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SARIPUTTA

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 220 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SARIPUTTA , one of the two See also:

principal disciples of Gotama the See also:Buddha. He was See also:born in the See also:middle of the 6th See also:century B.C. at Nala, a See also:village in the See also:kingdom of See also:Magadha, the See also:modern See also:Behar, just See also:south of the See also:Ganges and a little See also:east of where See also:Patna now stands. His See also:personal name was Upatissa; the name of his See also:father, who was a brahmin, is unknown; his See also:mother's name was See also:Sari, and it was by the epithet or See also:nickname of Sariputta (that is " Sari's son "), that he was best known. He had three sisters, all of whom subsequently entered the Buddhist See also:Order. When still a See also:young See also:man he devoted himself to the religious See also:life, and followed at first the See also:system taught by Sanjaya of the Belattha See also:clan. A See also:summary of the philosophical position of this teacher has been preserved in the See also:Dialogue called The Perfect See also:Net. According to this See also:account his See also: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. See also:Early in the Buddhist See also:movement Sariputta had a conversation with one of the men who had just joined it; and the Buddhist quoted to him the now famous See also: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 end—such alone is the word of the See also:Sage." The result was that Sariputta, with his friend Kolita and other disciples of Sanjaya, asked for See also: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 See also:chief of all the disciples in insight. He was See also: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 See also:ethics or See also:philosophy, either with the Buddha himself, or with one or other of the more prominent disciples. One whole See also: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 (See also:

Thera-gatha), and one of the poems in the Sutta Nipata is based on a question he addressed to the Buddha. See also:Asoka the See also:Great, in his Bhabra See also: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 See also:home, and died just six months before the See also:death of the Buddha, that is, approximately in 48o B.c. He was cremated with great ceremony, and the ashes placed in a tope or See also:burial-See also:mound. An inscribed See also:casket in such a mound at See also:Sanchi opened by See also:Cunningham in See also:February 1851 contained a portion of these ashes which had been removed to that spot, in See also:General Cunningham's See also:opinion by Asoka. (T. W. R.

End of Article: SARIPUTTA

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