SARIPUTTA

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 220 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAR-SCY

SARIPUTTA , one of the two principal disciples of Gotama the Buddha. He was born in the middle of the 6th century B.C. at Nala, a

village

VILLAGE

in the kingdom of Magadha, the modern Behar, just

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

of the Ganges and a little

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

of where Patna now stands. His personal name was Upatissa; the name of his father, who was a brahmin, is unknown; his mother's name was Sari, and it was by the epithet or nickname of Sariputta (that is " Sari's son "), that he was best known. He had three sisters, all of whom subsequently entered the Buddhist Order. When still a

young

man he devoted himself to the religious life, and followed at first the system taught by Sanjaya of the Belattha clan. A summary of the philosophical position of this teacher has been preserved in the Dialogue called The Perfect Net.
According to this account his main tendency was to avoid committing himself to any decided conclusion on any one of the numerous points then discussed so eagerly among the clansmen in the valley of the Ganges. Early in the Buddhist

movement

MOVEMENT

Sariputta had a conversation with one of the men who had just joined it; and the Buddhist quoted to him the now famous stanza, " Of all the things that proceed from a cause, the Buddha the cause hath told; and he tells too how each shall come to an endsuch alone is the word of
the Sage." The result was that Sariputta, with his friend Kolita and other disciples of Sanjaya, asked for admission, and were received into the Buddhist Order. He rapidly attained to mastery in the Buddhist system of self-training, and is declared to have been the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

of all the disciples in insight. He was present at a dialogue between the Buddha and a Wanderer named Aggivessana on the nature of sensations; and at the end of that discourse he attained to Arahatship. He is constantly represented as discussing points, usually of ethics or philosophy, either with the Buddha himself, or with one or other of the more prominent disciples. One whole book of the Samyutta is therefore called after his name. A number of stanzas inscribed to him are preserved in the Songs of the Elders (Thera-gatha), and one of the poems in the Sutta Nipata is based on a question he addressed to the Buddha. Asoka the

Great

GREAT

, in his Bhabra Edict, enjoins on the Buddhists the study of seven passages in the Scriptures selected for their especial beauty. One of these is called The Question of Upatissa, and this poem may be the passage referred to. Feeling his end approaching, he went

home

, and died just six months before the death of the Buddha, that is, approximately in 48o B.c. He was cremated with

great

GREAT

ceremony, and the ashes placed in a tope or burial-mound. An inscribed casket in such a mound at Sanchi opened by Cunningham in February 1851 contained a portion of these ashes which had been removed to that spot, in General Cunningham's

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

by Asoka.
(T. W. R. D.)

End of Article: SARIPUTTA

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/SAR_SCY/SARIPUTTA.html">
SARIPUTTA
</a>

(Previous)
SARIPUL, or SIRIFUL

(Next)
SARK

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email