Devadatta he assumed the form of a young boy clad in snakes and sat in the Prince’s lap, which very much impressed the prince, who became his disciple. Ajātasattu began to send great offerings to Devadatta, and the latter became obsessed with his own worth, and began to have thoughts that it was he who should lead the Sangha, not the Buddha, and he didn’t desist even though this thought brought down his psychic powers. When told about the offerings that Devadatta was receiving, the Buddha remarked that all these gains were only going towards his destruction, just as a plantain
Devadatta the verb "da", "give", composed as a tatpurusa compound. In the "Bhagavad Gītā", the conch shell used by Arjuna on the battle-field of Kurukshetra was named "Devadatta". The name Devadatta is still used today. According to Andrew Skilton, modern scholarship generally agrees that the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya is the oldest extant Buddhist Vinaya. According to Reginald Ray, the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya mentions the figure of Devadatta, but in a way that is different from the vinayas of the Sthaviravāda branch. According to this study, the earliest vinaya material common to all sects simply depicts Devadatta as a Buddhist saint who wishes for