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 attained enlightenment just in time to join the First Council, where he recited vast stretches of the Sutta-Piṭaka from memory - but was also chastised by Mahākassapa for his role in admitting women and for moments of supposed failure in understanding the Buddha. He taught for two decades after that, passing the lineage to pupils like Sāṇavāsī and Majjhantika, and died by a river where stūpas were raised in his name.