Śāriputra

Buddhist texts describe that Śāriputra was born with the birth name Upatiṣya (Pali: Upatissa) to a wealthy brahmin family in a village near Rājagaha in the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha.[8][9][10] He is described as having had a "golden complexion".[11][12]

Texts from the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition state he was named after his father, while the Pali commentaries of the Theravada tradition state he was named after his birth village.[9][note 1] Upatiṣya had six siblings; three brothers named Upasena, Cunda and Revata, and three sisters named Cāla, Upacālā and Sīsupacālā. Each of his siblings would grow up to become arhat disciples of the Buddha.[14][15] According to the Pali tradition, Upatiṣya's father was named Vangunta, while according to Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition his father was named Tiṣya (Pali: Tissa).[9] Upatiṣya's mother was named Śārī (alternatively called Rūpaśārī, Śārika, or Śāradvatī), because she had eyes like a śārika bird. His mother was the reason Upatiṣya later became known as Śāriputra (son of Śāri) and sometimes Śāradvatīputra (son of Śāradvatī).[16][17]

A stupa dedicated to Śāriputra at the ancient Nalanda monastery. Nyanaponika Thera states that Nalanda was probably close to where Śāriputra was born and died.[13]

Upatiṣya was born the same day as Kolita (who would later be known as Maudgalyāyana), a boy from a neighboring village whose family had been friends with Upatiṣya's family for seven generations, and became friends with him as a child.[18][8][19] Upatiṣya and Kolita both became masters of the Vedas through their education and each developed a large following of brahmin youths. One day the realization that life is impermanent overtook the two friends during a festival in Rājagaha and they developed a sense of spiritual urgency.[14][20]

Realizing the pointlessness of the impermanent material world, the two friends set out as ascetics to search for an end to rebirth. In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, the two friends visited all six major teachers of India at the time before realizing none of them had the right path.[14] According to Pali texts, the two friends and their following of brahmin youths became students under only one of the teachers, the ascetic Sañjaya Vairatiputra (Pali: Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta), who was staying nearby.[14][21] Pali texts describe Sañjaya as a teacher in the Indian Sceptic tradition, with Upatiṣya and Kolita eventually becoming dissatisfied with his teachings and leaving.[14][22] In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, the Chinese Buddhist Canon and in Tibetan accounts, however, he is depicted as a wise teacher with meditative vision who becomes ill and dies. In some accounts, he predicts the coming of the Buddha through his visions.[23][24] After being unable to find what they were looking for, the two friends went their separate ways but made a pact that if one was to find the path to Nirvana, he would tell the other.[14][25][26]

Ivory relief depicting Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana becoming disciples of the Buddha

After leaving Sañjaya, Upatiṣya encountered the monk Aśvajit (Pali: Assaji), one of the Buddha's first five arhat disciples. Upatiṣya noticed how serene the monk appeared and approached him to ask for a teaching.[27] Aśvajit said he was still newly ordained but would teach what he can, and proceeded to teach the famous Ye Dharma Hetu stanza:[28]

Of all those things that from a cause arise,

Tathagata the cause thereof has told;

And how they cease to be, that too he tells,

This is the doctrine of the Great Recluse.

— Translated by Nyanaponika Thera

This stanza has become particularly famous in the Buddhist world, having been inscribed onto many Buddhist statues.[29] According to philosopher Paul Carus, the stanza breaks away from the idea of divine intervention prevalent in ancient Brahmanism at the time and instead teaches that the origin and end of all things depends on its causation.[30]

Following the teaching, Upatiṣya attained sotapanna, the first stage of enlightenment.[28] Upatiṣya then went to Kolita to tell him about the incident and, after reciting the stanza for him, Kolita also attained sotapanna.[26][31][note 2] The two friends, along with a large chunk of Sañjaya's disciples, then ordained as monks under the Buddha, with everybody in the group becoming arhats that day except for Upatiṣya and Kolita.[26][33][34] Nyanaponika Thera states that the friends required longer preparatory periods before enlightening in order to fulfill their roles as chief disciples.[35] Several texts describe the ordination with miraculous elements, such as the disciples' clothes suddenly being replaced with Buddhist robes and their hair falling out on its own.[34] After ordaining, Upatiṣya started being called Śāriputra (Pali: Sāriputta), and Kolita started being called Maudgalyāyana (Pali: Moggallāna).[35]

After Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana ordained, the Buddha declared them his two chief disciples (Pali: aggasavaka), following the tradition of appointing a pair of chief disciples as the past Buddhas did, according to Buddhist belief.[26][36][37] Since they were newly ordained some of the monks in the assembly felt offended, but the Buddha explained that he gave them the roles because they had made the resolve to become the chief disciples many lifetimes ago.[7][38] Maudgalyāyana attained arhatship seven days after ordaining following intense meditation training. Śāriputra attained arhatship two weeks after ordaining while fanning the Buddha as the Buddha was delivering the Vedanāpariggaha Sutta to a wandering ascetic.[26][39] Pali texts state that the ascetic was Śāriputra's nephew but Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit texts state he was Śāriputra's uncle. According to commentaries such as the Atthakatha, Śāriputra took longer to achieve enlightenment than Maudgalyāyana because his knowledge had to be more thorough as first chief disciple, and thus required more preparation time.[40]

A statue of Śāriputra at Bodh Gaya.

Śāriputra is considered to have been the Buddha's first chief disciple, foremost in wisdom, a title he shared with the nun Kṣemā (Pali: Khemā).[41] He shared the title of chief male disciple with Maudgalyāyana, together described in the Mahāpadāna Sutta, as "the chief pair of disciples, the excellent pair" (Pali: sāvakayugaṁ aggaṁ bhaddayugaṁ).[42] In the Mahavagga, the Buddha declared his two chief male disciples as being foremost in wisdom and foremost in psychic powers, referencing Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana respectively.[43] Texts describe that none of the Buddha's other disciples could answer questions that Maudgalyāyana was able to answer while Maudgalyāyana was unable to answer questions Śāriputra was able to answer.[44] Buddhist tradition maintains that the first chief disciple, Śāriputra, customarily sat to the Buddha's right hand side, while the second chief disciple, Maudgalyāyana, sat to the left.[5] The disciples have thus been stylized as the right hand and left hand disciples of the Buddha in Buddhist tradition and art accordingly.[45][46]

As the first chief disciple, Śāriputra's role was the systematization and analysis of the Buddha's teachings.[5] The Buddhist canon often shows Śāriputra asking the Buddha questions and entreating the Buddha to teach, as well as himself clarifying points and questioning disciples, in some cases seemingly to test the knowledge of fellow disciples.[47][48] The Buddha would often suggest a topic and have Śāriputra elaborate and deliver a sermon on it.[49] In two discourses recorded in the Tripitaka, the Dasuttara Sutta and the Saṅgīti Sutta, the Buddha declared he needed to rest his back, and had Śāriputra teach in his place while the Buddha listened in the audience.[26][44][50] His ability to teach the Dharma earned him the title of "General of the Dharma" (Sanskrit: Dharmasenapati).[26][44][49] Buddhist texts indicate that Śāriputra still had some flaws, however. In the Catuma Sutta, when a group of young monks made noise and were ordered by the Buddha to leave, the Buddha reprimanded Śāriputra for not concluding that it was the chief disciples' responsibility to look after the monks, something Maudgalyāyana was able to conclude.[51] On another occasion the Buddha reprimanded Śāriputra for teaching the dying brahmin, Dhanañjani, in a way that led him to rebirth in the Brahma realm rather than teaching in a way that led to enlightenment.[44][52]

Śāriputra assumed a leadership role in the Buddha's monastic community, or Sangha. Buddhist texts describe that Śāriputra routinely took charge of monastic affairs usually handled by the Buddha himself, such as attending to sick monks or visiting lay followers before their deaths.[44] In one instance, when a group of monks planned to travel elsewhere, the Buddha told them to ask Śāriputra for permission first.[44] Śāriputra was the first disciple of the Buddha who was asked to ordain monks in his place, with the Buddha giving him the ordination procedure. He was also entrusted to ordain the Buddha's son Rahula.[53] When Śāriputra trained pupils, he gave them material and spiritual help, and assigned them an object of meditation.[54] In the Saccavibhanga Sutta, the Buddha compared Śāriputra to a mother who gives birth to a child while comparing Maudgalyāyana to a nurse who raises a child. Śāriputra would train students to sotapanna, the first stage of enlightenment, and Maudgalyāyana would train students to arhatship, the highest stage of enlightenment.[49][54][note 3] However, Nyanaponika Thera notes that there are several individual cases where Śāriputra guided monks to the higher stages of enlightenment as well.[56]

