Sacred Books of the Buddhists
Volume III
Dīgha Nikāya
Dialogues of the Buddha
Part II
Sutta 20
Mahā Samaya Suttantaṃ
The Great Concourse
Translated from the Pali by T.W. Rhys Davids
Public Domain
Originally published under the patronage of
His Majesty King Chulālankarana,
King of Siam
by The Pali Text Society, Oxford
Introduction to the Mahā-Samaya Suttanta
The method followed in this poem is nearly the same as in the two previous Suttantas, only here it is rather the minor gods, — the local deities, the personification of natural phenomena, guardian spirits, fairies, harpies, naiads, dryads, and many others — who are represented as themselves proclaiming their adherence to the new movement. Important gods are indeed incidentally mentioned; and it is perhaps not without intention that great and small are here thrown together, as if Soma and Varuṇa and Brahmā were really all of the same kind as the long list of spirits and fairies in which they appear.[i1]
The poem is almost unreadable now. The long list of strange names awakes no interest. And it is somewhat pathetic to notice the hopeless struggle of the author to enliven his unmanageable material with a little poetry. It remains, save here and there, only doggrel still.
There are three parts to the poem. The first is the list of gods; the second the frame-work, put into the Buddha’s mouth, at the beginning (after the prologue), and at the end; the third the prologue, with the verses of the four gods of the Pure Abode. The prologue has been preserved as a separate episode in the Saṃyutta, I, 27. The way in which the list is fitted into the frame-work in our sections 4, 5, and 6 is very confused and awkward; and the grammar of the frame-work is inconsistent with the grammar of the list. It is highly probable therefore that the list itself, and also the epilogue, had been handed down as independent works in the community before our Suttanta was composed. The frame-work may be the work of the editor.
Our list here begins in §§ 7, 8, with seven classes or groups of gods, without personal names. The personal names begin at § 9, with the four Great Kings of the four quarters; and [283] §§ 10-20 follow with ten other groups in each of which the principal personal names are given. There is another list of gods in the Aṭānāṭiya (No. 32 in the Dīgha). This other list also begins with the four Great Kings; and then adds, as a sort of afterthought or appendix, the names of forty-one gods, all mentioned one after another, without division into groups and without any details. Our §§ 10-20 look very much like an improved and enlarged edition of the bare list in the Aṭānāṭiya. The latter is just such a mnemonic doggrel as was found useful in other cases also by the early Buddhists, who had no books, and were compelled to carry their dictionaries and works of reference in their heads. There are other instances in Pali literature of the original mnemonic verses, and their subsequent expansion, having both been preserved.
As the contents of the two lists, and their great importance for the history of religion in India, have been discussed elsewhere,[i2] it is only necessary here to remind the reader that when these Suttantas were composed the names they contain were full of meaning to the people; and that the legends here told were intended to counteract the animistic delusions about them then so prevalent in the Ganges valley. They are almost the only evidence we have as yet outside the priestly books. Perhaps the most important fact to which they bear testimony is the continual change in animistic belief that went on in India. They are of especial value, as they show what those beliefs were at a particular period. We shall not be able to have a scientific history of religion in India until the absurd anachronisms of the classical Sanskrit literature have been discarded; and until we have learnt carefully to distinguish between the divers faiths and gods which, in those books, are mixed up together, and supposed to have remained the same for many centuries on end.
The Blessed One was once dwelling among the Sakiyas,
at Kapilavatthu in the Great Wood,
together with a great band of the brethren,
about five hundred of them,
all being Arahants.
And gods from the ten thousand world-systems
oft-times assembled there
that they might visit the Exalted One
and the band of brethren.
2. Now to four gods of the hosts of the Pure Abodes
this thought occurred:
"That Blessed One is now dwelling among the Sakiyas, at Kapilavatthu in the Great Wood,
together with a great band of the brethren,
about five hundred of them,
all being Arahants.
And gods from the ten thousand world-systems
oft-times are assembling there
to see the Exalted One and his band of brethren.
