Pippali, of birth, is the later Mahākassapa; he and his wife Bhaddā Kapilānī go forth at the same time and part at a crossroads. The Buddha goes alone from the Bamboo Grove to meet him, and sits beneath a great tree by the Bahuputta shrine (a sacred place) between Rājagaha and Nālandā. Kassapa declares himself the Buddha's disciple; the Buddha ordains him with three instructions and exchanges robes with him; on the eighth day after his going forth Kassapa attains . Taishō Canon
Pali Canon
Different Accounts
His place in the order of the going forth: the Buddha biographies Guoqu xianzai yinguo jing and Buddhacarita and the list in the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya place him after Sāriputta and Moggallāna; the Buddha biography Fo benxing ji jing places him before the two; the Chinese Zhong benqi jing places him in the period of the Jetavana at Sāvatthī, at the earliest after Year 5 or 6 after the Awakening.
More differences between accounts (2)
The later commentary on the Aṅguttara Nikāya of the Southern tradition describes the Buddha as already living in the Bamboo Grove at this time, and has the phrase “without telling any of the eighty great elders”, which suggests a later date and does not fit the first year.
That he “attained arahantship on the eighth day after going forth” is said by Mahākassapa himself in the Saṃyutta Nikāya of the Southern tradition and the Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama.
Dating
Year uncertain. The canonical texts themselves give no year; placing it at the end of the first year rests only on the order in which the later commentaries and the Buddha biographies arrange events, which would put it before the of Year 2 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged thirty-six); the arrangement in the Chinese Zhong benqi jing is much later, in an unknown year.
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by three schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama and the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (Mohe sengqi lü). 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 uncertain.
Sources
- Pali Canon巴利 SN 16.11:9.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.99 p.302c–303b
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.99 p.303b
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.100 p.417c
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 AN-a，I 181
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 AN-a，I 376
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.189 p.653a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.192 p.33c–34a
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.190 p.861c
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.196 p.161a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.412c