page_title: Śāriputra
section_title: Person
hierarchical_section_title: Śāriputra / Biography / Person
caption_attribution_description: Photograph from the Buddhaisawan Temple, inside the National Museum, Bangkok
context_page_description: Śāriputra was one of the top disciples of the Buddha. He is considered the first of the Buddha's two chief male disciples, together with Maudgalyāyana. Śāriputra had a key leadership role in the ministry of the Buddha and is considered in many Buddhist schools to have been important in the development of the Buddhist Abhidharma. He frequently appears in Mahayana sutras, and in some sutras, is used as a counterpoint to represent the Hinayana school of Buddhism.
  Buddhist texts relate that Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana were childhood friends who became spiritual wanderers in their youth. After having searched for spiritual truth with other contemporary teachers, they came into contact with the teachings of the Buddha and ordained as monks under him, after which the Buddha declared the friends his two chief disciples. Śāriputra was said to have attained enlightenment as an arhat two weeks after ordaining. As chief disciple Śāriputra assumed a leadership role in the Sangha, doing tasks like looking after monks, assigning them objects of meditation, and clarifying points of doctrine. He was the first disciple the Buddha allowed to ordain other monks.
context_section_description: 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. 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. 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.
  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. 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. In another story, Śāriputra found that meal cakes tended to make him greedy and then made a vow to abstain from them. 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. 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.
  
  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. 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. 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). In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana descended to hell to give Devadatta the prophecy that he will become a pratyekabuddha in the future. 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. In another Mūlasarvāstivāda text, the Buddha sent Maudgalyāy
caption: Painting depicting the death of Śāriputra at the Bangkok National Museum.
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