On the way from Bārāṇasī to Uruvelā the Buddha converts a group of sons of leading families (known as the “Bhaddavaggiya” friends). According to the of the , thirty friends were amusing themselves in the woods with their wives; one of them had no wife, and the woman he had brought stole their belongings and ran away. While searching everywhere for her they met the Buddha. The Buddha asked them which was more important, to search for a woman or to search for themselves, and taught them; they attained the , and most accounts say they then went forth. Pali Canon
Different Accounts
Number: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya, the Buddha biography Fo benxing ji jing and the later commentaries of the Southern tradition give thirty; the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya gives fifty; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the Buddha biography Zhongxu mohedi jing and the Tibetan Vinaya give sixty. Taishō Canon
More sources (6)
More differences between accounts (3)
Outcome: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka and Mahīśāsaka Vinayas and the later commentaries of the Southern tradition say they went forth; the Saṅghabhedavastu of the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya says they took the five precepts (the five basic rules kept by ) and became male lay disciples without going forth, and the Tibetan Vinaya also says they and became male lay disciples; the Pravrajyāvastu of the same Vinaya says only that they gained faith.
Place: the Pali Vinaya says only a wood; the later commentaries of the Southern tradition have a cotton-tree grove, and the “white-cloth grove” of the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya also means a cotton-tree grove; the Chinese Dharmaguptaka and Mahīśāsaka Vinayas and others give other names for the grove.
Degree of realization: the later commentaries of the Southern tradition say the lowest among them attained the first fruit and the highest the third stage of realization.
Dating
Year 2 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged thirty-six, before the , on the road from Bārāṇasī to Uruvelā; the Pali Vinaya says it was after the rains retreat at Bārāṇasī ended, and the later commentaries say after the pavāraṇā (the ceremony at the end of the retreat in which the community invites mutual correction); known only to fall just after the end of the first rains retreat and before the conversion of the Kassapas.
Related Entries
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by four schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü), the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (Wufen lü) and the Chinese Saṅghabhedavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Attested across multiple schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it). Time precision: approximate range.
Sources
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 1:14.1.1–14.5.6
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.793a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.107a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.107a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1450 p.130b–c
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1444 p.1027a
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.190 p.836c–837a
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.191 p.957b
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 AN-a，I 147
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 nga 52b3–53b4
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 ka 31a1
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1450 p.156c
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 nga 52b4–52b5
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 nga 53b3–53b4