Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c7.320

v1.c7.320

Ānanda’s special friends seem to have been Sāriputta, Moggallāna, Mahā Kassapa, Anuruddha and Kaṅkhā Revata.⁵² He was the Saṅghanavaka among them all, yet they held him in high esteem.⁵³ Ānanda and Sariputta were very special friends. It is said that Sāriputta loved Ānanda because the latter did for the Buddha what Sāriputta would wish to have done himself, and Ānanda respected Sāriputta because he was the Buddha’s chief disciple. Young men who were ordained by either of them would be sent to the other to learn under him. They shared between them any good thing given to them. Once Ānanda was presented by a brahmin with a costly robe; immediately he wished to give it to Sāriputta, but as the latter was away at the time, he obtained the Buddha’s permission to keep it for him till his return.⁵⁴