Ambapā'lī, the courtesan, called "Lady Amra" in Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King. It is difficult for us to form a proper conception of the social position of courtesans at Buddha's time in India. This much is sure, that they were not common prostitutes, but ladies of wealth, possessing great influence. Their education was similar to the hetairs in Greece, where Aspasia played so prominent a part. Their rank must sometimes have been like that of Madame Pompadour in France at the court of Louis XIV. They rose to prominence, not by birth, but by beauty, education, refinement, and other purely personal accomplishments, and many of them were installed by royal favor. The first paragraphs of Khandhaka VIII of the Mahāvagga [S. _B_., Vol. XVII, pp. 171--172] gives a fair idea of the important role of courtesans in those days. They were not necessarily venal daughters of lust, but, often women of distinction and repute, worldly, but not disrespectable. Amitā'bha, _p._ and _skt._, endowed with boundless light, from _amita_, infinite, immeasurable, and _ābbā_, ray of light, splendor, the bliss of enlightenment. It is a term of later Buddhism and has been personified as Amitābha Buddha, or Amita. The invocation of the all-saving name of Amitābha Buddha is a favorite tenet of the Lotus or Pure Land sect, so popular in China and Japan. Their poetical conception of a paradise in the West is referred to in Chapter LX. Southern Buddhism knows nothing of a personified Amitābha, and the Chinese travellers Fa-hien and Hiuen-tsang do not mention it. The oldest allusion to Amita is found in the Amitāyus Sūtra, translated A.D. 148--170. [See Eitel, _Handbook_, pp. 7--9.] Āna'nda, _p._ and _skt._, Buddha's cousin and his favorite disciple. The Buddhistic St. John (Johannes). Anāthapi'ndika, _p._ and _skt._, (also called Anāthapi'ndada in _skt._) literally "One who gives alms (pinda) to the unprotected or needy (anātha)." Eitel's etymology "one who gives without keeping (anātha) a mouthful (pinda) for himself" is not tenable. A wealthy lay devotee famous for his liberality and donor of the Jetavana vihāra. Annabhā'ra, _p._ and _skt._, literally "he who brings food"; name of Sumana's slave. Aññā'ta, _p._, Âjñā'ta, _skt._, literally "knowing", a cognomen of Kondañña, the first disciple of Buddha. Anuru'ddha, a prominent disciple of Buddha, known as the great master of Buddhist metaphysics. He was a cousin of Buddha, being the second son of Amritodana, a brother of Suddhodana. A'rahat, _p._, Ar'hant, _skt._, a saint. (See also Saint in Index.) Arati, dislike, hatred. The opposite of _rati_. The name of one of Māra's daughters. A'sita, _p._ and _skt._, a prophet. A'ssaji, _p._, Aśvajit, _skt._, one of Buddha's disciples by whose dignified demeanor Sāriputta is converted.