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DEVADATTA , the son of Suklodana, who was younger See also:brother to the See also:father of the See also:Buddha (Maheivastu, iii. 76). Both he and his brother See also:Ananda, who were considerably younger than the Buddha, joined the brotherhood in the twentieth See also:year of the Buddha's See also:ministry. Four other See also:cousins of theirs, chiefs of the Sakiya See also:clan, and a See also:barber named Upali, were admitted to the See also:order at the same See also:time; and at their own See also:request the barber was admitted first, so that as their See also:senior in the order he should take See also:precedence of them ( Vinaya Texts, iii. 228). All the others continued loyal disciples, but Devadatta, fifteen years afterwards, having gained over the See also:crown See also:prince of See also:Magadha, Ajatasattu, to his See also:side, made a formal proposition, at the See also:meeting of the order, that the Buddha should retire, and See also:hand over the leadership to him, Devadatta ( Vinaya Texts, iii. 238 ; See also:Jataka, i. 142). This proposal was rejected, and Devadatta is said in the tradition to have successfully instigated the prince to the See also:execution of his aged father and to have made three abortive attempts to bring about the See also:death of the Buddha (Vinaya Texts, iii. 241—250; Jataka, vi. 131), shortly afterwards, relying upon the feeling of the See also:people in favour of See also:asceticism, he brought forward four propositions for ascetic rules to be imposed on the order. These being refused, he appealed to the people, started an order of his own, and gained over 50o of the Buddha's community to join in the See also:secession. We hear nothing further about the success or otherwise of the new order, but it may possibly be referred to under the name of the Gotamakas, in the Anguttara (see Dialogues of the Buddha i. 222), for Devadatta's See also:family name was Gotama. But his community was certainly still in existence in the 4th See also:century A.D., for it is especially mentioned by Fa Hien, the See also:Chinese See also:pilgrim (See also:Legge's See also:translation, p. 62). And it possibly lasted till the 7th century, for Hsuan Tsang mentions that in a monastery in See also:Bengal the monks then followed a certain regulation of Devadatta's (T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang, ii, 191). There is no mention in the See also:canon as to how or when Devadatta died; but the commentary on the Jataka, written in the 5th century A.D., has preserved a tradition that he was swallowed up by the See also:earth near Savatthi, when on his way to ask See also:pardon of the Buddha (Jataka, iv. 158). The spot where this occurred was shown to both the pilgrims just mentioned (Fa Hien, loc. cit. p. 6o; and T. Waiters, On Yuan Chwang, i. 390). It is a striking example of the way in which such legends grow, that it is only the latest of these authorities, Hsuan Tsang, who says that, though ostensibly approaching the Buddha with a view to reconciliation, Devadatta had concealed See also:poison in his See also:nail with the See also:object of murdering the Buddha. Fa See also:Man, translated by J. Legge (See also:Oxford, 1886) ; Mahavastu (ed. See also:Tenant, 3 vols., See also:Paris, 1882—1897). (T. W. R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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