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48
Rishibhashit: A Study
indicates that he was a prominent Rishi of that age. To me, his being son of Vishwamitra appears to be wrong. Because not only him but Gargi, Yajnavalkya, Narad, Kapil etc. also are said to be Vishwamitra's sons, which does not appear to be true. The only possibility is that he was one of the line of Vishwamitra's disciples. However, one thing can certainly be infered, or Gardabhill or Gardabhi was a historic Rishi and possibly of the Upanishadic period.
23. RAMAPUTTA
The 23rd chapter of Rishibhashit185 contains the compilation of the preachings of Ramaputta. His mention is also available in Sutrakritang, 186 Sthanang,187 and Anuttaropapatik. 188 In Sutrakritang189 he has been mentioned alongwith Asit Deval, Nami, Narayana, Bahuk, Dvaipayan, Parashar, etc. He has been said to be accepted in the discourses of Nirgranths (Iha sammata) and is supposed to have attained liberation inspite of eating food etc. It should be known that in some printed editions of Sutrakritang and commentary by Sheelank, his name has been mentioned as Ramagutta, which is not correct. Rama-utte, mentioned in Sutrakritang-churni is correct and its Sanskrit transliteration is Ramaputra. The proof of this has been mentioned in details in an article by me and Prof. M. A. Dhaki in the Pt. Bechardas Doshi memorial publication.
Besides Sutrakritang, according to the information available in Sthanang also, there was a chapter titled Ramputta in ancient editions of Antakritdasha, which is not available in the current editions of Antakritdasha. It is possible that this chapter contained life and works of Ramaputta. Also the sixth chapter of third part of Anuttaropapatik is about Ramaputta. Here he is said to be a contemporary of Mahavir and inhabitant of Saket. Besides these two facts, authenticity of other information in this source is not impeccable. Sutrakritang and Rishibhashit both conclusively indicate that Ramaputta did not originally belong to the Nirgranth tradition, still he was given a respectable place there.
We find mention of Ramaputta in Buddhist tradition also. According to the information available in Pali Tripatak 190 his full name was Uddak Ramaputta and he was older than Buddha. In the begining Buddha took training of meditational practices from Ramaputta, and when he attained omniscience he wanted to go and preach him; knowing his potential. But it was too late, as Ramaputta had died by then. Thus he was an elder
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