Upāli

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For other people named Upali, see Upali (given name).

Buddha, Kappitaka
Period in officeEarly Buddhism
SuccessorDāsaka
Students
  • Sattarasavaggiyā, Dāsaka
InitiationAnupiyā
by the Buddha

Upāli (

Sanskrit: Dharma) and vinaya. His preceptor
was Kappitaka. Upāli became known for his mastery and strictness of vinaya and was consulted often about vinaya matters. A notable case he decided was that of the monk Ajjuka, who was accused of partisanship in a conflict about real estate. During the First Council, Upāli received the important role of reciting the vinaya, for which he is mostly known.

Scholars have analyzed Upāli's role and that of other disciples in the early texts, and it has been suggested that his role in the texts was emphasized during a period of compiling that stressed monastic discipline, during which

American Buddhism
.

Accounts

Upāli's personality is not depicted extensively in the texts, as the texts mostly emphasize his stereotypical qualities as an expert in monastic discipline, especially so in the

Pāli texts.[2]

Early life

According to the texts, Upāli was a barber, a despised profession in ancient India.

advanced states of meditation. Buddhologist André Bareau argues that this story is ancient, because it precedes the tradition of art depictions of the Buddha with curly hair, and the glorification of Upāli as an adult.[6]

According to the Mahāvastu, the Pāli

Jātaka tale that the king and advisers had bowed for Upāli in a previous life, too.[9][11]

Indologist

Sanskrit: parinirvāṇa, Mahākāśyapa). But the fact that he was from humble origins effectively prevented this, as many of the Buddhist devotees at the time might have objected to his leadership position.[15]

Monastic life

Upāli had a dwelling place in

Gunapala Malalasekera argued that the Buddha wanted Upāli to learn both meditation and Buddhist doctrine, and a life in the forest would have provided him with only the former. The texts state that the Buddha himself taught the vinaya (monastic discipline) to Upāli.[18] Upāli later attained the state of an enlightened disciple.[5][19]

According to the Mahāvastu, the

acceptance in the saṅgha was a monk called Kappitaka.[20][note 1] There is one story told about Upāli and his preceptor. Kappitaka was in the habit of living in cemeteries. In one cemetery near Vesāli he had a monastic cell. One day, a couple of nuns built a small monument there in honor of their teacher, also a nun, and made much noise in the process. Disturbed by the nuns, Kappitaka destroyed the monument, which greatly angered the nuns. Later, in an attempt to kill Kappitaka, they destroyed his cell in return. But Kappitaka was warned by Upāli in advance and he had already fled elsewhere.[22] The next day, Upāli was verbally abused by the nuns for having informed his teacher.[23]

Role in monastic discipline

Munakata Shikō
, originally from 1939

In the literature of every Buddhist school, Upāli is depicted as an expert in vinaya and the

Sanskrit: bodhisattva; Buddha-to-be).[5] 5th-century commentator Buddhaghosa stated that Upāli drew up instructions and explanatory notes for monks dealing with disciplinary matters.[19]

Upāli was also known for his strictness in practicing the discipline.[26] Monks considered it a privilege to study the vinaya under him.[27] At times, monks who felt repentance and wanted to improve themselves, sought his advice. In other cases, Upāli was consulted in making decisions considering alleged offenses of monastic discipline. For example, one newly ordained nun was found pregnant, and was judged by the monk Devadatta as unfit to be a nun. However, the Buddha had Upāli do a second investigation, during which Upāli called upon the help of the laywoman Visakhā and several other laypeople. Eventually, Upāli concluded the nun had conceived the child by her husband before her ordination as a nun, and therefore was innocent. The Buddha later praised Upāli for his careful consideration of this matter.[28]

Other notable cases about which Upāli decided are that of the monks Bharukaccha and Ajjuka. Bharukaccha consulted Upāli whether dreaming about having sex with a woman amounted to an offense that required disrobing, and Upāli judged it did not. As for the monk Ajjuka, he had decided about a dispute about real estate.[29] In this case, a rich householder was in doubt as to who he should will his inheritance to, his pious nephew or his own son. He asked Ajjuka to invite for an audience the person who had the most faith of the two—Ajjuka invited the nephew. Angry about the decision, the son accused Ajjuka of partisanship and went to see the monk Ānanda. Ānanda disagreed with Ajjuka's decision, judging the son the more rightful heir, and causing the son to feel justified in accusing Ajjuka of not being a "true monk". When Upāli got involved, however, he judged in favor of Ajjuka. He pointed out to Ānanda that the act of inviting a layperson did not break monastic discipline.[30] Eventually, Ānanda agreed with Upāli, and Upāli was able to settle the issue.[31][32] Here, too, the Buddha praised Upāli for his handling of the case.[33] Law scholar Andrew Huxley noted that Upāli's judgment of this case allowed monks to engage on an ethical level with the world, whereas Ānanda's judgment did not.[34]

