一切經音義 23.100

23.100

Mahākāśyapa (the full form is Mahākāśyapa; mahā means here “great”, and kāśyapa means here “light-drinker”. This Venerable One's remote ancestor was a great ṛṣi whose body possessed a radiance that could swallow up and obscure the light of lamps and torches. The people of the time marveled at this and named him the Light-Drinking Ṛṣi; based on this, his clan was designated. Furthermore, because this Venerable One performed the great practice of asceticism [dhūta], people of the time gave him the name Great Light-Drinker).