At the at Āḷavī the Buddha teaches people to practise mindfulness of death (keeping constantly in mind that one will die); most people in the city pay no attention, and only a weaver's daughter of sixteen practises it day and night. Three years later the Buddha comes to Āḷavī again and asks her four questions, “Where have you come from? Where are you going? Do you know? Do you not know?”; she answers each one, the Buddha speaks a verse, and she attains the . Afterwards she is pierced by a shuttle in her father's weaving shed and dies, and is reborn in the .
Different Accounts
This event is found only in the later commentary on the Dhammapada of the Southern tradition, as the background story to Dhammapada verse 174, “This world is blind; few here can see clearly”.
More differences between accounts (1)
The year of her realization: if the first teaching was in Year 16 after the Awakening, “three years later” can be counted as Year 19; if both the first and last years are counted inclusively, it is Year 18.
Dating
Year uncertain. The first teaching was possibly in Year 16 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged fifty), since that is the only year in which the Buddha kept the at Āḷavī; the girl's realization was three years later, around Year 18 or 19 (aged fifty-two or fifty-three). The commentary says only “three years later”, without giving the year after the Awakening, so both the start and the end are only estimates.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Not recorded in the early sutras and Vinayas of any school; found only in the commentaries or later Buddha biographies. Later addition.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it); inferred from the rains-retreat location (inferred from the place of that year's rains retreat). Time precision: year uncertain.
Sources
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Dhp-a，§173