There's no attested use of sati as mindfulness in pre-Buddhist texts

[seniya]

@sujato

Have a search, and if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, let me know.

Ok, I found it here:

Āḷāra Kālāma & Uddaka Rāmaputta - what tradition?

Not sure if this will really have an answer, so I’ll leave it to the mods’ discretion whether this belongs in “discussion” instead. The meditation teachers of the then-not-yet-awakened bodhisatta were the teachers Āḷāra Kālāma & Uddaka Rāmaputta. Does anyone know or have any speculation on what tradition they belonged to? Whatever tradition it was must have highly valued meditation and meditative states.