A later commentary of the Southern tradition (the commentary on the Vimānavatthu, a canonical text that relates the origins of heavenly mansions) records that the chief queen of the king of Assaka (a country in the south of ancient India) gave birth to Prince Sujāta in the city of Potali, in the thirtieth year after the Buddha's Awakening. The commentary says that in a previous life he had gone forth under the teaching of Kassapa Buddha (a Buddha of a past age) and kept the precepts, and after death was reborn in the Heaven of the Thirty-three (one of the levels of the heavens). When he was sixteen, his father drove him into the forest because the king's second queen demanded the throne from the king.
Different Accounts
This event is found only in this later commentary; no other text has a corresponding record.
More differences between accounts (2)
This is not an event of the Buddha's own life, and where the Buddha was at the time is not recorded; it is used here only as a reference for the year “the thirtieth year after the Awakening”.
The prince later heard Mahākaccāna teach the taking of , and after death was reborn in the heavens; the commentary states that this was after the Buddha's passing (final ) and the distribution of the , and so does not belong to the Buddha's lifetime.
Dating
Year 30 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged sixty-four, uncertain whether before or during the ; the year is given by the later commentaries, and only the year is known.
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). Time precision: year only.
Sources
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Vv-a，§980，VRI 0.218、PTS 0.260
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Vv-a，§980