Maha means “great.” Katyayana means “literary elegance,” because this Venerable One spoke and wrote with great elegance and refinement. His name is also interpreted as “fan-cord” because his father died shortly after he was born, and his mother wanted to remarry, but the child Katyayana was a tie, like a fan-cord, which prevented her from doing so.
Katyayana’s name is also interpreted as “good shoulders,” because his shoulders were well-formed and good looking, and as “victorious thinker”, because he could out-think everyone else.
Katyayana, a skilled exponent of the Dharma, was foremost among the Buddha’s disciples in debate. No matter what point anyone tried to make, he could come up with a host of reasons and arguments to counter it. Once, he met a non-Buddhist who held to the view of annihilationism; that is, he did not believe in rebirth but believed that after death there was nothing at all. He confronted Katyayana with his position saying, “Buddhists believe that after death there is rebirth. I do not hold to that doctrine and I can prove that it is false. If there is rebirth, and beings are destined to suffer in future incarnations, then why has not even one of them ever returned to tell of his torment? This proves that there is no rebirth. When people die, it’s all over, like a lamp that has been blown out.”
Katyayana said, “Suppose a criminal were arrested, tried, and given a jail sentence. Would he be free to return home?”
“If you are saying that people after death are like criminals in jail, that may be the case for those in the hells,” said the annihilationist, “but what about those born in the heavens? Not one has ever returned to talk about it. Beings in the hells may have no freedom, but certainly heavenly beings should be free to come back and give a brief report.”
Katyayana said, “That’s a very reasonable question. However, people born in the heavens are like beings who have climbed out of the toilet and been washed clean. They wouldn’t be likely to want to jump back into the toilet, would they?”
The annihilationist had nothing to say.
“Besides,” Katyayana continued, “one day and one night in, for example, the Trayastrimsha Heaven is equal to one hundred years in the world of men. Born there, it would take several days to get settled. By the time they thought to return, several hundred years would have passed in the world of men. You would have long been dead and your bones turned to dust. How would you know they had returned?
The annihilationist was speechless. Each of the Buddha’s ten great disciples possessed a quality whereby he excelled the others. Mahakatyayana, the foremost in debate, was articulate, eloquent, and unbeatable.