DEVADATTA, the son of Suklodana, who was younger brother to the father of the Buddha (Mahāvastu, iii. 76). Both he and his brother Ānanda, who were considerably younger than the Buddha, joined the brotherhood in the twentieth year of the Buddha's ministry. Four other cousins of theirs, chiefs of the Sākiya clan, and a barber named Upāli, were admitted to the order at the same time; and at their own request the barber was admitted first, so that as their senior in the order he should take precedence of them (Vinaya Texts, iii. 228). All the others continued loyal disciples, but Devadatta, fifteen years afterwards, having gained over the crown prince of Magadha, Ajātasattu, to his side, made a formal proposition, at the meeting of the order, that the Buddha should retire, and hand over the leadership to him, Devadatta (Vinaya Texts, iii. 238; Jātaka, i. 142). This proposal was rejected, and Devadatta is said in the tradition to have successfully instigated the prince to the execution of his aged father and to have made three abortive attempts to bring about the death of the Buddha (Vinaya Texts, iii. 241-250; Jātaka, vi. 131), shortly afterwards, relying upon the feeling of the people in favour of asceticism, he brought forward four propositions for ascetic rules to be imposed on the order. These being refused, he appealed to the people, started an order of his own, and gained over 500 of the Buddha's community to join in the secession. We hear nothing further about the success or otherwise of the new order, but it may possibly be referred to under the name of the Gotamakas, in the Anguttara (see Dialogues of the Buddha i. 222), for Devadatta's family name was Gotama. But his community was certainly still in existence in the 4th century A.D., for it is especially mentioned by Fa Hien, the Chinese pilgrim (Legge's translation, p. 62). And it possibly lasted till the 7th century, for Hsüan Tsang mentions that in a monastery in Bengal the monks then followed a certain regulation of Devadatta's (T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang, ii. 191). There is no mention in the canon as to how or when Devadatta died; but the commentary on the Jātaka, written in the 5th century A.D., has preserved a tradition that he was swallowed up by the earth near Sāvatthi, when on his way to ask pardon of the Buddha (Jātaka, iv. 158). The spot where this occurred was shown to both the pilgrims just mentioned (Fa Hien, loc. cit. p. 60; and T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang, i. 390). It is a striking example of the way in which such legends grow, that it is only the latest of these authorities, Hsüan Tsang, who says that, though ostensibly approaching the Buddha with a view to reconciliation, Devadatta had concealed poison in his nail with the object of murdering the Buddha.
Authorities.—Vinaya Texts, translated by Rhys Davids and H. Oldenberg (3 vols., Oxford, 1881-1885); The Jātaka, edited by V. Fausböll (7 vols., London, 1877-1897); T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang (ed. Rhys Davids and Bushell, 2 vols., London, 1904-1905); Fa Hian, translated by J. Legge (Oxford, 1886); Mahāvastu (ed. Tenant, 3 vols., Paris, 1882-1897).
(T. W. R. D.)
DEVAPRAYAG (Deoprayag), a village in Tehri State of the United Provinces, India. It is situated at the spot where the rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi unite and form the Ganges, and as one of the five sacred confluences in the hills is a great place of pilgrimage for devout Hindus. Devaprayag stands at an elevation of 2265 ft. on the side of a hill which rises above it 800 ft. On a terrace in the upper part of the village is the temple of Raghunath, built of huge uncemented stones, pyramidical in form and capped by a white cupola.
DEVENS, CHARLES (1820-1891), American lawyer and jurist, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 4th of April 1820. He graduated at Harvard College in 1838, and at the Harvard law school in 1840, and was admitted to the bar in Franklin county, Mass., where he practised from 1841 to 1849. In the year 1848 he was a Whig member of the state senate, and from 1849 to 1853 was United States marshal for Massachusetts, in which capacity he was called upon in 1851 to remand the fugitive slave, Thomas Sims, to slavery. This he felt constrained to do, much against his personal desire; and subsequently he attempted in vain to purchase Sims's freedom, and many years later appointed him to a position in the department of justice at Washington. Devens practised law at Worcester from 1853 until 1861, and throughout the Civil War served in the Federal army, becoming colonel of volunteers in July 1861 and brigadier-general of volunteers in April 1862. At the battle of Ball's Bluff (1861) he was severely wounded; he was again wounded at Fair Oaks (1862) and at Chancellorsville (1863), where he commanded a division. He later distinguished himself at Cold Harbor, and commanded a division in Grant's final campaign in Virginia (1864-65), his troops being the first to occupy Richmond after its fall. Breveted major-general in 1865, he remained in the army for a year as commander of the military district of Charleston, South Carolina. He was a judge of the Massachusetts superior court from 1867 to 1873, and was an associate justice of the supreme court of the state from 1873 to 1877, and again from 1881 to 1891. From 1877 to 1881 he was attorney-general of the United States in the cabinet of President Hayes. He died at Boston, Mass., on the 7th of January 1891.
See his Orations and Addresses, with a memoir by John Codman Ropes (Boston, 1891).