Buddhist texts portray Śāriputra as someone who took an active role in debating and converting heretics, considered to have been one of his great prerogatives.[57] In the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition, when the six heretical teachers of the time challenged the Buddhists to a contest, the Buddha had Śāriputra contend against them. Mūlasarvāstivāda texts state that Śāriputra used psychic powers to create a huge storm and transform himself into various forms, subduing the rival teachers and converting the residents of Savatthi.[58] When the monk Devadatta created a schism in the Buddha's monastic community and led some of the Buddha's disciples away, Śāriputra played a key role in restoring the community. According to texts, upon hearing about the schism, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana pretended to join Devadatta's community. After the chief disciples joined, Devadatta claimed to have had a backache and had Śāriputra preach in his place, but Devadatta fell asleep and Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana used the opportunity to get the following to return to the Buddha.[59][53]

Gilded statue of Śāriputra from Burma.

Buddhist texts generally credit the establishment of the monastic rules to Śāriputra, with Śāriputra being the one to ask the Buddha to create the rules. When Śāriputra asked the Buddha, he said he would lay them down at the right time.[44] Śāriputra was known for his conscientiousness and meticulous adherence to monastic rules. In one story, Śāriputra became ill with an ailment that could be treated with garlic, but refused it because the Buddha had previously laid down a rule forbidding monks to eat garlic, with Śāriputra only taking it after the Buddha rescinded the rule.[44][49] In another story, Śāriputra found that meal cakes tended to make him greedy and then made a vow to abstain from them.[49] A Buddhist commentary describes that one time when the other monks had left to collect alms, Śāriputra meticulously cleaned and organized the monastery to keep heretics from criticizing the disciples.[49] Several Buddhist texts relate that Śāriputra was reborn as a snake in a previous life and that this was the reason for some of his stubbornness. In a Mahāsāṃghika text the Buddha punished Śāriputra by making him stand in the sun for failing to prevent some monks from making incorrect remarks. When the other monks later asked the Buddha to stop the punishment, the Buddha said that Śāriputra's decision to receive the punishment could not be changed, just as he was unwilling to change his mind when he was a snake. In a Mahīśāsaka text, Śāriputra refused to take a type of fruit, even when prescribed as medicine, after another monk suspected him of sneaking delicious food, the Buddha likewise references Śāriputra's life as a snake to explain his stubbornness.[60]

Although Maudgalyāyana is described as having been foremost in psychic powers, Buddhist texts state that Śāriputra also exhibited such powers himself. In various texts, Śāriputra is reported to have exhibited several psychic abilities such as levitation and the ability to visit other realms of existence, as well as abilities common among arhats such as recalling past lives and clairvoyance.[61] In one story, a yaksha, or spirit, hit Śāriputra in the head while he was meditating. When Maudgalyāyana saw the incident and came to ask Śāriputra if he was okay, Śāriputra stated he didn't even notice the blow and suffered only a minor headache.[49] Maudgalyāyana then praised Śāriputra for his psychic abilities by being able to sustain a blow with little notice, described in the Patisambhidamagga text as an example of “the power of intervention by concentration” (Pali: samādhivipphāra-iddhi).[62] In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana descended to hell to give Devadatta the prophecy that he will become a pratyekabuddha in the future.[63] During the visit, it is said that Maudgalyāyana attempted to relieve the suffering of those in hell by creating rain but the rain dispersed. After Śāriputra saw this, he created a rain that did relieve the suffering of those in hell, using a wisdom based meditation.[64] In another Mūlasarvāstivāda text, the Buddha sent Maudgalyāyana to retrieve Śāriputra, who was doing sewing work. When Śāriputra stated he would go after his sewing work was complete, Maudgalyāyana attempted to force him to come by using his psychic powers to shake the ground but Śāriputra was unaffected. When Śāriputra told him to return first, Maudgalyāyana went back to the Buddha and found that Śāriputra had already arrived.[63] When Maudgalyāyana saw this, he stated that the power of psychic abilities was no match for the power of wisdom.[65]

Painting depicting the death of Śāriputra at the Bangkok National Museum.