What if we, too,
were to go into his presence,
and before him
were to recite each of us a poem?"
3. Then those gods,
as easily as a strong man might stretch out his arm,
or draw back his out-stretched arm,
vanished from the Pure Abodes,
and appeared before the Exalted One.
There they saluted him
and stood on one side.
And so standing
one of the gods recited to the Blessed One
this verse:
"Great is the gathering in the glade!
The hosts of heaven together met!
We too are come unto this congress blest,
and fain would see
The Company Invincible."
Then another god recited to the Exalted One this verse:
[285] "The brethren there, wrought up to concentration rapt,
make straight their hearts.
Wisely, as driver keeping grip on rein,
their faculties they guard."
Then another god recited to the Exalted One this verse:
"All bars and bolts are hewn in twain for them,
The threshould is dug up.[1]
In purity, their way they go,
Stainless, with vision clear,
like well-tamed elephants."
Then the other god recited to the Exalted One this verse:
"Who in the Buddha refuge take,
they shall not go to woeful doom.
When they put off this human frame they shall fill up the hosts in heaven."
4. Then said the Exalted One to the brethren:
"Oft-times, brethren,
do gods from the ten world-systems
foregather to see the Tathāgata
and the company of the Brethren.
Whosoever, brethren,
in the past
were Arahant Buddhas supreme,
upon them waited a like number of the heavenly hosts,
and a like number shall wait upon whosoever shall,
in the future,
be Arahant Buddhas supreme.
I will detail to you, brethren,
the names of the hosts of gods,
I will publish abroad, brethren,
their names,
I will teach you, brethren,
their names.
Hearken hereunto
and pay heed,
and I will speak."
"Even so, lord,"
responded the brethren.
And the Exalted One spake thus:
5. "In measured speech I will give utterance: —
Where'er their realm, there will ye find the gods,
But they who in the bowels of the hills
Sit with heart throughly purged and well composed, [286]
Like to so many lions crouching still,
Are vanquishers over the creeping dread,
White-minded, pure, serene and undefiled."
Seeing within Kapilavatthu's grove
Five hundred such and more, disciples all,
To them who loved his word the Master spoke:
"Celestial hosts draw nigh!
Look to it, brethren, that ye them discern!"
And they, hearing the Buddha's word, forthwith
Strove ardently to see.[2]
6. And lo! in them
Arose vision of those not born of men.
Some saw one hundred gods, ten hundred, some,
And some saw seventy thousand, others saw
Infinite multitudes thronging around.
And all their sight and seeing He Who Sees
Intuitively marked and understood.
Then to his followers who loved his Word
The Master turned and spoke: —
"Celestial hosts
Draw near! Them do ye, brethren, recognize
As I, in rhythmic speech, each in their turn
Proclaim them unto you in order due: —
7. Seven thousand Yakkhas of our country's soil
Of wondrous gifts and powers exceeding great,
And comeliness, and splendid following,[3]
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
Six thousand Yakkhas from Himālaya,
Diverse in hue, of wondrous gifts and powers
[287] And comeliness and splendid following,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
From Sāta's Hill three thousand Yakkhas more,
Diverse in hue, of wondrous gifts and powers
And comeliness, with splendid following,
Have come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
Thus have I sixteen thousand Yakkhas told,
Of diverse hue, of wondrous gifts and powers
And comeliness, and splendid following,
Who come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
8. Five hundred more from Vessāmittā's host,
Of diverse hue, of wondrous gifts and powers
And comeliness and splendid following,
Have come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
Kumbhira, too, of Rājagaha town,
Having his dwelling on Vepulla's mount,
More than a hundred thousand in his train,
This Yakkha likewise to the wood is come.
9. King Dhataraṭṭha rules the Eastern clime,
Lord of Gandhabbas, mighty monarch he,
With splendid following. Sons has he too,
Many and strong, all after Indra named.
