Thomas William Rhys Davids,
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 1…
(1911)
“ He was the first cousin of the Buddha, and was devotedly attached to him. Ānanda entered the Order in the second year of the Buddha's ministry, and became one of his personal attendants, accompanying him on most of his wanderings and being the interlocutor in many of the recorded dialogues. He is the subject of a special panegyric delivered by the Buddha just before his death (Book of the Great Decease, v. 38) ; but it is the panegyric of an unselfish man, kindly, thoughtful for others and popular ”