Buddhist texts all state that Śāriputra died shortly before the Buddha, with texts generally indicating he died in his hometown.[59][66] According to Pāli commentaries, Śāriputra arose from meditation one day and realized through his meditative insight that the chief disciples were supposed to achieve parinirvana before the Buddha, and that he had seven more days to live.[59][67] Śāriputra then traveled to his hometown to teach his mother, who was yet to be converted to Buddhism. After he converted his mother, Śāriputra died peacefully on the full moon day of Kartika a few months before the Buddha.[59] According to Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, however, it is said that Śāriputra achieved paranirvana voluntarily because he didn't want to witness the Buddha's death, in some accounts he was also motivated by Maudgalyāyana intending to achieve paranirvana after being beaten and mortally injured by a rival religious group.[59][68] In the Sarvāstivāda account, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana both achieved paranirvana voluntarily on the same day, because they didn't want to witness the Buddha's death.[69] In several versions of the story, various heavenly beings from Buddhist cosmology are said to have come to pay respect to Śāriputra near his time of death.[70][71]

A funeral was held for Śāriputra in the city of Rajgir where his remains were cremated. His relics were then brought by Śāriputra's assistant, Cunda, to the Buddha in Śrāvastī.[72] In the Anupada Sutta, the Buddha gave a eulogy of Śāriputra, praising his intellect and virtue.[49][73] According to a Dighanikaya commentary, the Buddha enshrined Śāriputra's relics in a cetiya at Jetavana. In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, the relics were given to the lay disciple, Anathapindika, and it is him who builds a stupa and enshrines the relics at Jetavana.[72][note 4]

In the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, Śāriputra is depicted as being unable to grasp Mahayana doctrines such as non-duality and emptiness.[88] In the sutra, a goddess listening to Vimalakīrti scatters flowers which fall onto Śāriputra's robes.[91] Not wanting to break the monastic rules, which forbid decorating oneself with flowers, he tries to remove them but is unable to.[88] The goddess then accuses Śāriputra of being attached to the duality of what is proper and improper.[88][91] Later in the sutra, Śāriputra asks that if the goddess is so spiritually advanced, why doesn't she transform out of her female state, indicative of cultural sexism.[91] The goddess responds by using her powers to switch bodies with Śāriputra to demonstrate that male and female is just an illusion because, according to Mahayana doctrine, all things are empty and so male and female don't really exist.[88][91]

In prajñāpāramitā sutras Śāriputra is often depicted as the counterpoint to the true meaning of prajñāpāramitā.[92] In the Astasahasrika Prajñāpāramitā Sutra, Śāriputra is portrayed as being unable to understand the ultimate meaning of prajñāpāramitā and instead must be instructed by the disciple Subhūti.[88] According to Buddhist scholar Edward Conze, the sutra depicts Śāriputra as being preoccupied with dualities, making him unable to grasp the true meaning of prajnaparamita.[93] In the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, Śāriputra is one of the principal interlocutors, asking questions and being instructed.[94] Conze states that Śāriputra has to be instructed in this sutra because, despite his great wisdom, prajnaparamita doctrine was too advanced for his comprehension.[95] The Da zhidu lun commentary to the sutra describes Śāriputra as someone who pursued the bodhisattva path in a past life but gave up and turned to the Śrāvaka path after donating his eye to a beggar who threw the eye on the ground.[88]

Religious studies scholar Douglas Osto argues that Śāriputra is portrayed as such in Prajñāpāramitā sutras due to his association with the Abhidharma, which teaches that dharmas are the final reality. This is in contrast to the core teachings of Prajñāpāramitā sutras, which teach that all dharmas are empty, thus making Śāriputra the ideal counterpoint.[92]

Japanese depiction of the Lotus Sutra, where Śāriputra prompts the Buddha to preach.

Śāriputra plays a major role in the Heart Sutra, where the teaching is directed at him. Śāriputra prompts the teaching of the sutra by asking the Mahayana bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara how to practice wisdom.[96] Avalokiteśvara's response to Śāriputra, then makes up the body of the sutra.[97] When Avalokiteśvara finishes the sutra the Buddha shows approval of the teaching, and Śāriputra, Avalokiteśvara, and the audience then rejoice.[98] In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha starts talking about the higher wisdom of buddhas and his use of skillful means (Sanskrit: upāya) to teach the Dharma, which leaves the arhats in the assembly confused.[99] Śāriputra then asks the Buddha to explain his teachings for the benefit of other beings, prompting the Buddha to teach the Lotus Sutra.[100] Later in the sutra, the Buddha explains that Śāriputra had followed the bodhisattva path in past lives but had forgotten and followed the Śrāvaka path in this life.[101] The Buddha then assures Śāriputra that he will also achieve buddhahood and declares that Śāriputra will become the future Buddha Padmaprabha.[88][102] In the listing of the great arhats in the assembly at the beginning of the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, Śāriputra is mentioned as the fifteenth of the great arhats, while in the Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra he is placed as the first.[103]