Nāgasena (fl. second c.BCE) was a Buddhist sage (arhat) who possibly lived in contemporaneous Pañjāb. Appearing in the 1st-century CE Pāli text, Milinda-pañha and the Sanskrit text Nāgasenabhiksusūtra, he is famous for his debate with king Milinda. Nāgasena is also known as Dhītika in a Sarvāstivādin version of the Milinda-pañha.
According to Milinda-pañha, Nāgasena was born into a brāhmaṇa tribe in the Himalayas and became well versed in the Vedas at an early age.
At that time, the Bactrian Greek King Menander I Soter (Milinda in Pali) was aggravating the Buddhist order by expertly challenging the themes of the Buddhist doctrine and beating Buddhist scholars in debate. To counter this threat, the Buddhist monk Rohana approached Nāgasena and requested him to help defeat Menander in a debate.
Nāgasena entered the Buddhist order under Rohana and learned the Pali Abhidhamma Piṭaka (“Basket of Higher Doctrine.”) Later, Nāgasena studied in Pataliputra, attained arhatship, and became distinguished for his erudition. In due course, Nāgasena engaged King Milinda in a debate about various points of Buddhist doctrine, at the end of which the king took refuge in Triratna (“Three Jewels” of Buddhism,) and became a lay disciple and a patron of Buddhism.
Scholars are doubtful whether such a discourse ever took place—although Menander is acknowledged, no historical evidence exists of Nāgasena.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Nagasena
Even could she have kept it secret from men, … could she have kept it secret from spirit, … could she have kept it secret from the gods, yet she could not have escaped herself from the knowledge of her sin.
—Nagasena
He sought after the good of those dependent on him.
—Nagasena
He who does wrong, O king, comes to feel remorse…. But he who does well feels no remorse, and feeling no remorse, gladness will spring up within him.
—Nagasena
He walks not in religion in a quarrelsome spirit.
—Nagasena
He lives only to be a help to others.
—Nagasena
Like as the lotus is untarnished by the water, so is Nirvana by any evil dispositions.
—Nagasena
He delights in giving so far as he is able.
—Nagasena
Not the whole world, … the ocean-girt earth, With all the seas and the hills that girdle it, Would I wish to possess with shame added thereto.
—Nagasena
Vice, O king, is a mean thing, virtue is great and grand.
—Nagasena
The words of Buddha, even when stern, yet … as full of pity as the words of a father to his children.
—Nagasena
Doing no injury to any one, dwell in the world full of love and kindness.
—Nagasena
The Buddha, O king, magnifies not the offering of gifts to himself, but rather to whosoever … is deserving.
—Nagasena
Topics: God
Evil he overcame by righteousness.
—Nagasena
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