On the way from Rājagaha to Pāṭaliputta the Buddha stops to teach at a royal rest-house (or a bamboo grove) between the two. The Pali canon of the Southern tradition calls the place Ambalaṭṭhikā and has the Buddha teach virtue, concentration and wisdom; the place names in the other accounts mostly have to do with “bamboo”, and the content taught also differs.
Different Accounts
Content: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition and the Chinese Youxing jing have virtue, concentration and wisdom; the Chinese Bannihuan jing has the and the ; the Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama and the Tibetan Vinaya have the Four Noble Truths.
More differences between accounts (2)
Place name: the Southern tradition has “mango sapling”; the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Chinese Youxing jing, the Saṃyukta Āgama and others have a bamboo-staff grove, a bamboo park or a bamboo-grove village.
The Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra translated by Faxian and the Buddha biography Buddhacarita do not have this halt, going straight from Rājagaha to Pāṭaliputta.
Dating
Year 45 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged seventy-nine to eighty, before the ; inferred from the sequence of events, only the year is known.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by four schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dīrgha Āgama, the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing and Bannihuan jing. Attested across multiple schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Inferred from the sequence of events (neither the canonical texts nor the commentaries give the time; the year is worked out from the order of this event and those around it). Time precision: year only.
Sources
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 234a4–234a6
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§3.2–3.9
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1451 p.384b
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.192 p.41b
- 轉引自現代整理本轉引自現代整理本
- 巴利三藏巴利 DN 16:1.13.2–1.14.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.1 p.12a
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.6 p.177b
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.5 p.162a
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.99 p.108a
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 234a5
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§3.2
- 巴利三藏巴利 DN 16:1.14.2–1.14.7
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.5 p.162b