Mùjiānlián 目犍連 (full form: 大目乾連 Dà-mù-gàn-lián, Mahāmaudgalyāyana; Pāli: Mahāmoggallāna; also 拘律陀 Jūlǜtuó < Skt. Kolita; DILA Authority A000053; traditional dates c. 5th century BCE) was one of the two foremost disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha, ranked supreme in supernatural powers (ṛddhi). He was born in the village of Kolita near Rājagṛha and was the childhood friend and fellow-seeker of Śāriputra (舍利弗), with whom he jointly converted to Buddhism after hearing the verse on dependent origination from the monk Aśvajit. The two are consistently paired as the Buddha’s right-hand disciples in both canonical and scholastic literature.
In the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma tradition, Maudgalyāyana is credited with the composition of the Dharma-skandha-pāda (KR6l0002), which systematically enumerates the 37 factors of awakening and related dharmic categories. The DILA Jùshě lùn shū (cited in the Mahāvibhāṣā) also attributes the Prajñapti-śāstra (KR6l0003) partly to him; the Mahāvibhāṣā credits Maudgalyāyana with authorship of the Prajñapti-śāstra in a separate tradition. Modern scholarship treats all such attributions as literary conventions.
The story of Maudgalyāyana rescuing his mother from the realm of hungry ghosts is a central narrative of the Yúlánpén jīng 盂蘭盆經, which generated an important liturgical tradition in East Asia, distinct from his role in the Sarvāstivāda scholastic corpus.