Gahapatis and Brahmanas

The brahmana subha Todeyyaputta stays with a certain gahapati when he comes to savatthi on some business. Subha expresses a wish to pay respect to the samana-brahmanas who were arahats, as he had heard that savatthi is frequented by them. The gahapati urges subha to visit the Buddha at the Jetavana in savatthi. The non-brahmana gahapati addresses the brahmana as bhante and refers to the Buddha as Bhagava. It is noticeable that Bhagava is a term mostly used by his upasakas to refer to the Buddha. The others refer to him as samana Gotama. It is, therefore, quite likely the gahapati was an upasaka of the Buddha. The brahmana subha refers to and addresses the gahapati as such.^[1]