Son of Suddhodana and Mahāpajāpatī, and therefore half brother of the Buddha. He was only a few days younger than the Bodhisatta, and when the Bodhisatta’s mother died, Pajāpatī gave her own child to nurses and suckled the Buddha herself (AA.i.186).

On the third day of the Buddha’s visit to Kapilavatthu, after the Enlightenment, the Buddha went to Nanda’s house, where festivities were in progress in honour of Nanda’s coronation and marriage to Janapadakalyāṇī Nandā. The Buddha wished Nanda good fortune and handed him his bowl to be taken to the vihāra. Nanda, thereupon, accompanied the Buddha out of the palace. Janapadakalyāṇī, seeing him go, asked him to return quickly. Once inside the vihāra, however, the Buddha asked Nanda to become a monk, and he, unable to refuse the request, agreed with reluctance. However, as the days passed he was tormented with thoughts of his beloved, and became very downcast and despondent, and his health suffered. The Buddha suggested that they should visit the Himavā. On the way there, he showed Nanda the charred remains of a female monkey and asked him whether Janapadakalyāṇī were more beautiful than that. The answer was in the affirmative. The Buddha then took him to Tāvatiṃsa where Sakka, with his most beautiful nymphs, waited on them. In answer to a question by the Buddha, Nanda admitted that these nymphs were far more attractive than Janapadakalyāṇī, and the Buddha promised him one as wife if he would live the monastic life. Nanda was all eagerness and readily agreed. On their return to Jetavana the Buddha related this story to the eighty chief disciples, and when they questioned Nanda, he felt greatly ashamed of his lustfulness. Summoning all his courage, he strove hard and, in no long time, attained Arahantship. He thereupon came to the Buddha and absolved him from his promise. (Thag.157 f; J.i.91; ii.92 ff; Ud.iii.2; DhA.i.96-105; UdA.168 ff; SNA.273 f )

When the Buddha was told of Nanda’s Arahantship by a devata, he related the Saṅgāmāvacara Jātaka (q.v.) to show how, in the past, too, Nanda had been quick to follow advice. He also related the story of Kappata (q.v.) and his donkey to show that it was not the first time that Nanda had been won to obedience by the lure of the female sex. The male donkey in the story was Nanda and the female donkey Janapadakalyāṇī. (DhA.i.103 f )

Nanda is identified with the sub king (uparājā) in the Kurudhamma Jātaka (q.v.)

Later, on seeing how eminently Nanda was trained in self control, the Buddha declared him chief among his disciples in that respect (indriyesu guttadvārānaṃ). Nanda had aspired to this eminence in the time of Padumuttara Buddha. In the time of Atthadassī Buddha he was a turtle in the river Vinatā, and, seeing the Buddha on the bank waiting to cross, he took him over to the other side on his back. (A.i.25; AA.i.174 f; ThagA.i.276 ff.)

He is said to have been called Nanda because his birth brought joy to his kinsmen. The Apadāna (i.57) says he was of golden hue, as reward for a gift of a costly robe given by him to Padumuttara. One hundred thousand world-cycles ago he became king four times under the name of Cela. Sixty thousand world-cycles ago he was again king in four births, under the name of Upacela. Later, five thousand world-cycles ago, he was four times Cakkavatti, and his name then, too, was Cela.

Nanda was very handsome, and was only four inches shorter than the Buddha. He once wore a robe made according to the dimensions of the Buddha’s robe. Discovering this, the Buddha chided him for his presumption. (Vin.iv.173; perhaps this is another version of the story found at S.ii.281. There, Nanda is said to have donned a robe that was pressed on both sides, painted his face, and gone to see the Buddha, carrying a bright bowl. The Buddha chided him, and Nanda thereupon became a forest-dweller and a rag-robe-wearer. Buddhaghosa (SA.ii.174) says that Nanda dressed himself up in order to evoke some comment from the Buddha — either approval, so that he might dress thus for the remainder of his life, or censure, in which case he would put on rag-robes and dwell in the forest.)

The Aṅguttaranikāya (A.iv.166 f) contains a discourse in which the Buddha discusses Nanda’s claim to have achieved self control in all things.

He is probably to be identified with Taraṇiya Thera of the Apadāna. (ii.428; cp. ThagA.i.277.)