Category talk:Disciples of Gautama Buddha

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Traditionally, there are ten great disciples of the Buddha mentioned in the Mahayana sutras: 1) Mahakashyapa, 2) Ananda, 3) Shariputra, 4) Subhuti, 5) Purna, 6) Mahamaudgalyayana, 7) Katyayana, 8) Aniruddha, 9) Upali and 10) Rahula. Purna seems to be missing from this list in the Wikipedia.

Distinguishing between "Chief" and "Great" disciples
I changed the headings in this article because it appeared to me that the current text confuses a "Chief Disciple" (aggasavaka, that is, Sariputta and Mahamoggallana) with a "Great Disciple" (mahasavaka, for instance, Ananda, Upali, Mahakassapa, etc.). (See the revamped Sravaka article for more info.)

Once this distinction between "Chief" and "Great" disciples was overlaid upon the existing structure, the current text became even more unwieldy. To me, it begged for tabularization. So, I put it in all in a table (which, in my mind, visually underlines that the "Community of Disciples" is composed of the "four assemblies": monks, nuns, laymen & laywomen).

While I believe the changes of "Chief" to "Great" needs to stay, I'm sympathetic to anyone who finds my new table ugly and decides to revert it. Feel free. (It was done on a whim ;-) ).

LarryR(talk) 23:01, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Hey, great template. Been thinking of adding a separate section on this page with the later of the famous disciples (Indians such as Nagarjuna, Greek such as Menander, Chinese - Huineng, Japanese zen masters)...some such as Nagarjuna,Huineng are already there...--216.254.121.169 02:06, 31 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Excellent ideas! Please do!  Thanks, Larry Rosenfeld (talk) 02:41, 31 December 2006 (UTC)