Leading disciple of Vessabhū Buddha and his younger brother, to whom the Buddha’s first discourse was taught.

The enemy and rival of Piyadassī Buddha, playing a role corresponding to Devadatta, who conspired unsuccessfully to kill him.

A fierce horse belonging to the king of Bārāṇasī, also called Mahāsoṇa; see the Suhanu Jātaka.

An Arahant monk sent together with Uttara to bring Buddhism to Suvaṇṇabhūmi.

A minister of King Mahāsena and follower of the heretic monk Saṅghamitta, who helped despoil Buddhist monuments and was killed attempting to destroy the Thūpārāma.

See Mahāsoṇa.

A householder’s son of Rājagaha who held two recorded conversations with the Buddha at Veḷuvana on impermanence and the cessation of feeling.

A gifted teacher who lived at the Pipphali monastery, remembered for ordaining his hunter father on his deathbed and helping him see a vision of the heavenly realm.

An elder of the Mahāvihāra at whose request the commentary Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī was composed.

One of the chief female lay patrons of Dīpaṅkara Buddha.

A leading female disciple of Sumana Buddha.

An eminent lay disciple of Gotama Buddha.

An eminent Therī of Sri Lanka.

A nun known as Bahuputtikā for having ten children before ordaining in old age, declared by the Buddha foremost among nuns for effort, who once heated water by psychic power alone to silence colleagues who doubted her attainment.