During the Buddha’s time, Devadatta split the community of monks, but ven. Sāriputta then recovered the monks who followed Devadatta, so Devadatta lost (almost) all of his disciples. The Buddha then explained that in a past life, when the Buddha-to-be was a deer, the deer Kāḷa (Devadatta-to-be) and the deer Lakkhaṇa (ven. Sāriputta-to-be) were his sons who received each half (500) deers under their care when their father was too old. During the yearly migration when deer went to the hills to avoid dying from traps set at the fields full of ripening crops, Kāḷa led his flock to the hills heedless of the danger in the inhabited areas, while Lakkhaṇa led them safely. Kāḷa gradually lost all of his flock by the time he went and returned after four months, while Lakkhaṇa did not lose a single one./
