A brahmin of Verañjā comes to see the Buddha and reproaches him for not bowing to aged brahmins, not rising for them and not offering them a seat. The Buddha replies that there is no one in the world whom he ought to revere, and, using the simile of the first chick to break out of the shell being the eldest, says that he was the first to attain awakening. The brahmin praises him, and becomes a male . The Pali Vinaya goes on to record that he invited the Buddha and the monks to keep the at Verañjā. Pali Canon
More sources (1)
Different Accounts
The corresponding discourses in the Aṅguttara Nikāya of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Madhyama Āgama and elsewhere record only the exchange and the taking of refuge, without the invitation to the rains retreat; the Chinese Dharmaguptaka and Mahīśāsaka Vinayas record only that the Buddha taught him and was invited to the retreat, without the content of the exchange.
More differences between accounts (2)
Place: the texts of the Southern tradition have beneath the neem tree; the Chinese Madhyama Āgama has the Yellow Reed Park, and another individually translated Chinese sutra has the Yellow Bamboo Park.
Age: the Chinese Madhyama Āgama and others say this brahmin was a hundred and twenty years old; the texts of the Southern tradition do not record it.
Dating
Year 12 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged forty-six, before the rains retreat; the year is given by the later commentaries, and that the invitation came before the famine is 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
The episode of “the challenge and taking refuge” is recorded only in the Pali canon of the Southern tradition. Recorded by one school. The “invitation to keep the rains retreat” within it is recorded by three schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it); 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
- Pali Canon巴利 AN 8.11:1.2–20.6
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.26 p.679b–680b
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.75 p.882a–883b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.568c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.1a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Vin-a，§15，PTS 1.170–1.172
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.26 p.679b
- Pali Canon巴利 AN 8.11:20.5–20.6
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.26 p.680b
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.75 p.883a–b