Karmic Explanations for the Buddha’s Headache and the Sakyas’ Massacre
A Mahāsāṃghika Story Incorporated into Theravāda and Mūla-Sarvāstivāda Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.33496Keywords:
karma, avadāna, apadāna, Mahāsāṃghika, Theravāda, MūlasarvāstivādaAbstract
The Apadāna of the Pali canon contains a terse and obscure verse account of the Buddha’s headache associated with the Sakyas’ massacre by Viḍūḍabha. While alluding to the fishermen episode in their past lives, it provides no lucid karmic backstory for the tragedy. This Theravāda account can be traced back to a Mahāsāṃghika text preserved in Chinese translation, T199 (Fo wubai dizi zishuo benqi jing), where we find a verse account almost identical to that in the Apadāna. The verse account is so condensed and vague that it seems to presuppose a more
complete story. After examining relevant stories in Pali and Chinese, I identify two Mahāsāṃghika texts (in T125 and T197) as the source of the full karmic backstory, which is not intact in Pali literature. The T125 (Ekottarika Āgama) version is especially important in that sūtra 2 of Chapter 34 in T125 is a full-fledged avadāna, which provides karmic explanations for the Buddha’s headache and the Sakyas’ massacre in a three-part narrative structure. This avadāna tale was incorporated into the Kṣudraka-vastu of the Mūla-Sarvāstivāda Vinaya. Apart from this wholesale insertion, the relevant Mahāsāṃghika story as found in T125 and T197 (Xingqi xing jing) was borrowed in pieces by the Theravādins and the Mūla-Sarvāstivādins; these pieces were adapted and inserted into various texts of the two schools. Since these interpolations are taken out of context, they are incapable of fully conveying the original Mahāsāṃghika message.
References
Akanuma, Chizen 赤沼智善. 1981. 佛教経典史論 [On the History of the Buddhist Scriptures]. Kyoto: Hozokan.
Anālayo, Bhikkhu. 2006. “The Ekottarika-āgama Parallel to the Saccavibhaṅga-sutta and the Four (Noble) Truths.” Buddhist Studies Review 23(2): 145–153.
Appleton, Naomi. 2010. Jātaka Stories in Theravāda Buddhism: Narrating the Bodhisatta Path. Surrey: Ashgate.
Bechert, Heinz. 1961. Bruchstücke buddhistischer Verssammlungen aus zentralasiatischen Sanskrithandschriften: 1 Die Anavataptagāthā und die Sthaviragāthā. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
Bhaiṣajyavastu Translation Team (trans.) 2025. The Chapter on Medicines: Bhaiṣajyavastu (sman gyi gzhi), current version v 1.1.5 (2025). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. (https://84000.co/translation/toh1-6.pdf and https://84000.co/translation/toh1-6)
Black, Deborah (trans.) 1997. Leaves of the Heaven Tree: The Great Compassion of the Buddha (Based on Kṣemendra’s Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā). Berkeley: Dharma Publishing.
Bronkhorst, Johannes. 1985. “Dharma and Abhidharma.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48(2): 305–320.
Burlingame, Eugene Watson. 1921. Buddhist Legends: Translated from the Original Pali Text of the Dhammapada Commentary. Oxford: Pali Text Society, repr. 2009.
Clarke, Shayne. 2015. “Vinayas.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Volume I: Literature and Languages, edited by Jonathan A. Silk et al., 60–87. Leiden: Brill.
Deeg, Max. 2011. “Secular Buddhist Lineages: The Śākyas and their Royal Descendants in Local Buddhist Legitimation Strategies.” Religions of South Asia 5(1-2) :189–207
Dutt, Nalinaksha. 1947. Gilgit manuscripts, vol. III, part 1. Srinagar: Research Department, Jammu and Kashmir State.
Edgerton, Franklin. 1953. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Volume I: Grammar. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, repr. 1993.
Fang, Yixin 方一新 and Lu L u 卢鹭. 2023. “An Overview of Recent Ten Years Studies of the Attribution of the Chinese Buddhist Translation from a Linguistic Perspective 近十余年从语言角度考辨可疑佛经成果的回顾与展望.” Journal of Zhejiang University 53(2): 5–28.
Gnoli, Raniero (ed.) 1977. The Gilgit Manuscript of the Saṅghabhedavastu, part I. Roma: Is. M. E. O.
von Hinüber, Oskar. 1997. A Handbook of Pāli Literature, first Indian edition. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. (First published 1996, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.)
Hirakawa, Akira 平川彰. 1999. 律蔵の研究 I [A Study of the Vinaya-piṭaka, I]. Tokyo: Shunjusha.
Hiraoka, Satoshi 平岡聡. 2002. 説話の考古学 : インド仏教説話に秘められた思想 [An Archaeology of Stories: The Hidden Thought in Indian Buddhist Stories]. Tokyo: Daizō Shuppan.
Jones, J.J. 1949. The Mahāvastu, vol. I. Lancaster: Pali Text Society, repr. 2007.
Karashima, Seishi 辛嶋静志. 2019. “試探西晉竺法護譯《正法華經》的原語面貌” [An Investigation into the Original Language of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra translated by Dharmarakṣa in the Western Jin Period]. Fo Guang Journal of Buddhist Studies 5(2): 1–14.
Karlgren, Bernhard. 1997. Grammata Serica Recensa 漢文典修訂本, translated and edited by Pan Wuyun 潘悟雲 et al. Shanghai: Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House.
