Ānanda

Ānanda was ordained as a monk in the 5th–4th century BCE, studied under Puṇṇa Mantānīputta, and twenty years into the Buddha's ministry was selected as his personal attendant. He served as secretary, intermediary, and mouthpiece, bridging the teacher and both laypeople and the monastic saṅgha. He persuaded the Buddha to allow women into the order when the Buddha's foster-mother Mahāpajāpati Gotamī sought ordination, a move that would later bring reproach. In the Buddha's final year, Ānanda witnessed his teacher's death with visible grief, deeply attached to the man himself. Days later, he atta…