Mahākātyāyana

Mahākātyāyana (P. Mahākaccāna; T. ka tya'i bu chen po ཀ་ཏྱའི་བུ་ཆེན་པོ་; C. moheji-azhanyan 摩訶迦旃延), also known as Kātyāyana (P. Kaccāna, Kaccāyana), was one of the ten principal disciples of Gautama Buddha. He was foremost among the disciples in explaining the brief discourses of the Buddha.

In the Kaccānagotta Sutta (Skt. Kātyāyanaḥsūtra), he asks the Buddha to explain right view, and the Buddha responds by explaining the middle way between the two extreme views of existence and non-existence.

He is also presented in discourse with the Buddha in the following sutras:

• Madhupinḍikasutta
• Parāyanasutta

Further reading

• Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Mahākātyāyana
• Nyanaponika Thera; Hecker, Hellmuth (2003), Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy (PDF), Wisdom Publications