out for Benares, where they still reside, and en route
meets with an Ajvaka practitioner called Upaka, who
recognizes a spiritual quality in the Buddha, but given
the opportunity to follow him merely says “Maybe!”
and walks on. The Buddha acquires full-time disci-
ples only after residing for some time with his five
former fellow ascetics. Ajñatakaundinya (Pali, Añ-
ñatakondañña), Vaspa (Vappa), Bhadrika (Bhaddiya),
Mahanaman (Mahanama), and As ́vajit (Assaji) are
eventually won over by the Buddha’s presence and by
his verbal teachings and, in the order just given, be-
come his first five ordained disciples.
This development is followed by a quick expansion
that begins with the conversion of a local playboy
called Yas ́a (Yasa), who becomes a monk. Soon Yas ́a’s
parents become lay followers, suggesting a pattern of
family discipleship that was doubtless followed in other
families where a child entered the order. Subsequently,
fifty-four friends and associates of Yas ́a became
bhiksus.
At this point the Buddha requires that his full-time
disciples, now numbered at sixty, wander at will
around the region and share his teachings. The result
of this is an expansion of the monastic community
that stretches the Buddha’s capacity to function as
personal teacher for every recruit. Soon the Buddha
allows existing disciples to ordain new recruits, and
thus the circle of personal discipleship of the Buddha
was understood to have been limited by geographical
distance. There is no indication of how long it took
to go from zero disciples to the formation of a self-
sustaining community, though it must have taken
many months or even years.
Although the community expanded outside the im-
mediate control of the Buddha, he nevertheless con-
tinued to acquire personal disciples throughout his
life, and the records describe the Buddha’s personal
interactions with numerous individuals. Foremost
among these are ANANDA, S ́ARIPUTRA(Sariputta), and
MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA(Moggallana). Ananda was a
cousin of the Buddha and became his close compan-
ion or attendant for around thirty years. Ananda’s fa-
miliarity with the Buddha’s life meant that at the first
Buddhist council after the Buddha’s death, Ananda
was asked to recite all the discourses that he had ever
heard the Buddha give. Thus, most sutras, or dis-
courses, begin with the phrase “evam mayas ́rutam”
(Thus have I heard). The monk UPALI, a former bar-
ber who shaved all the ordinands’ heads, performed a
similar role for the vinaya. Ananda did not become an
ARHATduring the Buddha’s life and is therefore occa-
sionally portrayed as having behaved less than per-
fectly. He is also depicted as the advocate of female
ordination into the monastic order, a development
that the Buddha apparently says will reduce the com-
munity’s duration, and it is through Ananda’s en-
couragement that the Buddha finally ordains his aunt
and foster mother MAHAPRAJAPATIGAUTAMI(Mahap-
pajapat). It was Mahaprajapatwho raised Siddhartha,
the Buddha-to-be, after the early death of his mother,
but she was not content with the role of lay disciple.
She therefore became the first bhiksunl,and was rec-
ognized by the Buddha as the female disciple of longest
standing. Other female disciples also achieved personal
renown, including Dhammadinna, whom the Buddha
described as foremost in preaching.
The Buddha’s most eminent disciples, however,
were S ́ariputra and Mahamaudgalyayana. These two
were childhood friends who left home to pursue the
religious life, at first together, but eventually separat-
ing on the agreement that the first to find the true way
would seek out the other. After meeting Assaji and be-
ing converted by him, S ́ariputra found Mahamaud-
galyayana and together they were ordained by the
Buddha, who appointed them his chief disciples. Ma-
hamaudgalyayana was renowned for his meditative at-
tainments, S ́ariputra for his wisdom and analytical
abilities.
The Buddha also identified those possessed of great-
est meditative attainments and wisdom among his
nuns, Ksema (Khema) and Utpalavarna (Uppala-
vanna), and his laywomen, Kubjottara(Khujjuttara)
and Uttara(Uttara). Among his male lay followers he
identified the foremost in generosity as ANATHA-
PINDADA(Anathapindika) and the chief of dharma
teachers as Citra (Citta) (Woodward, pp. 79–80).
Many other disciples are singled out by the Buddha
for other forms of personal excellence (Woodward,
pp. 16–25), and moving samples of poetry composed
by these and other of his disciples, both male and
female, are recorded in two Pali texts called the Ther-
agathaand Therlgatha(Norman). The monk MAHAK-
AS ́YAPA(Mahakassapa) was recognized as the foremost
practitioner of asceticism; he later took control of fu-
neral arrangements immediately after the Buddha’s
death. Other important disciples include UPAGUPTA,
who was especially revered among the Buddhists of
Southeast Asia and became the focus of cult and ritual
there, and Anathapindada (Anathapindika), whose
name means “feeder of the destitute.” Anathapindada,
a banker and perhaps the most famous lay disciple,DISCIPLES OF THEBUDDHA