Devadatta Buddha teaches that in a past life, Devadatta was his holy teacher who set him on the path, and makes a noteworthy statement about how even Devadatta will in time become a Buddha: In the Mahāmeghasūtra Devadatta is called a mahāpuruṣa (great being). In the Mahayana Buddhist text, the "Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra", Devadatta is said to have convinced Prince Ajātasattu to murder his father King Bimbisāra and ascend the throne. Ajātasattu follows the advice, and this action (another "anantarika-kamma" for killing one's own father) prevents him from attaining stream-entry at a later time, when listening to some teaching of the Buddha.
Devadatta sleeping under a tree during the rainy season – but he refused to make the rules obligatory. They are among the 13 ascetic practices (dhutanga). His followers (including bhikkhus and bhikkhunis) were new monks from the Vajjī clan. According to Jacqueline Stone and Stephen F. Teiser, Devadatta was "well known to the sutra's early devotees as the Buddhist archetype of an evildoer." In the context of the "promise of buddhahood for everyone, this chapter became widely understood as illustrating the potential for enlightenment even in evil persons." In the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 12, found in the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition, the