Kuan, Tse-fu. 2012. “A Geographical Perspective on Sectarian Affiliations of the Ekottarika Āgama in Chinese Translation (T 125).” Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 2: 179–208.
———. 2013a. “The Pavāraṇā Sutta and ‘liberation in both ways’ as against ‘liberation by wisdom’.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 76(1): 49–73.
———. 2013b. “Legends and Transcendence: Sectarian Affiliations of the Ekottarika Āgama in Chinese Translation.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 133(4): 607–634.
Kudo, Noriyuki. 2019. “On and around the Gilgit Manuscripts in the National Archives of India.” The Journal of Oriental Studies 29: 168–181.
Lamotte, Étienne. 1988. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Śaka Era (translated by Sara Webb-Boin). Louvain: Peeters Press.
Legittimo, Elsa I. 2005. “Synoptic Presentation of the Pusa chu tai jing (PCJ) 菩薩處胎經 the Bodhisattva Womb Sūtra PART I (Chapters 1–14).” Sengokuyama Journal of Buddhist Studies 2: 1–111.
Lin, Jia’an 林家安. 2009. 現 存 漢 譯《 增 一 阿 含 經 》之 譯 者 考 [An Investigation into the Translator of the Extant Chinese Translation of the Ekottarika Āgama]. MA thesis. Chungli, Taiwan: Yuan Kuang Buddhist Institute.
Mellick Cutler, Sally. 1994. “The Pāli Apadāna Collection.” Journal of the Pali Text Society 20: 1–42.
———. 1997. “Still Suffering After All These Aeons: the Continuing Effects of the Buddha’s Bad Karma.” In Indian Insights: Buddhism, Brahmanism and Bhakti, edited by Peter Connolly and Sue Hamilton, 63–82. London: Luzac Oriental.
Mizuno, Kōgen 水野弘元. 1996. 仏教文献研究 [A Study of Buddhist Literature]. Tokyo: Shunjusha.
Nattier, Jan. 2010. “Re-Evaluating Zhu Fonian’s Shizhu duanjie jing (T309): Translation or Forgery?” Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University for the Academic Year 2009 13: 231–258.
Palumbo, Antonello. 2013. An Early Chinese Commentary on the Ekottarika-āgama: The Fenbie gongde lun 分別功德論 and the History of the Translation of the Zengyi ahan jing 增一阿含經. Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corp.
Pāsādika, Bhikkhu. 2008. “The Ekottarāgama Parallel to the Mūlapariyāyasutta.” The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 9: 141–149.
———. 2010. “Gleanings from the Chinese Ekottarāgama regarding School Affiliation and Other Topics”. In Translating Buddhist Chinese: Problems and Prospects, edited by Konrad Meisig, 87–96. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1991. Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Radich, Michael. 2017. “On the Ekottarikāgama 增壹阿含經 T 125 as a Work of Zhu Fonian 竺佛念.” Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies 30: 1–31.
———. 2019. “Fei Changfang’s Treatment of Sengyou’s Anonymous Texts.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 139(4): 819–841.
Radich, Michael and Jamie Norrish. 2025. “What happened to the Ekottarikāgama 增壹阿含經T125 after the death of Dao’an?” International Journal of Asian Studies (2025), 1–41.
Rotman, Andy. 2008. Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna, part 1. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
Salomon, Richard. 2008. Two Gāndhārī Manuscripts of the Songs of Lake Anavatapta (Anavataptagāthā). Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.
Senart, É. (ed.) 1882, 1890, 1897. Le Mahāvastu, 3 volumes. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
Strong, John S. 2012. “Explicating the Buddha’s Final Illness in the Context of his Other Ailments: the Making and Unmaking of some Jātaka Tales.” Buddhist Studies Review 29(1): 17–33.
Tatelman, Joel. 2004. “Avadāna.” In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, vol. I, edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. et al., 36–37. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.
Ui, Hakuju 宇井伯壽. 1965. 印度哲學研究 第二 [A Study of Indian Philosophy, vol. II]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Waldschmidt, Ernst. 1980. “Central Asian Sūtra Fragments and Their Relation to the Chinese Āgamas.” In The Language of the Earliest Buddhist Tradition, edited by Heinz Bechert, 136–174. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Walters, Jonathan S. 1990. “The Buddha’s Bad Karma: A Problem in the History of Theravāda Buddhism.” Numen 37(1): 70–95.
Wang, Li 王力. 2013. 漢語史稿 [A History of the Chinese Language]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.
Willemen, Charles. 2003. From Where Did Zen Come? Dhyāna in the Early Buddhist Tradition (The Numata Yehan Lecture in Buddhism). Calgary: University of Calgary.
———. 2008. “Kumārajīva’s ‘Explanatory Discourse’ about Abhidharmic Literature.” Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies 12: 37–83.
Wogihara, U. and C. Tsuchida (eds.) 1934. Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra. Tokyo: Sankibo.
Wynne, Alexander. 2008. “On the Sarvāstivādins and Mūlasarvāstivādins”. The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 9: 247–269.
Yao, Fumi. 2025. Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection: Buddhist Manuscripts, vol. V, Bhaiṣajyavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Oslo: Hermes.
Yinshun. 印順. 1994. 原始佛教聖典之集成 [Formation of the Original Buddhist Scriptures], 3rd revised edition. Taipei: Zhengwen Chubanshe.
