After eating the barley meal and honey the Buddha suffers from wind in the belly, and a spirit offers him myrobalan fruit (a medicinal fruit). The Buddha then goes to a nearby village , and the villagers who give him food each . The offering of the medicinal fruit is recorded by every major school; the villagers taking refuge after the alms round is found mainly in the Chinese Dharmaguptaka and Mahīśāsaka Vinayas.
Different Accounts
Who offered the medicinal fruit: the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya has a tree spirit; the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya has a mountain spirit, and places it before the first seven days; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the Tibetan Vinaya, the Buddha biography Taizi ruiying benqi jing and the later commentaries of the Southern tradition all have Sakka.
More differences between accounts (2)
The title of “first female ” is given to different people by different sources: the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya gives it to the daughter of General Suzheluo, and the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya to Xushetuo (Sujātā), both of whom took refuge in the Buddha and the Dhamma only; the Buddha biography Fo benxing ji jing gives it to the daughter of the village headman Shansheng (Sujāta), who took refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha and took the ; the Pali Vinaya takes the mother and former wife of Yasa (the subject of the later entry “Yasa goes forth”) as the first. Taishō Canon
More sources (1)
The Pali canon of the Southern tradition and the Chinese and Tibetan Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya record only the offering of the medicinal fruit, without the villagers taking refuge after the alms round.
Dating
Year 1 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged thirty-five, before the , within a few weeks of the Awakening; the sources place it differently, and inferring from the sequence of events, it is known only to fall within these weeks.
Related Entries
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- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
The episode of “taking refuge after the alms round” is recorded by two schools, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü) and the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (Wufen lü). Recorded by two schools. The “offering of the medicinal fruit” within it is recorded by four 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: approximate range.
Sources
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 nga 37b1–37b4
- Pali Canon巴利 AN 1.258:1.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.786a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.103b–c
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1450 p.125c
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.185 p.479b
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.190 p.804b–805a