[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Āgama sūtras of the mainstream schools](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama) › [Other mainstream sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other) › [Dīrghanakhaparivrājakaparipṛcchā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha) › [ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱུ་བ་སེན་རིངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo) › [The Questions of Dirghanakha the Wandering Mendicant](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo~en-84000) › intro.12 # ཀན་ཏ་རྒྱ་བ་སན་རངས་ཀྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་མད intro.12 The Questions of Dīrghanakha the Wandering Mendicant intro.12 - **Language:** English ### [intro.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo~en-84000.intro.12) Dīrghanakha’s transformative encounter with the Buddha in this text has echoes in several similar stories of dialogues involving other wandering ascetics of fiercely independent bent. One is the story, in the Kangyur, of the ṛṣi Ulka,¹³ whose questions to the Buddha also seem to be founded in non-Buddhist cosmological views. Another is the story of Śreṇika Vatsagotra (Pali: Vacchagotta), mentioned in all the long Prajñā­pāramitā sūtras as significant in passages discussing the Buddha’s omniscience, which Śreṇika Vatsagotra is said to have accepted through conviction alone.¹⁴ The Prajñā­pāramitā sūtras themselves give little further detail, and Vatsagotra’s questioning of the Buddha does not seem to appear in full in any canonical text in Tibetan translation; it is, however, related in a number of Pali texts and āgamas in Chinese.¹⁵ In fact, the Buddha’s omniscience—directly or indirectly—can be seen as the principal focus of the questions put by all these individuals. Dīrganakha’s questions in the vinaya account seek to establish some sort of ultimate reality (although in the sūtra version translated here his questions are limited to the past causes of some of the Buddha’s unique physical marks). Śreṇika Vatsagotra’s questions directly address what have come to be called the twelve or fourteen “unanswerable points” (avyākṛta­vastu). Ulka begins with the “unanswerable” question of where sentient beings originated from in the first place. In each case, the ways in which the Buddha responds bring about not only a complete resetting of the parameters of the questions, but also a fundamental change in how the questioners perceive him.¹⁶ The exchanges typify how the Buddha is said to have convinced even very mature seekers of the truth as to the authenticity of his teaching. - [Previous: intro.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo~en-84000.intro.11) - [Next: intro.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo~en-84000.intro.13) - [Up: intro](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo~en-84000.intro) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo~en-84000.intro.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.other.dirghanakhaparivrajakapariprccha*bo~en-84000.intro.12) · Pramāṇa