The later commentaries of the Southern tradition record that some people, on seeing the Buddha's Twin Miracle, gained faith and went forth. Among them, five hundred sons of leading families went forth under Sāriputta; while the Buddha was teaching the Abhidhamma (the treatises analysing the phenomena of body and mind) in the Heaven of the Thirty-three, he came each day to the shore of Lake Anotatta (a legendary lake) and told Sāriputta in brief what he had taught, and Sāriputta passed it on to these five hundred, who thus became the first to master the seven books of the Abhidhamma. Several other elders also say of themselves that they “went forth on seeing the World-honoured One's Twin Miracle”.
Different Accounts
Another later commentary says that the Twin Miracle seen by four Malla princes (the Mallas were a people of ancient India) was the one the Buddha performed at Kapilavatthu when converting the Sakyans, not the one at Sāvatthī.
Dating
Year 7 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged forty-one, during the ; the later commentaries say only that it was after the Twin Miracle; the year is uncertain.
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 uncertain.
Sources
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Dhp-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Dhs-a〈Atthasālinī〉
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Thag-a，§30
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Thag-a，§354
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ap-a，§57
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Thag-a，§50，PTS 1.132–133