Sumedha

In Buddhist texts, Sumedha is a previous life of Gotama Buddha (Pāli; ) in which he declares his intention to become a Buddha. Buddhist texts describe that this takes place when Gotama Buddha is still a Buddha-to-be (, ). Traditions regard Sumedha's life as the beginning of the spiritual journey leading up to the attainment of Buddhahood by Gotama in his last life, a journey which takes place through many lifetimes. Born in a brahmin family, Sumedha begins to live as an ascetic in the mountains. One day he meets Dīpankara Buddha and offers his own body for him to walk over. During this sacrifice, he makes a vow that he also will be a Buddha in a future lifetime, which is confirmed by Dīpankara through a prophecy.

The encounter between Sumedha and Dīpankara Buddha is the oldest Buddhist story known which deals with the path of a bodhisatta, and the story has been described as the Theravādin interpretation of this ideal. It is the most detailed story of a previous life of the Buddha, and is one of the most popular stories in Buddhist art. It is depicted in many Theravādin temples and is at least alluded to in innumerable Buddhist works. Sumedha's story has often been raised by Theravāda Buddhists as an example of selfless service.

Origins The accounts of Sumedha and Dīpankara Buddha have been connected to the area northwest of India. Sumedha's life is described in the Pāli Buddhavaṃsa and Jātaka, the latter being based on the former. The Sanskrit textual traditions relate Sumedha's life as well. The Sanskrit tradition accounts are very similar to those of the Pāli, which has led Indologists Kenneth Norman and Richard Gombrich to argue that the accounts can be dated back to pre-sectarian Buddhism, possibly as early as a century after the Buddha. On the other hand, Buddhist studies scholar Jan Nattier argues that Dīpankara Buddha's absence in the earliest Pāli discourses (, ) indicates that traditions about Dīpankara only became current several centuries after the Buddha. Buddhist studies scholar Naomi Appleton states parts of the biographical material were "fixed no later than the sixth century CE".

Chinese Buddhist pilgrims such as Faxian (337 422 CE) identified the place where Sumedha would have met Dīpankara Buddha as Nagarāhāra (Afghanistan), now called Nangarhar. Faxian reported a shrine for Dīpankara there: apparently, it was important for Gandhāran Buddhists to claim that their country was the origin of Gotama Buddha's spiritual life. Since most of the depictions of Sumedha's account have been found in the area northwest of India, especially Gandhāra, it has been suggested that the story developed there. However, the motif of the spreading of hair has also been found in the Ajantā and Nālandā areas, and there is some evidence that the story was common in Ajantā.

Buddhist studies scholar Karen Derris has pointed out that the Buddhavaṃsa has received relatively little scholarly attention, due to mainstream scholars' focus on early Pāli texts and being prejudiced against mythological accounts of later origin.

Accounts Early life

In the Pāli texts, Sumedha is said to have lived four "incalculable eons" and a hundred thousand normal eons ago. After the prediction, with Sumedha still lying in the mud, Dīpankara Buddha and his following of monks circumambulate around Sumedha, and in some stories offer flowers, as a sign of respect and to celebrate Sumedha's future Buddhahood. Meanwhile, deities are depicted as approving of the prophecy, like a "divine chorus that give notice of his pending buddhahood", a subservient role typical for Buddhist cosmology. The text reveals that many of the onlookers later become followers of Gotama Buddha in his final lifetime, after his enlightenment, according to the wish they made. Specifically, they are reborn as the disciples called the Kassapa Brothers , and their followers. The motif that people who formerly encountered Dīpankara Buddha become enlightened under another Buddha Gotama indicates that each Buddha is regarded as continuing upon the work left unfinished by the previous Buddhas.

Response to the prophecy Sumedha and the Buddha Dīpankara near the city. Produced in Thailand alt=Sumedha is depicted flying in the air and prostrating for Dīpankara Buddha, near a huge city. Sumedha makes his vow as a Buddha-to-be (, ) because of the concern he has with other living beings. The story relates that Sumedha could have attained personal enlightenment at the time of meeting Dīpankara, but chooses to strive to become a Buddha instead. It could have been used to encourage devotees to aspire to be reborn under Metteyya , believed by Buddhists to be the future Buddha. Furthermore, the story of Sumedha, as well as many Jātaka stories, indicate that the path of a Buddha-to-be is superior and more heroic than that of striving for only personal enlightenment. The story of Sumedha meeting Dīpankara has a "strong devotional ethos".

