Channa was a servant in the court of King Śuddhodana who was entrusted to attend to the needs of Siddhartha, who had been lavished and pampered in a series of purpose-built palaces in order to shield him from thoughts of pain and suffering.

This was done due to a prophecy by the ascetic Asita, who predicted that Siddhartha would renounce the throne to become a spiritual leader were he to contemplate human suffering.

Channa was the servant who served as the charioteer pulled by the horse Kanthaka, when Siddhartha saw the Four sights whilst meeting his subjects in the Sakya capital Kapilavastu, which prompted his decision to renounce the world.

After initially protesting and refusing to accept that Siddhartha would leave him, Channa saddled Kanthaka,[1] guiding him out of the town aboard the horse to a forest by the edge of the Anoma River.

Due to his lone accompaniment of the Buddha on his renouncement, Channa behaved in an overbearing way to the other monks, and frequently criticized the two chief disciples Sariputta and Moggallana.