Nāgasena
The Venerable Nāgasena (seated in the middle) conversing with King Menander I
Title	Thera
Religious life
Religion	Buddhism
School	Sarvastivada
Senior posting
Period in office	c. 150 BCE

Nāgasena was aSarvāstivādan Buddhist sage who lived around 150 BC. His answers to questions about Buddhism posed byMenander I (Pali:Milinda), the Greek king innorthwestern India, are recorded in theMilindapañhā and the Sanskrit Nāgasenabhiksusūtra.^[1] According toPali accounts, he was born into a Brahmin family in theHimalayas and was well-versed in theVedas at an early age. However, he later converted to Buddhism.^[2]

There is almost universal agreement that a core text was later expanded by numerous other authors, following a question and answer pattern established in the early books. The version extant today is very long, and has signs of inconsistent authorship in the later volumes. There is no agreed-upon point at which Nagasena's authorship may be said to end (and the work of other hands begins), nor has this been perceived as an inherently important distinction by monastic scholars.

The text mentions that Nagasena learned theTripiṭaka under the Greek Buddhist monkDhammarakkhita nearPātaliputta (modernPatna). He also reachedenlightenment and became anarhat under his guidance.

Other personalities mentioned in the text are Nāgasena's fatherSoñuttara, his teachers Rohana,Assagutta ofVattaniya and another teacher namedĀyupāla fromSankheyya nearSāgala.

There is a tradition that Nagasena brought to Thailand the first representation of the Buddha, theEmerald Buddha. According to this legend, the Emerald Buddha would have been created in India in 43 BC by Nagasena in the city of Pātaliputta.

Nagasena is not known through other sources besides the Milinda Panha and this legend.

Nāgasena is one of theEighteen Arhats ofMahayana Buddhism. His traditional textile depiction shows him holding akhakkhara in his right hand and a vase in his left; an excellent example can be seen on one of thethangkas in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. "This figure [conforms with the image of] the arhat Nagasena, shown in Jivarama's sketchbook of 1435"^[3] who also holds a vase.

A similar depiction can be seen in the collection of Singapore's Asian Civilisations Museum (Qianlong era, 18C: thangka with silk appliqué.)^[4]

More modern statues often show a bald, elderly monk scratching his ear with a stick to symbolize purification of the sense of hearing. An adherent of Buddhism should avoid listening to gossip and other nonsense so that they are always prepared to hear the truth.

• Buswell, Robert; Lopez, Donald (2014).The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press.ISBN 9780691157863. Archived fromthe original on 22 July 2023.
• Jestice, Phyllis G (2004).Holy People of the World: A Cross-cultural Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO.ISBN 978-1-57607-355-1.
• Xing, Guang (1 January 2005).The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikāya Theory. Psychology Press.ISBN 978-0-415-33344-3.

• Media related toNāgasena at Wikimedia Commons

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