As the nears its end, the monastic and in the human world, unable to go up to heaven to see the Buddha, ask Mahāmoggallāna to go up to the Heaven of the Thirty-three to greet the Buddha and ask him to return to the human world. The Buddha asks Moggallāna to tell the assembly that in seven days he will descend from the Heaven of the Thirty-three to the foot of an udumbara tree (a kind of fig tree) outside the city of Saṅkassa. The Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama, the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya and the Ekottarika Āgama record broadly the same story. Taishō Canon
Different Accounts
The interval: most accounts have seven days later; the commentary on the Aṅguttara Nikāya of the Southern tradition has three months later, and the crowd camped for three months at the place where the Buddha had performed the miracle.
More differences between accounts (2)
The place of descent: the Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama has beneath an udumbara tree outside the outer gate of the city of Sengjiashe; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya has an open space at the city of Sengjieshe; the Chinese Ekottarika Āgama has beside a great pond in the country of Sengjiashi; the later commentaries of the Southern tradition have the city gate of Saṅkassa. Taishō Canon
More sources (1)
The commentary on the Dhammapada of the Southern tradition says Moggallāna went up to heaven from underground, passing through Mount Sineru (the legendary mountain at the centre of the world).
Dating
Year 7 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged forty-one, as the rains retreat neared its end; the Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama and others state that the Buddha undertook to descend “seven days later”, and the later commentaries say it was seven days before the great pavāraṇā day (the day the rains retreat ends); it can be fixed to the day.
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
This event is found only in the sutras and Vinaya of one school. Recorded by one school.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Stated in the canonical text (the text itself gives the time); commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it). Time precision: fixed to the day.
Sources
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.99 p.134a–c
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1451 p.346a–c
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.125 p.706c–707a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Dhp-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 AN-a，§188
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.198 p.185a
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.125 p.707a