While the Buddha is staying at a rocky hill at Rājagaha, Yasodharā, who has gone forth, reflects that King Suddhodana, Mahāpajāpatī and others have all passed away, examines her own life span and knows that it has reached its end. She leads the to see the Buddha, says that she is seventy-eight and in the last days of her life, tells the Buddha that she will pass away that night, and recounts the deeds of her past lives in verse.
Different Accounts
This event is found in the Therī-apadāna of the Southern tradition (a late text recounting the past and present lives of the female elders); no record of Yasodharā's passing has so far been found in the Chinese texts.
More differences between accounts (2)
The later commentaries of the Southern tradition say Yasodharā was born on the same day as the Buddha; on this reckoning, when she was seventy-eight the Buddha was also seventy-eight, that is, Year 44 after the Awakening. By the reckoning used here, the Buddha's last year was his seventy-ninth to eightieth.
The same text says that Mahāpajāpatī had already passed away when she did; but the Chinese Ekottarika Āgama places Mahāpajāpatī's passing in Year 45 after the Awakening, and the two cannot both hold; see the entry “Mahāpajāpatī and five hundred nuns pass away”.
Dating
Estimated in Year 44 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged seventy-eight). The text says only that Yasodharā herself was seventy-eight, not which year after the Awakening; this year is worked out from the commentaries' statement that she was born on the same day as the Buddha, and all that can be fixed is that she passed away after Mahāpajāpatī and before the Buddha.
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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
Converted from the Buddha's age (worked out from the Buddha's age). Time precision: year uncertain, fixed to the day.
Sources
- 巴利三藏巴利 Thi-ap 28:1.1–12.4
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ja-a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ap-a，；「bodhisattena hi saddhiṃ … rāhulamātā … ime satta ekadivase jātattā sahajātā nāma ahesuṃ」
- 巴利三藏巴利 Thi-ap 28
- 巴利三藏巴利 Thi-ap 28:1.1–1.4
- 巴利三藏巴利 Thi-ap 28:10.3–10.4
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ap-a