Katyayana (Buddhist)

Kātyāyana or Mahākātyāyana (

and often portrayed as extremely portly.

Accounts

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Meeting the Buddha

In the

Nāgārjuna cites a text which he calls the Kātyāyanavavāda ("Advice to Kātyāyana") in his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (15.7). This text appears to have been a Sanskrit parallel of the Pāli Kaccānagotta Sutta.

Soreyya

There is a famous incident given in Verse 43 of the Dhammapada commentary in which a man named Soreyya was traveling with a friend and happened to see Kātyāyana adjusting his robes. Upon seeing his golden complexion, Soreyya began to fantasize that Kātyāyana should become his wife or that his wife's complexion should be like that of Kātyāyana. Due to the nature of this thought, he transformed into a woman. He married a wealthy man from Taxila and bore him two sons.

Soreyya later approached Kātyāyana and explained the situation, apologizing for his misconduct in thought. Kātyāyana accepted his apology, upon which Soreyya regained his male form.

Vassakāra

Another story relates the incident of a man named Vassakāra, minister of King Ajātasattu. Upon seeing Kātyāyana descend from a mountain, the minister stated that he looked like a monkey. The Buddha advised the minister that he should ask Kātyāyana for forgiveness, lest he would be reborn as a monkey in the Veṇuvana forest. Vassakāra was certain that he would be reborn as a monkey, though, and as a precaution, he supplied that area with fruit and other trees. After death, he was reborn as the Buddha had predicted.^[7]

Past lives

In the lifetime of

It is also mentioned that he was a vidyādhara in the time of Sumedha Buddha.

In the time of Kāśyapa Buddha he was a householder of Benares. He offered a golden brick to a caitiya that housed the Buddha's remains, and made a vow that in the future his body would have a golden complexion.

Propagation of Buddhism

Instead of the Buddha himself, the newly ordained and enlightened Kātyāyana returned to Avanti to teach King Candapajjota. The king was highly pleased with his attainments.^[5] He provided a royal park for Kātyāyana to live and treated him with great honor. Kātyāyana made numerous converts in Avanti, until the land sparkled with monk's robes, the texts say.^[2] He spend most of his time in Avanti, on a mountain called Kuraraghara.^[8] Nevertheless, he is said to have travelled to listen to the Buddha's sermons often, to the extent that his fellow disciples regularly left an empty seat for him to sit on. As Buddhism developed in Avanti, Kātyāyana made requests for amendments in monastic discipline to fit in better with the unique nature of the far land of Avanti.^[2]

In the

After the

First Buddhist Council, Kātyāyana lived in a woodland near Kosambī.^[10]

Discourses

Kātyāyana build up a reputation for expanding on brief statements and verses of the Buddha, that were sometimes not understood by the disciples.[2]^[11] For this he was declared as foremost.^[12] Several early discourses are attributed to him. The Pāli texts state Kātyāyana taught the Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, the Kaccāyana Sutta, and the Parāyana Sutta.^[2] In the Madhura Sutta, King Avantiputta of Madhurā approached Kātyāyana some time after the Buddha's parinirvana with a question regarding the Brahmin's claims to superiority due to their caste. Kātyāyana pointed out that wealth confers power to people regardless of caste and that Brahmins experience the same results of good or evil conduct in the same way those of other castes do.^{[citation needed]} Tradition also holds that Kātyāyana was the author of some verses of the Theragāthā, where he gives advice to meditators.^[13]

Philosophy

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Later texts

Kātyāyana figures frequently in

Vimalakīrti.^[2]

In Chapter 3 of the Lotus Sutra entitled "Simile and Parable", Kātyāyana is one of four disciples to understand the Buddha's intention to his sermon about the burning house, and who rejoice in the idea of the united vehicle (ekayāna). In Chapter 6 entitled "Bestowal of Prophecy", the Buddha bestows prophecies of enlightenment on numerous disciples, including Kātyāyana.^[2] It is predicted that Kātyāyana will become a Buddha named Jāmbūnadābhāsa.^[14]

Heritage

Tradition attributes to Katyāyana the authorship of two late Pāli canonical texts, that is, the

early collection of discourses. Apart from these, the Kaccāyanavyākaraṇa, a work on Pāli grammar, is also traditionally attributed to him. In the Sārvāstivāda tradition, the Abhidharma text Jñānaprasthāna is attributed to him.^[2]

The Jñānaprasthāna is more likely to have been composed by an author Kātyāyana who lived several hundred years later.

Pāli Canon.^[15]

Sthavira school of Buddhism.^[2]

Kātyāyana is often depicted holding an alms bowl in front of his chest.^[2]

See also

• Śrāvaka
• First Buddhist Council

Notes

1. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Candapadumā (2).
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Buswell & Lopez 2014, Mahākātyāyana.
3. ^ For the first name, the city and the position of the father, see Malalasekera (1937, Nalaka; Ujjenī; Tirītavaccha). For the name of the king, see Buswell & Lopez (2014, Mahākātyāyana).
4. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Kañcanamānava.
5. ^ ^{a b} Law 2000, p. 440.
6. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Nalaka.
7. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Vassakāra.
8. ^ Law 2000, p. 647.
9. ^ Huber 1906, pp. 12–13.
10. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Kosambī.
11. ^ Krey 2010, pp. 23–24, note 31.
12. ^ Law 2000, p. 203.
13. ^ Malalasekera 1937.
14. ^ "The Lotus Sutra" (PDF). Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
15. ^ von Hinüber 1997, pp. 77–80.

References

• ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3
• Clarke, S. (2014), Family Matters in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms,
  ISBN 978-0-8248-3647-4
• Huber, E. (1906), "Etudes de littérature bouddhique" [Studies in Buddhist Literature],
  doi:10.3406/befeo.1906.2077
• Jones, J.J. (1952), The Mahāvastu (PDF), vol. 2,
  OCLC 468282520
• Krey, G. (2010), "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā And Khemā", Buddhist Studies Review, 27 (1): 17–40,
  doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17
• Law, B.C. (2000) [1933], A History of Pali Literature, Indica Books,
  OCLC 44167116
• OCLC 837021145
• ISBN 81-215-0778-2

External links

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Saṃyukta Āgama 301: Kātyāyana Gotra Sūtra