Mahākāśyapa
E281403
Mahākāśyapa was one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples, revered in early Buddhism and Zen as the primary heir to the Buddha’s teaching and the first patriarch of the Zen lineage.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Mahākāśyapa canonical | 2 |
| Kāśyapa Mātaṅga | 1 |
| Mahakasyapa | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2563175 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mahākāśyapa Context triple: [Shakyamuni Buddha, disciples, Mahākāśyapa]
-
A.
Maudgalyāyana
Maudgalyāyana is one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples in early Buddhism, renowned for his extraordinary supernatural powers and deep spiritual insight.
-
B.
Babruvahana
Babruvahana is a character in the Indian epic Mahabharata, known as the son of the Pandava prince Arjuna and the princess Chitrangada, and as a skilled warrior and later ruler of Manipura.
-
C.
Vishvamitra
Vishvamitra is a revered sage and former king in Hindu mythology, renowned for his intense austerities, transformation into a Brahmarshi, and significant role as a mentor and protector of Rama in the Ramayana.
-
D.
Narada
Narada is a revered sage and divine messenger in Hindu mythology, known for his wisdom, musical devotion, and role as a cosmic wanderer who connects gods and humans.
-
E.
Sugriva
Sugriva is the exiled monkey king in the Hindu epic Ramayana who allies with Rama to defeat the demon king Ravana and reclaim his own throne.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mahākāśyapa Target entity description: Mahākāśyapa was one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples, revered in early Buddhism and Zen as the primary heir to the Buddha’s teaching and the first patriarch of the Zen lineage.
-
A.
Maudgalyāyana
Maudgalyāyana is one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples in early Buddhism, renowned for his extraordinary supernatural powers and deep spiritual insight.
-
B.
Babruvahana
Babruvahana is a character in the Indian epic Mahabharata, known as the son of the Pandava prince Arjuna and the princess Chitrangada, and as a skilled warrior and later ruler of Manipura.
-
C.
Vishvamitra
Vishvamitra is a revered sage and former king in Hindu mythology, renowned for his intense austerities, transformation into a Brahmarshi, and significant role as a mentor and protector of Rama in the Ramayana.
-
D.
Narada
Narada is a revered sage and divine messenger in Hindu mythology, known for his wisdom, musical devotion, and role as a cosmic wanderer who connects gods and humans.
-
E.
Sugriva
Sugriva is the exiled monkey king in the Hindu epic Ramayana who allies with Rama to defeat the demon king Ravana and reclaim his own throne.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Buddhist monk
ⓘ
Zen patriarch ⓘ arahant ⓘ disciple of the Buddha ⓘ early Buddhist figure ⓘ |
| alternativeName |
Kassapa
ⓘ
Kashyapa ⓘ
surface form:
Kāśyapa
Mahākāśyapa ⓘ
surface form:
Mahakasyapa
Mahākāśyapa Thera ⓘ |
| associatedDoctrine | ascetic discipline (dhuta practices) ⓘ |
| associatedLegend | Buddha’s flower sermon and silent smile ⓘ |
| associatedPlace |
Magadha
ⓘ
surface form:
Magadha region
|
| associatedWith |
Mahayana
ⓘ
surface form:
Mahāyāna Buddhism
Theravada ⓘ
surface form:
Theravāda Buddhism
Zen ⓘ
surface form:
Zen Buddhism
|
| category |
Buddhist arhats
ⓘ
Disciples of Gautama Buddha ⓘ Zen patriarchs ⓘ |
| event | presided over the First Buddhist Council at Rājagṛha ⓘ |
| honorificTitle | Mahākāśyapa self-link ⓘ |
| knownFor |
being the primary heir to the Buddha’s teaching in Zen lineage accounts
ⓘ
leading the First Buddhist Council ⓘ receiving the Buddha’s mind-to-mind transmission in Zen tradition ⓘ |
| position |
first Chan patriarch
ⓘ
first patriarch of the Zen lineage ⓘ |
| praisedBy |
Shakyamuni Buddha
ⓘ
surface form:
Gautama Buddha
|
| praisedFor |
ascetic practices
ⓘ
austerity ⓘ leadership among the monks ⓘ meditative attainment ⓘ |
| religion | Buddhism ⓘ |
| renouncedWorldlyLife | to become a monk under the Buddha ⓘ |
| role | foremost disciple of Gautama Buddha ⓘ |
| scripturalSource |
Sutta Pitaka
ⓘ
surface form:
Aṅguttara Nikāya
Mahayana sutras ⓘ
surface form:
Mahāyāna sūtras
the Pali Canon ⓘ
surface form:
Pāli Canon
Sutta Pitaka ⓘ
surface form:
Saṃyutta Nikāya
Vinaya texts ⓘ |
| spouse | Bhaddā Kāpilānī ⓘ |
| successor |
Ānanda
ⓘ
surface form:
Ānanda (in some lineage accounts)
Ānanda in Chan/Zen patriarch lists ⓘ |
| successorOf |
Shakyamuni Buddha
ⓘ
surface form:
Gautama Buddha (in Zen patriarchal lineage)
|
| symbolInZen | embodiment of direct, wordless transmission ⓘ |
| teacher |
Shakyamuni Buddha
ⓘ
surface form:
Gautama Buddha
|
| veneratedIn |
Mahayana
ⓘ
surface form:
Mahāyāna tradition
Theravada ⓘ
surface form:
Theravāda tradition
Vajrayāna tradition ⓘ Zen tradition ⓘ |
| vowedCelibacyWith | Bhaddā Kāpilānī ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Mahākāśyapa Description of subject: Mahākāśyapa was one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples, revered in early Buddhism and Zen as the primary heir to the Buddha’s teaching and the first patriarch of the Zen lineage.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Kāśyapa Mātaṅga
this entity surface form:
Mahakasyapa