Shanavasa
Shanavasa
[商那和修] (Skt; Jpn Shonawashu)
Also known as Shanavasin, Shanakavasa, or Shanakavasin. He is regarded as the third of Shakyamuni Buddha's twenty-three, or the fourth of his twenty-four, successors. According to A History of the Buddha's Successors, he was a wealthy man of Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha in India. Extremely wise and valiant, as a lay practitioner of Buddhism, he made offerings of buildings and other things to the Buddhist Order. Finally he renounced the secular world to devote himself as a monk to practicing the Buddha's teachings. Shanavasa inherited Shakyamuni's teachings from Ananda, the second of the Buddha's twenty-three successors, and devoted himself to spreading the teachings, traveling to Mathuraand Kashmir to do so. He transferred the teachings to Upagupta. A History of the Buddha's Successors also describes Madhyantika as a successor of Ananda together with Shanavasa. Although Madhyantika propagated Buddhism in Kashmir, no distinct lineage or successorship emerged from his efforts and the recorded transmission of the teachings he had received from Ananda ended. Madhyantika, however, is sometimes included among the Buddha's successors, bringing the total number of successors to twenty-four; among these twenty-four successors, Shanavasa is traditionally regarded as the fourth, and Madhyantika, as the third.
