Ānanda

Tibetan Illustration of Ven. Ananda.

Ānanda (T. Kun dga' bo ཀུན་དགའ་བོ་; C. Anan[tuo] 阿難[陀]) was Gautama Buddha's cousin and personal attendant, and one of his ten principal disciples. Amongst the Buddha's many disciples, Ānanda stood out for having the most retentive memory.

Most of the sutras of the Sutta Pitaka are attributed to Ananda's recollection of the Buddha's teachings during the First Buddhist council. For that reason, he was known as the Guardian of the Dharma.

Further reading:

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