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Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c14.s13: Western & Northern India

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c14.s13

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Western & Northern India

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Although the countries in western and northern India were not visited by Buddha, Buddhism made a fair progress there and played an important rôle in the later history of Buddhism. During Buddha's life-time, however, it could count among its adherents people from the western countries such as Verañja, Avanti, Sunāparānta and from among the Kurus and the Maddas.

Verañja

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The westernmost point reached by Buddha in his peregrinations was Verañja a place near Madhurā in the twelfth vassa. When Buddha was at Sāvatthi, some brāhmaṇas of

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of Buddhism is nonetheless important. A close study of the Nikāyas shows that Buddha did travel outside the limits of Buddhist majjhima-desa as far west as Verañja, Madhurā and as far north as the country of the Kurus. Many disciples of Buddha hailed from paccantima-janapada or border countries. The reason why the designation paccantima-desa was applied to places like Saṃkassa and Ujjeni is to be found in the fact that they formed the border-land of the majjhima-desa of the Buddhists. The rules of discipline framed by Buddha were meant generally for the monks residing within the majjhima-desa, boundaries of which are given in the Vinaya. Pātheyya, Saṃkassa, Avanti, Gandhāra etc. were outside the boundaries. Buddha himself relaxed some of the rules of discipline in regard to the monks of those places in view of the physical conditions under which they lived. This relaxation of the rules shows that Buddha had to take note of the convenience and needs of the monks of the distant regions indicated by the expression paccantima-janapada. A century after Buddha's parinibbāṇa, Avanti and Pātheyya rose to be important centres of Buddhism, so much so that the presence of monks from these distant places was regarded as indispensable at the meetings held for settling points of dispute raised by the Vajjian monks of Vesāli. See Vol. II of this work.

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Verañja used to go there. They had a talk with him about the fruits of good and evil *kamma*.¹ On one occasion Buddha was invited by the Verañja brāhmaṇas to go to their native country. Buddha accepted their invitation at the outset of the twelfth *vassa*.² On his way from Madhurā to Verañja (*antarā ca Madhuram antarā ca Verañjam*) he delivered a discourse on what makes an ideal husband and wife,³ to the house-holders, who were on their way from Verañja to Madhurā. Buddha and his bhikkhus, however, had a bitter experience at Verañja. It was during their residence there that a famine broke out and the bhikkhus were put to a great difficulty in procuring their daily food. They were neglected by the people of the locality and would have starved but for the charity of some horse-dealers of the northern country who stopped there in the midst of their journey and supplied them with steamed grain in *pattha* measures.⁴ Buddha took up his residence at *Naḷerupucimanda-mūla* where a Verañja brāhmaṇa came and questioned him about the reason of his not showing marks of respect to the aged brāhmaṇas. To this question Buddha made a suitable reply justifying his behaviour and converted the brāhmaṇa to Buddhism.⁵ At the very same place he had a talk with Pahārada Asurinda regarding the eight excellences of his *dhamma* and *vinaya*.⁶ He left Verañja at the end of the *vassa*.

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¹ *Majjhima*, I, pp. 290-291.

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² Burlingame's *Buddhist Legends*, II, p. 193; Kern's *Manual of Indian Buddhism*, p. 36; *JRAS*., 1891.

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³ *Anguttara*, II, p. 57.

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⁴ *Vinaya*, III, p. 6; Burlingame's *Buddhist Legends*, II, p. 193.

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⁵ *Anguttara*, IV, p. 172. *Mahāvagga*, iii, pp. 2 ff.

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⁶ *Anguttara*, IV, pp. 197 ff.

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and accompanied by Ānanda passed through Soreyya, Saṅkassa, Kaṇṇakujja, Payāgapatiṭṭhānaṃ, crossed the Ganges and reached Benares.¹ He met here Mahākaccāyana for the first time and by converting him paved the way for the establishment of a centre of Buddhism in Avantī.

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¹ Vinaya, III, p. 11. (From Benares, Buddha went to Vesāli where he spent his 13th vassa).

