• Nandopananda

A Nāga king, tamed by Moggallāna. The Buddha and five hundred monks, on their way to Tāvatimsa one morning, travelled over the Nāga king's abode as he was having a meal. In anger, the Nāga coiled round Sineru and covered the road to Tāvatimsa..

Thereupon several members of the Buddha's retinue, including Ratthapāla, Bhaddiya and Rāhula, offered to quell the Nāga's power, but the Buddha would not agree until Moggallāna sought permission to do so. It is said that no other monk had the power to face all the dangers created by the Naga and remain unscathed. Moggallanā and Nandopananda vied with one another in the exhibition of their iddhi power, and, in the end, Nandopananda had to acknowledge defeat. He was thereupon conducted to the Buddha, whose follower he became. When Anāthapindika heard of Moggallana's victory, he celebrated it by holding a great alms festival, lasting for seven days, for the Buddha and his monks. ThagA.ii.188f.; J. v.126.

In the Divyāvadāna (p.395) Nanda and Upananda are spoken of as two Nāga kings.

One of the Lohakumbhi Nirayas. SA.i.111.