Mahamoggallana was one of the Buddha`s five chief disciples apart from Ananda, Sariputta, Aniruddha and Mahakasyapa. He was a close friend of Sariputta. Mahamoggallana attained Parinirvana six months before that of Buddha and he and Sariputta passed away within two weeks. Mahamoggallana was the only one who met a violent end as he was beaten to death by bandits. His death attributed to his negative karma as he clubbed his parents to death. Mahamoggallana was best known for the possession of the supernatural powers. He was capable of creating many living shapes and assuming any forms. He also shook the monastery called Migaramatupasada by touching with his great toe to warn the monks who were gossiping on the ground floor despite knowing that Buddha was present upstairs.

Mahamoggallana was the only son of his family. He was born same day when Sariputta was born. He was named after his mother Moggali or moggallani. He was also called as Kalita, which was the name of his village. Mahamoggallana was very dutiful and took care of all the household duties. As his parents became old his workload increased. His parents asked him to marry so that he could share the responsibilities of the household jobs with his wife. Mahamoggallana constantly refused their proposal but after persistent urging from his parents he was eventually married.

His wife was also dutiful and looked after the elderly parents of her husband. But after some time she became hostile to them and started complaining to her husband but he paid no attention to it. One day, when Mahamoggallana was away from the house she scattered rubbish and put the blame on the blind parents. After listening to continuous complains from his wife Mahamoggallana decided to deal with his parents. He told his parents that their relatives wished to see them and put them on a carriage and started to drive the oxen cart through a forest. When the cart reached the depth of the forest he came down and walked along the carriage to ask his parents to watch out for the robbers, who were very common in that area. He then portrayed the cries and sounds of the thieves as if they have attacked the carriage. His blind parents asked him to defend himself and begged to the thieves to leave their son. While they were crying out Mahamoggallana beat and killed his old parents and threw away their bodies in the forest before returning home.

Mahamoggallana and Sariputta were friends from childhood. Their families also had close relationship for seven generations. Once the two friends went to see a mime-play(giraggasamajja) and realized through the play that `the world itself is a drama` and `all the worldly things are impermanent`. After they had realized this they renounced the material world. First, they became the disciple of Sanjaya but they were dissatisfied with his teachings. The two friends wondered all over the subcontinent to meet the scholars of the time. But they were not satisfied after the discussion with the scholars and they decide to separate from each other so that one could inform other if they found something worthy.

When Sariputta heard the preaching of Assaji, he was impressed with the doctrine and became Sotapanna. He went to Mahamoggallana to inform him about his discovery. Mahamoggallana also became Sotapanna after listening the teaching of Buddha. The two of them marched to Buddha along with five hundred disciples of Sanjaya. All of them met Buddha and heard his discourse and became his disciple. Mahamoggallana then went to the hamlet of Kallavala in Magadha and a week after his ordination, he attained a high stage of trance, where he received the exhortation of Buddha and finally could achieve the arhanthood.

Mahamoggallana demonstrated his supernatural power with best example in the subjugation of the great serpent called the Naga Nandopananda since he could enter the fourth stage of trance most quickly. When there was a revolution among the monks by the conspiracy of Devadatta, Buddha sent Sariputta and Mahamoggallana to Gayasisa so that they can bring back the misguided monks. Both the chief disciples of Buddha accomplished their task by bringing back all the five hundred monks to the order. Sariputta was the preceptor of Rahula while Mahamoggallana was his teacher.

Mahamoggallana passed away a fortnight after Sariputta attained Mahanirvana on a new moon night on the month of Kartika. Buddha had Parinirvana in the full moon night on the month of Vesaka, six months after the death of his two chief disciples. Both sariputta and Mahamoggallana died at the age of eighty-four.

The Jains of Magadha believed that Mahamoggallana was responsible for the loss of their public esteem and wanted to get rid of him. But they were not able to commit a murder themselves and so they hired bandits for the contract killing.

At that time Mahamoggallana was staying alone at a forest hut at Kalasila. He encountered with Mara and could foresee that his days were numbered. He realized that the body was just an obstacle or burden. He did not wish to keep his body for indefinite time using his supernatural power. But still when he saw the bandits approaching towards him, he vanished by applying his power. The bandits saw an empty hut. They searched everywhere but could not find anybody there. They left and returned in the following day. Thus the bandits came for six consecutive days but Mahamoggallana escaped in the same way. As per Buddhist teachings Mahamoggallana did so to save the bandits from their negative karma, not to save his own body. But on the seventh day he suddenly lost the magical power from his body. He realized that he was now unable to escape and save himself. The bandits then came and beat him until he became unconscious and filled with blood. The bandits were keener to get their payments and they left the place.

Mahamoggallana had great physical and mental strength. He was able to regain consciousness and was able to come back to Buddha and he breathed his last in front of him. Mahamoggallana`s story is often cited as an example in Buddhist`s teachings that nobody could escape the `karma` and power of Karma is greater than supernormal power.