Avantī

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Avantī was one of the sixteen janapadas of the Buddhist texts. It was ruled over by King Pajjota who had his capital at Ujjeni. In the Mahāgovindasutta, Māhissati is described as the capital of Avantī. Perhaps it was the ancient capital. Buddhism was introduced into Avantī by Mahākaccāyana who was one of the most distinguished apostles of the Buddhist faith and made a substantial contribution to its prosperity. He was the son of the royal priest of King (Caṇḍa) Pajjota and the nephew of ṛṣi Asita (or Kāladevala) the great seer of the Vindhyācala who paid his homage to Siddhārtha when a child. It was at Asita’s advice that the young ascetic Nālaka (former name of Mahākaccāyana) came to Benares to pay a visit to Buddha and being very much impressed by the unsurpassed erudition of the Teacher, became a Buddhist monk along with his companions.² This group of bhikkhus with Mahākaccāyana as their head returned to their native country and founded monasteries there at Kururaghara-papātapabbata and Makkarakaṭa. Of the notable converts made here, names of Puṇṇa, Soṇa Kuṭikaṇṇa of Aparānta, Isidatta caravan guide of Velugāma, Kaṇḍarāyaṇa and Lohicca brāhmaṇas may be mentioned.¹ In the *Thera* and *Theri-gāthā*, we come across the names of a few other monks and nuns of Avantī whose psalms have been preserved in the collection.² In the *Majjhima Nikāya* we read of the conversion of king Madhura Avantīputta by Mahākaccāyana by delivering the famous discourse on caste-system some time after Buddha’s demise.³ The conversion of king Caṇḍa Pajjota by Mahākaccāyana is narrated in the *Theragāthā* but there is no reference to it in the *Nikāyas*.

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² Mahāvastu, II, p. 30; III, p. 382; Romantic History of Buddha (translated from the Chinese Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra) by S. Beal, p. 276; Sutta Nipāta (P.T.S.), Nālaka Sutta, vs. 696 ff.

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¹ *Aṅguttara*, I, p. 68; *Samyutta*, IV, pp. 117, 288.

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² *Psalms of the Brethern*, pp. 41, 42, 107, 149, 292. *Psalms of the Sisters*, pp. 30, 31.

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³ *Majjhima*, II, pp. 83 ff.

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A remarkable feature of the activities of Mahākaccāyana is that he as an expositor was engaged more in giving detailed expositions of Buddha’s enigmatic sayings than delivering independent discourses of his own. People used to come to him for solving their doubts in regard to utterances of Buddha: Kālī upāsikā requested him to explain a stanza from *Kumāripañha*⁴ of the *Sutta Nipāta* (I, p. 126), the Hāliddikāni gahapati from the *Māgandiyapañha* of the *Aṭṭhakavagga* and *Sakkapañha Sutta* of the *Dīgha Nikāya* (*Sutta* No. 21) and so forth.⁵

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⁴ *Aṅguttara*, V, pp. 46 ff.

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⁵ *Samyutta*, III, pp. 12, 13; IV, p. 115.

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It was under the guidance of Mahākaccāyana helped by Soṇa Kuṭikaṇṇa that Buddhism inspite of adverse circumstances⁶ gradually obtained a footing in Avantī. Though the country was situated at a long distance from Magadha, yet on account of its facilities of communication with the ports of Western India and the principal cities of Magadha and Kosala it became an important centre of Buddhism.

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⁶ *Aṅguttara*, III, p. 246.

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The centre of Buddhism in Avantī, it seems, laid special stress on the ascetic practices allowed by the Buddhist code for which it is remarked in the Vinaya that the bhikkhus of Avantī were followers of dhūtavāda precepts.¹

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¹ Cullavagga, II, p. 299. 2 Ante, p. 51-2. 3 Majjhima, III, p. 269. 4 Majjhima, I, pp. 55 ff; Digha, II, pp. 55 ff., 290 ff.

Sunāparānta

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The notable figure of Sunāparānta is Puṇṇa who belonged to Suppāraka, a port of Sunāparānta. His firm resolution to propagate Buddhism inspite of adverse circumstances was commended by Buddha, who on account of this sturdiness in the cause of the religion considered him the fittest person to be entrusted with the work of preaching there his religion.² In the Majjhima Nikāya³ it is stated that Puṇṇa was able to secure 500 upāsikās in that place before he attained nibbāṇa.

Cites (25)