The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I)Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Religion
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I)
Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Buddhism -- Burma; Burma -- Religion; Gautama Buddha
The pounha believed in Buddha; nay, he applied for the dignity
of Rahan, and finally became a Rahanda.
_N.B_.--The history of Buddha offers an almost complete blank as to what
regards his doings and preachings during a period of nearly twenty-three
years,[1] beginning with the twenty-first season, when he was fifty-six
years old, and ending with the forty-fourth season, having reached the
patriarchal age of seventy-nine years. So entirely are we kept in
ignorance of the important transactions that took place during so long a
portion of Buddha's life, that the writer, after having vainly
consulted several manuscripts, is reluctantly obliged to come to the
same conclusion as that which the Burmese authors have arrived at, viz.,
that there is a complete disagreement as to even the names of the places
where Buddha spent the twenty-three remaining seasons. Out of regard for
the rich man Anatapein, who for so many years had been one of his most
liberal supporters, Buddha spent the greatest part of the remaining
seasons in the Dzetawon monastery. During the few others he seems to
have stayed at or near Radzagio, chiefly in the Weloowon monastery. The
amount of seasons spent by our Phra from the time he obtained the
Buddhaship till his death is forty-five.
I find related, as a fact worthy of notice, the donation by a rich widow
of Wethalie, named Wisaka, of the celebrated Pouppayon monastery. It was
situated not far from the Dzetawon, in an eastern direction from that
famous place. It is mentioned that when Phra sallied from the Dzetawon
monastery by the eastern gate, the people of the country knew that he
was going to dwell for awhile in the Pouppayon monastery; when, on the
other hand, he was observed to leave it by the northern gate, all the
people understood that he was undertaking a journey through the country
for the purpose of preaching. The epoch of this donation is not certain.
It appears from some particulars indirectly alluded to that it must have
taken place when Buddha was sixty years old.
In following our manuscript, we find inserted in this place the detailed
accounts respecting Dewadat, related by Buddha himself in the Dzetawon
monastery, in the presence of a large party of his disciples. The fact
of Buddha mentioning the name of Adzatathat as king of Radzagio, leaves
no doubt respecting the time when the awful punishment is supposed to
have been meted out to Dewadat, on account of the many heinous sins laid
to his charge. Adzatathat, having murdered his father Pimpathara, by
starving him to death in a prison, became king of Radzagio, and
succeeded him when Buddha was nearly seventy-two years old. He was
already king, as the sequel will show, when Dewadat was as yet his
spiritual adviser. It is probable that the following narrative was made
not more than two years after the above date.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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