,” this denotes the conduct of those who have renounced worldly life and entered the ordained Buddhist saṅgha to devote themselves to spiritual study and practice.
The capital of the Malla kingdom, in the vicinity of which the Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa.
A kingdom of ancient India situated to the north of Magadha.
The name given to the display of the Buddha’s passing away in Kuśinagara.
A general term to denote a qualified spiritual teacher.
Tibetan scholar and translator.
’phags pa dge ba’i bshes gnyen bsten pa’i mdo (Āryakalyāṇamitrasevanasūtra). Toh 300, Degé Kangyur, vol 71 (mdo sde, sha), folios 304.b–305.a.
’phags pa dge ba’i bshes gnyen bsten pa’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006-9, vol 71, pp 829–31.
’phags pa dge ba’i bshes gnyen bsten pa’i mdo. rKTs-K300, Q 966, Peking Qianlong (Q), vol. 38 (mdo sna tshogs, lu), folios 334a–335a.
Alsdorf, Ludwig. “Śaśa-Jātaka und Śaśa-Avadāna.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd-und Ostasiens 5 (1961), 1–17. Reprinted in Ludwig Alsdorf, Kleine Schriften, edited by Albrecht Wezler, 347–63. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1974.
Bhikkhu Bodhi. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000.
Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta (Anavataptanāgarājaparipṛcchā, Toh 156). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.