Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c33.s3.34

v2.c33.s3.34

Re. *Buddha and Bodhisattva*. The only Mahāyānic feature of the text is the deification of Buddha and Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva is described as self-born (*upapāduka*) and not born of parents; he sits cross-legged in the womb and preaches therefrom to the gods who act as his protectors; while in the womb he remains untouched by the phlegm and such other matters of the womb, and he issues out of the womb by the right side without piercing it.¹ He cannot have *kāma* and so Rāhula was also self-born. But it will be observed that such conceptions about the Bodhisattva appear only in the introductory portion (p. 193) of the *Mahāvastu*, and very rarely in the remaining portion of the text. There are occasional references to Buddha as *lokottara*,² but it seems that the *lokottara* conception had not yet taken firm hold of the people's minds. Buddha's acquisitions are said to be all supramundane and cannot be compared to anything worldly.³ His spiritual practices are supramundane and so are his merits, even his bodily movements such as walking, standing, sitting and lying are also supramundane. His eating, his putting on robes and such other acts are also supramundane. It is for following the ways of the world (*lokānuvartana*) that he shows his *iryāpathas*. His feet are clean, still he washes them. His mouth smells like the lotus, still he cleans his teeth. His body is not touched by the sun or wind or rain, still he puts on garment and lives under a roof. He cannot have any disease and still he takes medicine to cure himself.⁴ This *lokottara* conception also appears only in the introductory portion of the *Mahāvastu*; and so it is evident that the text was originally an out and out Hīnayāna text, and that in course of time, the introductory chapters were added, and very probably the addition was made by one of its later offshoots, the Loko-, ttaravādins.