Group of five

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The Buddha teaching the "group of five" ascetics

The group of five (S. pañcavargika; P. pañcavaggiyā; T. lnga sde ལྔ་སྡེ་; C. wuqun [biqiu] 五群[比丘]), refers to the five ascetics who practiced austerities with Siddhartha Gautama and later became his first five disciples.[1]

This group is also referred to as the five astetics or the first five disciples.

In Sanskrit texts, this group is commonly known as bhadravargīya (Tib. ཁོར་ལྔ་སྡེ་བཟང་པོ་, 'khor lnga sde bzang po), the auspicious group.[1]

The five are:

See also

References