Shèlìfú 舍利弗 (also written 舍利子 Shèlìzǐ in Xuánzàng’s translations; Skt. Śāriputra, Pāli Sāriputta; DILA Authority A002402; traditional dates c. 5th century BCE) was one of the two foremost disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha, renowned above all for his wisdom (prajñā). His mother’s name, Śārikā, gives him the epithet Śāri-putra (“son of Śāri”). The alternate epithet 鶖子 qiūzǐ is a calque of this Sanskrit name (the śārikā is a type of myna bird).
Born in Nālandā (near Rājagṛha, in present-day Bihar), he was originally a disciple of the Skeptic teacher Sañjaya together with Maudgalyāyana (目犍連). Upon hearing the verse on dependent origination from Aśvajit (one of the first five monks), both converted to Buddhism and became preeminent members of the community. Śāriputra is said to have predeceased the Buddha.
In the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma tradition, Śāriputra is credited with the composition of the Saṅgīti-paryāya (KR6l0001) and is sometimes associated with the Śāriputrābhidharma (KR6l0013). Modern scholarship regards these attributions as literary, not historical: the texts represent the Sarvāstivāda school’s exegetical tradition, which projected its authority onto the figure of the Buddha’s wisest disciple. The name 舍利子 is used systematically in Xuánzàng’s translations (e.g., the Heart Sūtra T251), while 舍利弗 is the form found in older translations.