And these of wondrous gifts and mighty power
And comeliness and splendid following,
Have come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
Virūḷha, ruler of the Southern clime,
Lord of Kumbaṇḍas, mighty monarch he,
With splendid following. Sons has he too,
Many and strong, all after Indra named.
And these of wondrous gifts and mighty power
And comeliness and splendid following,
Have come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
[288] Virūpakkha rules o'er the Western clime,
Lord of the Nāgas, mighty monarch he,
With splendid following. Sons has he too,
Many and strong, all after Indra named.
And these, of wondrous gifts and mighty power
And comeliness and splendid following,
Have come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
Kuvera rules over the Northern clime,
Lord of the Yakkhas, mighty monarch he,
With splendid following. Sons has he too,
Many and strong, all after Indra named.
And these, of wondrous gifts and mighty power
And comeliness and splendid following,
Have come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
So stood those four great kings within the wood
Of Kapilavatthu, on the four climes
Shedding effulgent radiance round about:
Over the East King Dhataraṭṭha shone,
To right, Virūḷhaka, westward
Virūpakkha, Kuvera o'er the North.
10. With them are come their vassals versed in craft,
Hoodwinking wizards, apt to cloak and feign: —
Māyā, Kuṭeṇḍu, Vṭeṇḍu, Viṭu,
Viṭucca, Candana, Rāmaseṭṭha too,
Kinnughaṇḍu, Nighaṇḍu (nine in all).
Next, these Gandhabba chieftains all are come: —
Panāda, Opamañña too, and Mātali
The driver of the gods, Cittasena
The Gandhabba, Nala, Janesabha,
Pañcasikha and Suriyavaccasā,
Daughter of Timbarū. These princes all
And with them other chiefs, Gandhabbas too,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
11. Now too Nāgas are come from Nabhasa,
And from Vesāli and from Tacchaka,
[289] Kambalas, Assataras, Pāyagas
With all their kin. Nāgas from Yamuna,
And Dhataraṭṭha, too, with brilliant trains,
Erāvana, great among Nāga folk,
He too is come into the forest glade.
They who twice-born,[4] winged and keen
Of sight, the heavenly Harpies who,
With violence prey on Nāga chiefs, —
Gaudy and Well-winged are their names —
Have flown into the wood. —
The cobra kings felt quite secure.
A refuge from the dreadful birds
Buddha had made. With gentle words
Entreating one another they,
The Harpies and their prey alike
To the Buddha as their Sanctuary come.
12. They whom the Lightning-Hand did smite,
Now dwellers in the ocean, Asuras,
Vāsava's brethren, they of wondrous gifts
And splendid train[5]; — The Kālakañjas all
Of fearsome shape, the Dānaveghasas,
Sucitti, Vepacitti, and Pahārada —
With them came Namucā, spirit of Evil;
And Bali's hundred sons, all of them named
After Veroca,[6] having armed a host
Of warriors, hied them to their noble liege,
And Rāhu said, 'Good luck attend this mote
For which the brethren now have sought the wood!'
13. The gods of Fire and Water, Earth and Air
Are hither come; celestial Varuṇas
[290] With their attendant Varuneian sprites,
And Soma with Yaso. Come, too, the gods
From Love and Pity born, with splendid train.
These ten, a tenfold host in all, of hue
Diverse, of wondrous gifts and mighty power,
And comeliness, with splendid following,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
14. Come Vishṇu with his gods, the Sahalis,
The Asamas and the Yāma twins;[7] the elves
That dwell within the moon attend the Moon,
The solar fairies too attend the Sun,
While fragile spirits of the Clouds attend
The Constellations; Lord of the Vasus, too,
God Sakka, Generous One of yore:[8] —
These ten, a tenfold host in all, of hue
Diverse, of wondrous gifts and mighty powers,
And comeliness, with splendid following,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
15. Now too are come the fairies Sahabhu,
In flaming radiance like crests of fire: —
The Ariṭṭhakas, Rojas, like azure flowers,
With Varuṇa and eke Sahadhammā,
And Accutā is come, Anejakā
And Suleyya and Rucirā are come,
Come too Vāsavanesi deities.
