According to the
Buddhavaṃsa
The ''Buddhavaṃsa'' (also known as the ''Chronicle of Buddhas'') is a hagiographical Buddhist text which describes the life of Gautama Buddha and of the twenty-four Buddhas who preceded him and prophesied his attainment of Buddhahood. It is ...
of the
Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
, Padumuttara or Padumuttara Buddha is the thirteenth of the twenty-nine buddhas who preceded the historical
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
.
In the Buddhavamsa, he is described as:
One hundred thousand aeons ago, Padumuttara Buddha, who knows everything and deserves every donations, was born alone in that aeon.
Biography
He was born in Hamsavatī. He lived for ten thousand years in three palaces: Naravāhana, Yassa (or Yasavatī) and Vasavatti. His wife was Vasudattā, by whom he had a son, Uttara. His body was fifty-eight
cubit
The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding ...
s (between 26.51 meters, or 87 feet) high.
He practiced
asceticism for seven days. He died in Nandārāma at the age of one hundred thousand, and a
stūpa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumambu ...
twelve
leagues in height was erected over his relics.
His life parallels that of
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
except that he was assisted by different people and his
bodhi tree was a ''sarala'' (''
Dipterocarpus zeylanicus
''Dipterocarpus zeylanicus'', commonly known as හොර - Hora in Sinhalese and සරල - Sarala or කිරිපලු - Kiripalu, is a species of ''Dipterocarpus'' that is endemic to Sri Lanka. A closely related Indian
species is ''Dipt ...
'') in Theravada buddhism. Many of Gautama Buddha's disciples were said to have made their aspiration for eminent positions in the time of Padumuttara.
In the
Apadāna
The ''Apadāna'' is a collection of biographical stories found in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Pāli Canon, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. G.P. Malalasekera describes it as 'a Buddhist Vitae Sanctorum' of Buddhist monks and nuns who lived du ...
some gods wish to build a stūpa of their own over the relics of Padumuttara. As a
Tathāgata
Tathāgata () is a Pali word; Gautama Buddha uses it when referring to himself or other Buddhas in the Pāli Canon. The term is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" (''tathā-gata''), "one who has thus come" (''tathā-āgata''), o ...
his relics were not separated. Dīpankara attained Nirvāṇa in
Nandārāma, where a stūpa was built which was thirty-six
yojanas
A yojana (Sanskrit: योजन; th, โยชน์; my, ယူဇနာ) is a measure of distance that was used in ancient India, Thailand and Myanmar. A yojana is about 12–15 km.
Edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BCE)
Ashoka, in his Major R ...
high.
The Buddha and the Lotus
According to the Buddhavamsa, a
sacred lotus appears wherever the foot of Padumuttara lands. The lotuses had a length of 90 cubits or 135 feet and a breadth of 60 cubits or 90 feet. The stamens were 30 cubits or 45 feet and the petals were 12 cubits or 18 feet. When his right foot lands, 2.25
quarts
The quart (symbol: qt) is an English unit of volume equal to a quarter gallon. Three kinds of quarts are currently used: the liquid quart and dry quart of the US customary system and the of the British imperial system. All are roughly equa ...
of pollen were produced. When he took another step, the previous lotus disappeared and a new one appeared.
[ "Jinatthapakāsanī (The explicit life of Gotama Buddha),(Eighth edition) Part 2" by Kyee Thel Lay Htet Sayadaw]
See also
*
List of the twenty-eight Buddhas
References
External links
* Vipassana.info
Pali Proper Names Dictionary
Buddhas
{{Buddhism-stub