Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t2.21

c8.s1.t2.21

The names and the more important surroundings in the life of the individual disciples are undoubtedly authentic. Tradition accords the foremost place among them to those two Brahmans, bound to each other from youth up in bonds of closest friendship, viz., Sâriputta and Moggallâna, who meet us among the converts gained by Buddha in the outset of his career (p. 134, seq.). Throughout his and their long life they followed him faithfully, and they died within a short interval of each other in extreme old age, not long before Buddha's death. It is Sâriputta whom Buddha is believed to have declared to be the most prominent among his followers: he is, it is said,* like the eldest son of a world-ruling monarch, who, following the king, helps him to put in motion the wheel of sovereignty, which he sets rolling over the earth.† Nearest