According to the later commentaries of the Southern tradition, the Sakyans (the Buddha's own people) and the Koliyans (a neighbouring people) shared a dam that drew water from the Rohiṇī river (the river between the two peoples) to irrigate their fields; in the dry season, when the crops were about to wither, the labourers on both sides fought over the water and abused each other over the origins of their peoples, and the royal families of both sides put on their armour and marched out. The Buddha came through the air to a place between the two armies and taught them, ending the conflict; each people sent two hundred and fifty young men to go forth under the Buddha, and the Buddha took them to the Great Wood. These new monastics at first felt like giving up; the Buddha took them to Lake Kuṇāla and told a Jātaka story (a story of the Buddha's past lives), and they attained the ; back in the Great Wood they received further instruction in meditation from the Buddha, and all five hundred attained . This event is found only in the later commentaries.
Different Accounts
The discourse given: most commentaries say it was the Attadaṇḍa Sutta (a discourse in the Sutta Nipāta of the Southern tradition); other commentaries say the Kalahavivāda Sutta, and others the Rukkhadhamma Jātaka or verses from the Dhammapada.
More differences between accounts (3)
Where the Buddha came from: some commentaries say only that the Buddha observed the matter at dawn; some say the Buddha was then staying in the Banyan Park at Kapilavatthu, noting “some say he came from Sāvatthī”; others say the Buddha was staying at the Jetavana.
Timing: some commentaries place it during the Buddha's first return to his home town, after the going forth of Nanda (the Buddha's half-brother) and Rāhula; others place it after the death of King Suddhodana; the latter is followed here in placing it conjecturally in Year 5 after the Awakening.
The later commentaries of the Southern tradition treat this event as the occasion of the Mahāsamaya Sutta: while the Buddha was in the Great Wood with these five hundred arahants, the gods of the ten directions came to assemble; most versions of the Mahāsamaya Sutta give the assembly as five hundred, while the Chinese Da sanmore jing has five thousand five hundred. Taishō Canon
Dating
Conjecturally placed in Year 5 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged thirty-nine, in the month of Jeṭṭhamūla (a month of the ancient Indian calendar, in the dry season when the crops are about to wither); its order relative to the is unknown. The month is given by the later commentaries, and the year is inferred from the position of the death of King Suddhodana and the going forth of Mahāpajāpatī; the year is uncertain.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
The episode of “settling the dispute over water and the going forth of the five hundred Sakyans” is not recorded in the early sutras and Vinayas of any school; found only in the commentaries or later Buddha biographies. Later addition. Within it, “the Mahāsamaya Sutta in the Great Wood at Kapilavatthu with five hundred arahants” is recorded by three schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it). Time precision: year uncertain.
Sources
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 DN-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 SN-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Snp-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 AN-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Thig-a，§156
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Vin-ṭ，§402
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ja-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ja-a，§73
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Dhp-a，§196
- Pali Canon巴利 DN 20:1.2
- Pali Canon巴利 SN 1.37:1.2
- Pali Canon巴利 Snp 4.15:1.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.1 p.79b
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.99 p.323a
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.100 p.411a
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.19 p.258a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 DN-a，§331
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 SN-a，§37
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 《鬪諍經》，AN-a 一集 §235、Thig-a §156
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 DN-a，§331，PTS 2.672
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 SN-a，§37，PTS 1.68
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 《鳩那羅本生》，§287，PTS 5.412