These ten, a tenfold host in all, of hue
Diverse, of wondrous gifts and mighty powers,
And comeliness, with splendid following,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
16. Samānas, Great Samānas, sprites like men
And sprites like Supermen, are come, the gods
[291] Debauched-by-sport[9] are come and those Debauched -
In-mind,[10] fairies that haunt the Green and they
That wear the Red, they too that Pass-Over,
And the Great Passers-o'er, with splendid following.
These ten, a tenfold host in all, of hue
Diverse, of wondrous gifts and mighty powers,
And comeliness, with splendid following,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
17. Sukka, Aruṇa, Karumha fairies too,
With Veghanasas, having at their head
Th'Odātagayhas, come; Vicakkhaṇas,
Sadāmattas, Harāgajas, and they
Called the Mixed gods with splendid following;
Pajunna thundering is come, he who
Pours down the rains upon the quarters four.
These ten, a tenfold host in all, of hue
Diverse, of wondrous gifts and mighty powers,
And comeliness, with splendid following,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
18. The Khemiyas and gods from Tusita
And Yāma heav'ns, the Kaṭṭhakas and suite,
Lambītakas and the chief Lāma-gods,
The Fiery spirits, and the Āsavas,
They who rejoice in shapes they make themselves,
And they who use creations not their own.[10]
These ten, a tenfold host in all, of hue
Diverse, of wondrous gifts and mighty powers,
And comeliness, with splendid following,
Are come rejoicing to the forest glade
To see the brethren met together there.
19. These sixty spirit hosts, of divers hues,
According to their name and class are come,
[292] And with them others, whosoe'er they be,
Saying 'Him who has outlived birth, for whom
No barrier stands, for whom the flood is crossed,
The Āsavas are not, Him shall we see,
Ferry-man o'er the flood, mighty through purity,[11]
Moon that has passed beyond th'enshrouding dark.'
20. Then Tissa, the Eternal Youth, and with
Him Paramatta and Subrahmā, sons
Of the Potent One, came to the congress-wood.
Great Brahmā, suzerain of thousand worlds
In Brahmā-heaven, has thither been reborn,[12]
Mighty in power, and in shape awesome
And vast, of great renown. Ten of his lords,
Each regnant o'er a Brahmā-world, are come,
And in their midst with all his suite comes Hārita."[13]
[293] 21. To all of them thus hither come, those gods,
Marshalled around the Lord and Great Brahmā,
The host of Māra cometh up. Lo! now
The folly of the Murky One:[14] —
"Come on
And seize and bind me these, let all be bound
By lust! Surround on every side, and see
Ye let not one escape, whoe'er he be!"
Thus the Great Captain bade his swarthy host,[15]
And with his palm did smite upon the ground
Making a horrid din, as when a storm-cloud
Thunders and lightens, big with heavy rains.
Then he recoiled, still raging, powerless
Aught to effect.
22. And He-Who-Sees by insight knew all this
And understood. Then to his followers
Who loved his word the Master spake:
"The host
Of Māra comes! Brethren, beware of them!"
And they, hearing the Buddha's word, forthwith
Held themselves all alert. The foe departs
From them in whom no lust is found, nor e'er
Upon whose bodies stirs a hair.
[Then Māra spake:—]
"All they, those victors in the fight, for whom
All fear is past, great of renown, His followers,
Whose fame among the folk spreads far and wide,
Lo! now with all creation they rejoice."'[16]
[i1] So above, Vol. I, p. 17, the worship of Agni is deliberately inserted in a list of animistic hocus-pocus.
[i2] Rhys Davids's 'Buddhist India' pp. 219-237.
[1] 'The bars and bolts and hindering threshould stone of lust, ill-will and stupidity,' explains Buddhaghosa.