First Council and death

Mural painting with many monks sitting in a cave, one of them seated on a bench
The First Council. Mural painting in the Nava Jetavana temple, Jetavana Park, Uttar Pradesh, India, late 20th century

According to the

Mahāsaṃghika account of the First Council, Upāli was the one who charged Ānanda, the former attendant of the Buddha, with several offenses of wrongdoing.[40]

Upāli had a number of pupils, who were called the sattarasavaggiyā.

Dīpavaṃsa, Upāli died at the age of seventy-four, if this age is interpreted as life-span, not years of ordination.[35]

Previous lives

In some Buddhist texts, an explanation is offered why a low-caste born monk would have such a central role in developing monastic law. The question that might have been raised is whether issuing laws would not normally be associated with kings. The

Buddha's disciples who was foremost in monastic discipline. Upāli aspired to be like him, and pursued it through doing merits.[19][44]

Despite Upāli's previous lives as a king, he was born as a low caste barber in the time of

Sanskrit: pratyekabuddha; a type of Buddha). The evil karma brought about low birth.[19][44]

Legacy

Upāli was the focus of worship in ancient and medieval India and was regarded as the "patron saint" of monks who specialize in the vinaya.[5][45] He is one of the eight enlightened disciples, and is honored in Burmese ceremonies.[5][46]

Schools and lineages

Map of Anurudhapura, the city that included the Mahvihara
1890 map showing the historical location of the Mahāvihāra, drawn by a British civil servant

Several scholars have contended that the prominence of certain of the Buddha's disciples in the early texts is indicative of the preference of the compilers. Buddhologist

Sanskrit: Vaiśalī).[note 2] In this period, these disciples' roles and stories were emphasized and embellished more than other disciples.[51] These differences in schools gradually developed and became stereotyped over time.[52]

Upāli's successors formed a

Ceylon, they then came to be associated with a lineage of such masters, because of the influence of Buddhaghosa, who established Upāli and the other vinayadharas as an important characteristic of the Mahāvihāra tradition. This concept of a vinayadhara lineage also affected Burma, and led to a belief that only those ordained in the proper lineage could become vinayadharas. Gradually, the vinayadhara came to be seen a sign of superior tradition, as the lineage was integrated with local history. Even later, the vinayadhara became a formal position of judge and arbitrator in problems of vinaya.[55]

Upāli's lineage has gained scholarly attention because of their way of timekeeping, known by modern scholars as the "dotted record". Chinese sources say that Upāli and his successors had a custom to insert a dot in a manuscript marking each year after the First Council. The sources claim that each of successors continued this tradition, up until 489 CE, when the

Sarvāstivāda scholar Saṃghabhadra entered the last dot in the manuscript. This tradition has been used by some modern scholars to calculate the passing away of the Buddha, but has now been debunked as historically unlikely. Still, data pertaining to the vinayadharas is used to support theories regarding the dating of the Buddha's life and death, such as the one proposed by Indologist Richard Gombrich.[56]

ICP, Nara National Museum
)

Not only in ancient India did certain lineages identify with Upāli. In 7th-century China, the Vinaya or Nan-shan School was founded by the monks Ku-hsin and

Nanking. It developed a standard for teaching the vinaya. The monks would wear black and emphasized protecting oneself against error. It was believed at the time that Ku-hsin was a reincarnation of Upāli.[57]

Texts

In the Pāli tradition, numerous discourses show the Buddha and Upāli discussing matters of monastic discipline, including the legality of decision-making and assemblies, and the system of giving warnings and probation. Much of this is found in the

American Buddhist ethics.[63]

Notes

  1. ^ Philosopher Michael Freedman argues that the office of preceptor may have only been developed after the Buddha's parinibbāna, although he admits the texts contradict each other with regard to Upāli's acceptance.[21]
  2. Sanskrit: Kauśambī) instead.[50]