Through the motif of the prophecy, Dīpankara not only shows his "complete cognizance of cosmos"in the words of comparative religion scholar Eviatar Shulmanbut also that the Buddha Gotama and the Buddhas that have preceded him, are "ultimately of the same substance". Sumedha is depicted as the "Buddha seed" that will eventually develop into a fully enlightened Buddha, just like all the other Buddhas. Thus, Sumedha's prophecy not only shows the future personal attainment of Gotama Buddha, but also reveals a "cosmic structure". The story of Sumedha shows that "buddhas make other buddhas", or as Buddhist studies scholar Steven Collins puts it, Buddha is connected with others, in a complex and interwoven pattern of predictions and recollections". In addition, Sumedha's sacrifice of his body as a sort of bridge can be interpreted as a symbol for the passing of Buddhism from one age to the next.

Since Dīpankara's approval of Sumedha is a pattern that occurs with every Buddha before attaining Buddhahood, it becomes "paradigmatic and reoccurring". It can therefore be regarded as "sacred time" in contrast with profane, single events, following the theory of historian Mircea Eliade. Collins does point out that Sumedha's account in the Buddhavaṃsa depicts both repetitive and non-repetitive time: though the paths of the bodhisattas and Buddhas are depicted as repetitive in nature, time in the cycle of rebirth of living beings is described as a continuous flowing river, where living beings can reach salvation under a certain Buddha and thereby reach "the further shore of nirvana" and no longer be reborn. Derris adds that in the narratives about Dīpankara's prediction there is a "shimmering temporal landscape", in which the Buddha-to-be Sumedha is to some extent already the Buddha. Words like Jina (lit. 'conqueror') and Tathāgatha are applied to him, which are epithets of an already enlightened Buddha. This indicates how certain the prediction was seen to be.

Post-canonical Pāli works, Sanskrit works such as the Mahāvastu, as well as Sarvāstivāda and Mūla-sārvastivāda commentaries describe that a Buddha-to-be must go through several stages before becoming a Buddha: the "natural stage", before conceiving the wish to become a Buddha; the stage of taking a vow to become one; and the stage of living in agreement with that vow, fulfilling the perfections. At the fourth stage, the Buddha-to-be is declared to have an irreversible destination as a Buddha, provided the Buddha-to-be makes a correct vow. Among qualities needed for that vow to succeed, the commentary of the Jātaka states that the Buddha-to-be must fulfill eight conditions, among which having extreme willpower and being male. These conditions are only found in the Theravāda texts. Buddhist studies scholar Peter Harvey does add, though, that the condition of being male only holds for becoming a Buddha, but not for becoming an enlightened disciple of a Buddha. In the Pāli tradition, therefore, this condition has hardly any practical consequences, because Buddhahood is seen as open for very few individuals, and most people aim to attain enlightenment as a disciple instead. Most scholars agree that the Pāli Canon does not describe the bodhisatta path as open for every individual, and that the Pāli texts differ in this respect from Mahāyāna Buddhism, in which the path of Buddhahood is regarded as open for all. A number of scholars have argued that there is no such difference, however.

Role in Buddhism Sumedha and Dīpankara Buddha. Burmese manuscript, British Library In the Theravāda tradition, the story is usually regarded as the beginning of the Buddha's spiritual path, and is included in the first part in most traditional accounts about the Buddha's life. The model for this organization of information was the Buddhavaṃsa, and the Nidānakathā, part of the commentary on the Jātakas, in which the Dūre takes up half of the account. The story of Sumedha attempts to establish a relation between Gotama Buddha and a lineage of predecessors, thus legitimizing the message of the Buddha, and describing a "pre-enlightenment training". This is comparable to how an Indian king was anointed by his predecessor, and therefore conforms to Indian beliefs. Indeed, the medieval Pāli Jīnalaṅkāra dubs Dīpankara's prophecy "a great consecration", consecration referring to anointment of kings .

The story is the longest and most detailed account about a previous life of the Buddha, and serves as the model for other such accounts. It is the oldest known Buddhist story about the path of a bodhisatta, and it forms the oldest instance in the Pāli tradition of the altruistic bodhisatta rationale, depicting a person aiming for the enlightenment of other living beings. Indeed, the story has been dubbed "a concise Theravādin reformulation of the Mahāyāna bodhisattva ideal", as it deals with the very question of what it means to be a Buddha-to-be. The story defines the role of the bodhisatta path within Theravādin Buddhist doctrine and terminology in a revolutionary manner, using new terms like 'prediction' , 'aspiration' and 'service, meritorious act' . The Jātakanidāna describes the personal relationship between a Buddha and a bodhisatta within the Theravādin doctrine and normalizes, incorporates and integrates the bodhisatta in its structure. Scholar Juyan Zhang argues that accounts about Sumedha in the Ekottara Āgama and Jātaka Nidāna may have formed a prototype for the later Mahāyāna mythology and iconography of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, developing from the fifth century CE. Buddhist studies scholars Hikata Ryushō and Shizutani Masao believe the story of Sumedha to be part of "primitive Mahāyāna", the earliest stage in the development of Mahāyāna Buddhism, but archaeologist Rhi Juhyung believes the evidence is not yet definitive.

