Mahākhandhako The Great Chapter - Ancient Buddhist Texts

7
explicitly redefining the given terms of his day by explaining the true meaning of
being a brāhmaṇa, which has nothing to do with the pretensions of birth, of course.
There is no record of the brāhmaṇa’s response to the teaching but he evidently did
not become a lay follower at the time, otherwise it would have been recorded, so we
can perhaps infer that he was unconvinced.
The Buddha’s next meeting was at the root of another tree in the same vicinity, and
this time with the Dragon-King Mucilinda, who protected him from unseasonable
weather. These first 3 sections are parallel to five discourses in the Udāna 1:1-4, and
2:1, which all end in an exalted utterance being made by the Buddha.
The next section tells how the Buddha met with two merchants, Tapussa and
Bhallika, who were apparently traveling north to Magadha. At the culmination of the
story the merchants go for refuge to the Buddha and the Dhamma 8 and became the
first of the Buddha’s followers in the Dispensation. Perhaps it is significant that the
first people who gain faith in the Buddha and his Teaching were not professional
religious, but simple merchants, as that section of society was to provide crucial
support to the fledgling Teaching.
The scene then changes to the root of another tree, still in the vicinity of Uruvelā,
where the Buddha ponders on whether it is really possible to teach such a deep and
profound doctrine to people when they have so little inclination towards spiritual
things and such attachment to material pleasures. He is ultimately persuaded by the
Mahābrahmā Sahampati, who points out that there are some with little dust on their
eyes and that they will understand.
The Buddha therefore agrees to teach, but just who to teach is the next question. He
first thinks of Āḷāra and Uddaka, 9 but they had recently passed away, so then he
recalled the group-of-five ascetics who had been helping him during his six years of
austerity. Seeing that they were now in the neighbouring State of Kāsī, 10 he decided
to walk across the countryside for the approximately 200 km in order to teach them.
A meeting on the way with the Abstainer (Ājīvika) Upaka is recorded at this point. 11
Again the Abstainer, like the brāhmaṇa earlier, was unable to grasp the message or to
gain faith in the Buddha, and went away, ‘shaking his head and taking the wrong
path (ummagga)’, as the text says.
8 Although in Mahāvastu they go for the three refuges there was still no Saṅgha at that time,
and it seems that must be an anachronism.
9 Āḷāra had been his teacher, but Uddaka was simply a friend in the spiritual life. In
Mahāvastu the order in which he thinks of them is reversed.
10 Uruvelā, where the Buddha attained Awakening, was in the south-western reaches of
Magadha. Kāsī was to the west of there.
11 Many other meetings and happenings have been recorded in the Mahāvastu, which are
excluded from our text, see Uruvilvāto Ṛṣipatanaṁ Gamanaṁ, the Journey from Uruvilvā to
Ṛṣipatana eslewhere on this website for the relevant stories.