Kassapa Buddha

Kassapa Buddha (Pāli), known as Kāśyapa in Sanskrit, is one of the ancient Buddhas whose biography is chronicled in chapter 24[1] of the Buddhavamsa, one of the books of the Pāli Canon.

This article is about Kashyapa Buddha, the ancient buddha. For information on the Hindu sage Kashyapa, see Kashyapa. For information on the Buddhist monk, see Mahākāśyapa.
Kāśyapa Buddha
Sanskritकाश्यप
Kāśyapa
PāliKassapa
Burmeseကဿပ
([kaʔθəpa̰])
Chinese迦葉佛
(Pinyin: Jiāshè Fó)
Japanese迦葉仏（かしょうぶつ）
(romaji: Kashō Butsu)
Khmerព្រះពុទ្ធកស្សបោ
Preah Puth Kassapao
Korean가섭불
(RR: Gaseop Bul)
Mongolianᠭᠡᠷᠡᠯ ᠰᠠᠬᠢᠭᠴᠢ Гашив
Gashiv
Sinhalaකාශ්‍යප බුදුන් වහන්සේ (kashyapa budun vahansē)
Thaiพระกัสสปพุทธเจ้า
Phra Kassapa Phutthachao
Tibetanའོད་སྲུང་
Wylie: 'od srung
THL: ösung
VietnamesePhật Ca Diếp
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According to Theravāda Buddhist tradition, Kassapa is the twenty-seventh of the twenty-nine named Buddhas, the sixth of the Seven Buddhas of Antiquity, and the third of the five Buddhas of the present kalpa.[2]

The present kalpa is called a mahabhadrakalpa (great auspicious aeon). The five Buddhas of the present kalpa are:[3][4]

  1. Kakusandha (the first Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
  2. Koṇāgamana (the second Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
  3. Kassapa (the third Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
  4. Gautama (the fourth and present Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
  5. Maitreya (the fifth and future Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)

Life

Kassapa was born in Isipatana Deer Park. This place is located in Varanasi, a city in the modern-day state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. His parents were the Brahmadatta and Dhanavatī, of the Kashyap Gotra.[1]

According to legend, his body was twenty cubits high, and he lived for two thousand years in three different palaces. They are Hamsa, Yasa, and Sirinanda.[1] (The BuA.217 calls the first two palaces Hamsavā and Yasavā). His chief wife was Sunandā, who bore him a son named Vijitasena.

Kassapa gave up his worldly life travelling in his palace. He practiced austerities for only seven days. Just before attaining enlightenment, he accepted a meal of milk-rice from his wife and grass for his seat from a yavapālaka named Soma. His Bodhi tree (the tree under which he attained enlightenment) was a banyan, and he preached his first sermon at Isipatana to an assembly of monks who had renounced the world in his company.

Kassapa performed the Twin Miracle at the foot of an asana tree outside Sundar Nagar. He held only one assembly of his disciples; among his most famous conversions was that of Nāradeva, a Yaksha. His chief disciples among monks were Tissa and Bhāradvāja, and among nuns were Anulā and Uruvelā, his constant attendant being Sabbamitta. Among his patrons, the most eminent were Sumangala and Ghattīkāra, Vijitasenā, and Bhaddā.

Kassapa died at the age of sixteen thousand years, in the city of Kashi, in the Kashi Kingdom (now known as Varanasi, in the modern-day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh). Over his relics was raised a stupa one league in height, each brick of which was worth one crore (ten million) rupees.

The Stupa of Kassapa Buddha

There was initially a great difference of opinion on what should be the size of the stupa and of what material it should be built. Construction of the stupa was begun after these issues were finally settled. But then the citizens found they lacked sufficient funds to complete the stupa. An anāgāmi devotee named Sorata travelled throughout Jambudvipa, requesting money from the people for the completion of the stupa. He sent the money as he received it, and on hearing that the work was completed, he set out to go and worship the stupa. However, he was seized by robbers and murdered in the forest, which later came to be known as the Andhavana.

Upavāna, in a previous birth, became the guardian deity of the stupa, hence his great majesty in his last life (DA.ii.580; for another story of the building of the shrine see DhA.iii.29).

Among the thirty-seven goddesses noticed by Guttila when he visited heaven was one who had offered a scented five-spray at the stupa (J.ii.256). Alāta offered āneja-flowers and obtained a happy rebirth (J.vi.227).

The cause of Mahākāśyapa's golden complexion was his gift of a golden brick to the building of Kassapa's shrine (AA.i.116).

At the same stupa, Anuruddha, who was then a householder in Varanasi, offered butter and molasses in brass bowls, which were placed without any interval around the stupa (AA.i.105).

See also

References
  1. Vicittasarabivamsa, U (1992). "Chapter 24: Kassapa Buddhavamsa". In Ko Lay, U; Tin Lwin, U (eds.). The great chronicle of Buddhas, Volume One, Part Two (1st ed.). Yangon, Myanmar: Ti=Ni Publishing Center. pp. 285–92.
  2. Gärtner, Uta; Jens Lorenz (1994). Tradition and modernity in Myanmar. LIT Verlag. p. 281. ISBN 978-3-8258-2186-9.
  3. Buswell Jr., RE; Lopez Jr., DS (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (1st ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3.
  4. "Chapter 36: The Buddhas in the three periods of time". Buddhism in a Nutshell Archives. Hong Kong: Buddhistdoor International. Retrieved 2014-12-21.
Buddhist titles
Preceded by
Koṇāgamana Buddha		 Seven Buddhas of the Past Succeeded by
Śākyamuni Buddha
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