Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c12.3137

v1.c12.3137

1. Kokālika (Kokāliya).—A monk, one of the chief partisans of Devadatta. Knowing the Buddha's might, he was, at first, reluctant to join in Devadatta's plot against him, but later allowed himself to be persuaded on hearing the scheme explained.¹ When the monks blamed Devadatta for his misdeeds, Kokālika was always ready to defend him.² When Devadatta's gains diminished, Kokālika went about praising him, his birth, accomplishments and holiness, and many believed him.³ He was a great friend of Thullanandā.⁴ We are told that once he expressed resentment because he had never been asked to recite the texts; so one day the monks gave him his chance. He ate his favourite soup, and at sundown, wearing a blue lower robe and an outer robe of white and carrying an elegantly carved fan, he appeared in the assembly. But when he tried to recite sweat poured from his body and he was utterly confused. Henceforth the monks knew that his claim to learning was but pretence.⁵ Several Jātakas are related showing how, in previous births also, Kokālika had come to grief because of his fondness for talk and how he had been the accomplice of Devadatta. He is identified with the jackal in the Daddara Jātaka (ii. 65 ff.) and the Sihakotthuka Jātaka (ii. 108); the ass in the lion's skin in the Sihacamma (ii. 175); the talkative tortoise in the Kacchapa (ii. 175); the crow who praised the jackal (Devadatta) in the Jambukhādaka (ii. 438); the young cuckoo who lost his life because he sang, in the Kokālika (iii. 102); the tawny-brown brahmin in the Takkāriya (iv. 242; but see Kokālika 2); and the wicked deity in the Samuddavāṇija (iv. 166).