The story of Sumedha's encounter with Dīpankara Buddha is one of the most popular in Buddhist art. It is depicted in many Theravādin temples and is at least alluded to in a huge amount of religious works. Indeed, in Theravādin Buddhist culture, the story of Sumedha, as well as hat of Vessantara, is as important as the final life of Gotama Buddha, and in some countries, Sumedha's story is included in children's books about the Buddha. The story of Sumedha's encounter with Dīpankara has been much depicted in Buddhist art. In depictions of rebirth narratives in Gandhāran art, the story dominates and has an "extraordinary" position in the iconography of Gandhāran monuments with relics (stūpas). It is often depicted integrated with the present life of the Buddha and is as at least as often depicted as key events in the Buddha's last life. The reason why the story was less influential outside of Gandhāra may have been because Vessantara's story was more popular there, Vessantara providing both a model in terms of spirituality and kingship. The Dharmarajika stupa in Taxila, Pakistan. Buddhist studies scholar John S. Strong argues that some accounts of Sumedha's life indicate a historical development toward a relic cult of bodhisattas. In the texts of monastic discipline of the Dharmaguptaka textual tradition, Sumedha receives the prediction of his future Buddhahood and flies away into the air. His hair, however, remains on the ground, still spread out, but now detached from his body. Dīpankara warns his disciples not to step on the hair. Hundreds of thousands of persons then come and make offerings of flowers and perfumes to the hair. In some versions of the story, such as in the Divyavadāna, stūpas are built by local kings to enshrine the hairs. Buddhist studies scholar John S. Strong argues that these accounts indicate a historical development toward a relic cult of bodhisattas.

In modern times, the story of Sumedha's sacrifice has been raised by Theravāda Buddhists as an example of selflessness in Buddhism. Sri Lankan monk and scholar Walpola Rahula wrote:

On a similar note, Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi raised Sumedha's example as a model for selfless public service.

Comparison with Jainism

In Jainism, a similar story exists with regard to their founder Mahāvira, who is predicted to become a jina, an omniscient being, in a future life. He creates much bad karma, however, and is reborn in hell as a result. Later he manages to be reborn as a human being and fulfill the prophecy. Both the Buddha-to-be and Mahāvira-to-be encounter 24 preceding omniscient teachers. Therefore, there are similarities between this story on the one hand, and the life of Sumedha and his friend Meghadatta on the other hand.

There are some differences, however. Sumedha makes an aspiration for full enlightenment before he receives his prophecy, whereas Marīci, the previous life of Mahāvira, is not depicted as upholding such an aspiration, and the prophecy is made at the request of Marīci's father, whereas in Sumedha's case, the prophecy is made in response to his aspiration. Secondly, in Marīci's case, the prophecy also pertains to some "worldly and morally dubious" attainments such as becoming a powerful king (, ), whereas the prophecy Sumedha receives does not contain such elements. Sumedha's aspiration is seen as a powerful and positive intention, that can only lead to positive consequences, as predicted in the prophecy. In Marīci's case, however, his prophecy is not connected with his conscious intention, and the consequences of the prophecy are both positive and negative. This ties in with doctrinal differences in karma and intention between the two religions: whereas in Buddhism intention is fundamental to the concept of karmic retribution, in Jainism all action is important, even that without intention. Whereas in Buddhism a positive and powerful aspiration is seen to only lead to positive results, in Jainism, nearly all aspiration has a problematic side to it, as Marīci's prophecy leads him to an accomplishment as a jina, but also potentially dangerous worldly powers.

In popular culture

Sumedha (Arun Govind) lying down. From Buddha by G. Adi Sheshagiri Rao

The life of Sumedha was depicted in the initial episodes of the 1997 Indian serial Buddha, produced by G. Adi Sheshagiri Rao. In this serial of 27 episodes, the Buddha (and the Buddha-to-be) is played by actor Arun Govind. The story mostly follows the traditional outline, but much time is spent on the generosity of Sumedha, at one point showing him sacrificing his eyes for a blind person.