Nagasena
A monk of the 2nd century BCE, he explains to the Greek king Milinda that a person is only a name for an assemblage of elements, like a chariot.
Life
Indian Buddhist monk of the 2nd century BCE, central figure of the Milindapañha (Questions of King Milinda), a Pali dialogue in which he answers the Indo-Greek king Menander (Milinda). The text, composed later, has him explain with the image of a chariot that a "person" is only a name for an assemblage of parts. He matters for the question of identity.
Main works
A Pali dialogue between the monk Nagasena and King Milinda on the self, rebirth and karma; approximate date, text of the first centuries BCE and CE.
In his own words
« Your Majesty has rightly grasped the meaning of "chariot." And just even so it is on account of all those things you questioned me about-- the thirty-two kinds of organic matter in a human body, and the five constituent elements of being--that I come under the generally understood term, the designation in common use, of "Nâgasena." »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceA person is a flow of bodily and mental parts with no soul behind them: neither a separate spirit nor mere matter.
Milindapañha (Les Questions de Milinda, vers Ier s. av. J.-C.)