[2] The connexion of the various clauses of this stanza is obscure; and the interpretations of the native scholars differ. We have followed the version of lhe Colombo Sannaya of 1891. Samarasekhara's translation (Col. 1905) takes the assitā in line 1 to refer to the Arahants. Buddhaghosa's commentary may be understood either way. All agree in referring ñatvā in line 5 to the Buddha.
[3] Yassassino, glossed here by Buddhaghosa as parivārasam-pannā, and later, in this Suttanta, by yasena samannāgatā.
[4] All birds are twice-born, first from the mother's womb (when she lays the egg), and then from the egg itself.
[5] These are all born of Sujā, Vāsava's mother, and had been driven out of heaven by 'Him-with-the-thunderbolt-in-his-hand.' The latter had been identified, at the time when this poem was composed, with Sakka.
[6] That is, their uncle Rāhu.
[7] The Castor and Pollux of Indian mythology.
[8] This seems to come in here most strangely: but it is an epithet of Sakka expressly designed to distinguish him from Indra, the Vedic god, whose epithet was 'Destroyer of Towns,' see p. 297.
[9] On these described in the Brahmajala Suttanta, see Dialogues I, 32, 33.
[10] Nimmānarati, Paranimmita[vasavatti].
[11] In this word-play, Nāgo means also N'āgu, not having sin, says the Cy.: — āgiṃ akaraṇato. So the gods, too, make bad puns! — untranslatable ones, alas.
[12] Upapanno. Note the Buddhist care to bring even 'Great Brahmā' under the universal Law, 'rem inexorabilem.'
[13] The inter-dependence of the clauses, and also of the names, in this stanza, is ambiguous. It may hereafter become clear that the author (or authoress) thought of Tissa and the Eternal Youth as two distinct persons, or of the Eternal Youth and the Great Brahmā of the Buddha's time as one. The grammar is against the first of these suppositions. But we have seen (above, p. 272, 3) that the Mahā-Brahmā of Govinda's time was Sanṃ-kumāra, the Eternal Youth (so also D. I, 200 compared with D. II, 209, 225); and Tissa according to tradition (Smp. p. 296, 7) was the name of a Mahā-Brahmā. Buddhaghosa explains 'the Potent One' (iddhi mā) as the Buddha; it is much more likely to have been intended for Brahmā, who claims (above, p. 247) to have acquired the potency of iddhi.
This legend of the Ever-virgin Knight, Sanaṃ-kumāra, is the Indian counterpart of the European legend of Sir Galahad. The oldest mention of it is in the Chāndogya Upanished (Ch. VII), where the ideal of the saintly knight teaches a typical brahmin about the highest truth (compare Deussen's note on p. 171 of 'Sechzig Upanishads'). In the Nikāyas the Eternal Youth is frequently quoted as the author of a famous verse which says that, though the knight takes precedence among all those that trust in lineage, he that is perfect in wisdom takes precedence over all (see above, I, 121, and M. I, 358; S. I, 153; A. V, 326. At S. II, 284 the verse is ascribed to the Buddha). A similar sentiment is ascribed to him in the Great Bhārata. In mediaeval literature he is said to have been one of five or seven mind-born sons of Brahmā, like the Sons of the Potent One in our verse. (For the five see the references in Wilson's 'Vishṇu Purāṇa,' I, 38; for the seven those in Garbe's 'Sāṃkhya-philosophie,' p. 35). Buddhaghosa has a similar tale (quoted J.R.A.S., 1894, p. 344). A later and debased Jain version of the legend tells us at length of the love adventures and wives of the chaste knight, with a few words at the end on his conversion to the saintly life (Jacobi, 'Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Mahārashtrī pp. 20-28, translated by de Blonay in 'Rev. de l'H. des Rel.,' 1895, pp. 29-41).
[14] Kaṇho, for Māra. Cf. Kālī, the Black Woman.
[15] Māra is called Mahā-seno, his army being of course senā. The Pāli, making no distinction between syena (hawk) and sena, it is not impossible that a pun is here intended.
[16] We have followed the traditional interpretation in ascribing these last four lines to Māra. They may quite as well, or better, be a statement by the author himself.
