Readers of Buddhist literature most certainly would be familiar with the name, Devadatta ( 提婆達多). A cousin and brother-in-law of Gautama Siddārtha the Śākyamuni Buddha, he was himself a monk, had followers of his own and was the one who created a schism in the Sangha during Buddha's time. His followers, according to Faxian and other Chinese pilgrims who travelled to India to study Buddhism, honoured all the Buddhas previous to Śākyamuni, but not Śākyamuni himself. Devadatta had ordered men to kill the Buddha and had himself tried to kill him on different occasions. He threw a rock at Buddha when the latter was walking on the slopes of a mountain and let loose an intoxicated elephant Nāḷāgiri while Buddha was on alms round. In Abrahamic religions, satan personifies evil. There probably isn't a satan in Buddhism but if anything come close, perhaps, it is Devadatta. While you are pondering over this, just go through the history of the evil one....
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