Fifty friends of Yasa, sons of leading families in the countryside, come to him; the Buddha teaches them, and all go forth and attain . Together with the Buddha there are now sixty-one arahants in the world. Pali Canon
Different Accounts
Number: most accounts give fifty; the later commentaries of the Southern tradition and the Buddhacarita give fifty-four (including the four friends above).
More differences between accounts (1)
Total number of arahants: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka, Mahīśāsaka and Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayas and the Tibetan Vinaya give sixty-one; the Buddha biography Zhongxu mohedi jing gives sixty (not counting the Buddha); the Guoqu xianzai yinguo jing, lacking the four friends, reaches fifty-six.
Dating
Year 1 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged thirty-five, during the , after the four friends went forth; inferred from the sequence of events, known only to fall within this rains retreat.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by four schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü), the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (Wufen lü) and the Chinese Saṅghabhedavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Attested across multiple schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Inferred from the sequence of events (neither the canonical texts nor the commentaries give the time; the year is worked out from the order of this event and those around it). Time precision: approximate range.
Sources
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 1:10.1.1–10.4.9
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.790c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.106a
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1450 p.130a
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.189 p.645c–646a
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.191 p.956c–957a
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.192 p.31a
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.196 p.149b
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 nga 51a5–51b6
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 nga 51b6