阿難의 나이에 관한 고찰

A Consideration on the Age of Ānanda

&nbsp;&nbsp;？nanda was one of the closest relative of Buddha and at the same time was the servant who attended him for 25 years. In addition, he was so clever that he could memorize all the 84,000 sutras and thus took an essential role in the first sa？g？ti. Later, he followed Mah？k？？yapa to become the head of Buddhism. It means that ？nanda could become the most influential disciple in the fundamental Buddhism, even more than ？？riputra, the best disciple who entered into Nirvana earlier than Buddha. That is to say, the range of ？nanda was much wider than that of ？？riputra in the fundamental Buddhism.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Therefore, the exact understanding on ？nanda will give us more precise viewpoint on the fundamental Buddhism. In this paper, an approach to the age of ？nanda was made. When the age of ？nanda is acquired more clearly, we can deduce the more correct understanding about the relationship between Buddha and ？nanda and the various aspects related with Buddhist history in the fundamental Buddhist era.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Moreover, when the age of ？nanda is acquired exactly, we can find out Buddha’s position among his younger cousins and the situation of Devadatta’s sa？ha-bheda in old age of Buddha more clearly. It also enables the more reasonable approach to the relationship among Buddha’s disciples, especially that between Mah？-K？？yapa and ？nanda, and to the period between the first and the second sa？g？ti as well.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;But, the age of ？nanda has so many confused elements in itself that it is not easy to approach it. For ？nanda, it is recorded in the Vinaya Pitaka that he made the pabbajja when Buddha returned to Kapila-vastu after his acquisition of Great Wisdom. But it is also recorded in a Buddhist document that he was born on the day of Buddha’s acquisition of Great Wisdom. Thus, the difference of age between two records is not small. Therefore, in this research, this kind of problem is sublated and the synthetic result for ？nanda’s age is sought.