Meaning of "Kalama"

[Malunkyaputta]

Hello

I was wondering if “Kalama” is just a name and/or if it has a special significance in Palì.

Also, is there a relationship between the Kalamans (as in the Kalamasutta) and Alara Kalama, the Buddha’s teacher?

Thanks

[Dogen]

There was this thread.

tl;dr it might be a thin connection, but it’s interesting that Kālāmas (from Kesaputta / Kesamutta in Pāli Canon and famous sutta) are said to be a branch of Keśins, who were allegedly wandering ascetics who teach that:

"Higher than the person there’s nothing at all.
That is the goal, that’s the highest state.”

Which seems identical to Ālāra’s teaching (i.e. Dimension of Nothingness).

Ālāra Kālāma and the Black Yajur Veda

In a recent discussion here about Ālāra Kālāma—the teacher under whom the bodhisatta first studied Vedic texts and attained the dimension of nothingness— @srkris makes the following observation. the kālāpa clan that the Buddha’s teacher had as his surname is what kālāpa was most commonly known to be in his time, the name of a YajurVedic school. Kālāpa or Maitrāyanīya (as a quick search for Kālāpa would have shown) It has always seemed to me that the obvious interpretation of his name w…

[Malunkyaputta]

Thank you Dogen, that is most interesting !

@Dogen

Higher than the person there’s nothing at all.
That is the goal, that’s the highest state.”

Interesting that the emphasis would be on highest state here, because I immediately thought: Protagoras (“man is the measure of all things”).