Citations

  1. ^ Ray 1994, pp. 205–206 note 2a–d.
  2. ^ Freedman 1977, pp. 67, 231.
  3. ^ Rhys Davids 1899, p. 102.
  4. ^ Gombrich 1995, p. 357.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Mrozik 2004.
  6. ^ Bareau 1962, p. 262.
  7. ^ See Malalasekera (1937, Upāli). For the texts of traditions apart from Pāli, see Freedman (1977, p. 97).
  8. ^ a b Freedman 1977, p. 117.
  9. ^ a b Bareau 1988, p. 76.
  10. ^ Freedman 1977, p. 116.
  11. ^ Rahula 1978, p. 10.
  12. ^ Rhys Davids 1903, p. 69.
  13. ^ Schumann 2004, p. 166.
  14. ^ Samuels 2007, p. 123.
  15. ^ Singh 1973, pp. 131–132.
  16. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Upāli; Vālikārāma.
  17. ^ Geiger 1912, p. 35.
  18. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Upāli; Upāli Sutta (3).
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h Malalasekera 1937, Upāli.
  20. ^ Freedman 1977, p. 58.
  21. ^ Freedman 1977, pp. 57 n.60, 97–98.
  22. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Kappitaka Thera.
  23. ^ Dhammadinna 2016, pp. 45–46.
  24. ^ Sarao 2004, p. 878.
  25. ^ Robinson & Johnson 1997, p. 45.
  26. ^ Baroni 2002, p. 365.
  27. ^ Sarao 2003, p. 4.
  28. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Kumāra-Kassapa; Ramanīyavihārī Thera.
  29. ^ See Malalasekera (1937, Ajjuka; Bharukaccha). For the other laypeople, see Churn Law (2000, p. 464).
  30. ^ See Huxley (2010, p. 278). Freedman (1977, pp. 30–32) mentions faith, the son seeing Ānanda, and the accusation of false monkhood.
  31. ^ Freedman 1977, p. 32.
  32. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Ajjuka.
  33. ^ Malalasekera 1961.
  34. ^ Huxley 2010, p. 278.
  35. ^ a b Prebish 2008, p. 9.
  36. ^ Geiger 1912, p. xlviii.
  37. ^ For the pāṭimokkha, see Norman (1983, pp. 7–12). For the vinaya of both monks and nuns, see Oldenberg (1899, pp. 617–618) and Norman (1983, p. 18).
  38. ^ Eliade 1982, pp. 210–211.
  39. ^ Thomas 1951, p. 28.
  40. ^ See Analayo (2010, p. 17 note 52). For the Mahāsaṃghika, see Analayo (2016, p. 160).
  41. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Rājagaha.
  42. ^ Norman 2005, p. 37.
  43. ^ See Huxley (1996, p. 126 note 27) and Malalasekera (1937, Upāli). Huxley mentions the question raised.
  44. ^ a b Cutler 1997, p. 66.
  45. ^ Malalasekera 1937, Hsuan Tsang.
  46. ^ Strong 1992, p. 240.
  47. ^ Freedman 1977, pp. 13, 464–465.
  48. ^ Przyluski 1923, pp. 22–23.
  49. ^ Freedman 1977, pp. 34–35, 88–89, 110.
  50. ^ Przyluski 1923, p. 184.
  51. ^ Migot 1954, pp. 540–541.
  52. ^ Dutt 1925, pp. 206–207.
  53. ^ Sarao 2003, p. 3.
  54. ^ Prebish 2008, p. 2.
  55. ^ Frasch 1996, pp. 2–4, 12, 14.
  56. ^ See Prebish (2008, pp. 6–8) and Geiger (1912, p. xlvii).
  57. ^ For Ku-hsin, the Pa Hwa Hills, the standard and the reincarnation, see Hsiang-Kuang (1956, p. 207). For Tao-hsüan and the monks, see Bapat (1956, pp. 126–127).
  58. ^ Ray 1994, p. 169.
  59. ^ Thomas 1951, p. 268.
  60. ^ For the Mahāyāna influence, see Prebish (2010, p. 305) For the time period, see Agostini (2004, p. 80 n.42).
  61. ^ a b Norman 1983, p. 29.
  62. ^ Heirman 2004, p. 377.
  63. ^ Prebish 2000, pp. 56–57: "... texts worthy of new consideration would also include those with the richest heritage of ethical underpinnings."

References

External links
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