Editing Devadatta (section)

== Theravāda portrayals of Devadatta ==

=== In the Theravāda Vinaya ===

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Cullavagga section VII of the ''[[Vinaya Piṭaka|Vinayapiṭaka]]'' of the Theravādins, which deals with schisms, recalls an account of how Devadatta went forth along with a number of the Buddha's other relatives and clansmen.<ref>Horner, I.B. (1963). ''The Book of Discipline'' Vol. V ([https://archive.org/details/p3sacredbooksofb20londuoft Cullavagga]), London Luzac, pp. 259–285</ref> In the first year he attained psychic power (''[[abhijñā]]''), but made no supramundane achievement.

Seeking honor and status, Devadatta approached Prince Ajātashatru, the heir to the throne of [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]]. Having psychic power, he assumed the form of a young boy clad in snakes and sat in the prince's lap; this much impressed Ajātashatru, who became his disciple.

Ajātashatru began to send great offerings to Devadatta, and the latter became obsessed with his own worth. He began to believe that he should lead the Sangha instead of the Buddha; his attempts to usurp the Buddha decreased his psychic power, but Devadatta continued.

When told about the offerings that Devadatta was receiving, the Buddha remarked that all these gains were only going towards his destruction, just as a plantain or a bamboo is destroyed by its fruit.

Shortly thereafter, Devadatta asked the Buddha to retire and let him take over the running of the Sangha. The Buddha retorted that he did not even let his trusted disciples [[Śāriputra]] or [[Maudgalyayana]] run the Sangha, let alone someone like Devadatta. The Buddha declared that Devadatta should be cast out like spit, and the Buddha warned the Sangha that Devadatta had changed for the worse.<ref>Horner, I.B. (1963). ''The Book of Discipline'' Vol. V ([https://archive.org/details/p3sacredbooksofb20londuoft Cullavagga]), London Luzac, pp. 264–265</ref>

Seeing the danger in this, Devadatta approached Prince Ajātashatru and encouraged him to kill his father King Bimbisāra, while Devadatta killed the Buddha. The king found out about his plan and handed over control of the kingdom to his son and heir.

Ajātashatru then gave mercenaries to Devadatta, who ordered them to kill the Buddha; in an elaborate plan to cover his tracks, he ordered other men to kill the killers, and more to kill them and so on. When the mercenaries approached the Buddha, they were unable to carry out their orders, and were rallied to his side instead.

Devadatta then tried to kill the Buddha himself by throwing a rock at him from a great height while the Buddha walked on the slopes of a mountain. This failed, and as a consequence he decided to have the elephant Nāḷāgiri intoxicated and let him loose on the Buddha while he was on alms-round. However, the power of the Buddha's love and kindness overcame the elephant, and he did not harm the Buddha.

Devadatta then decided to foment schism in the Buddhist community. He gathered some allies among the monks, and demanded that the Buddha accede to the following rules for the monks: they should dwell all their lives in the forest, live entirely on alms obtained by begging, wear only robes made of discarded rags, dwell at the foot of a tree, and abstain completely from fish and flesh.

The Buddha refused to make any of these compulsory. Devadatta declared that the Buddha was living in abundance in luxury, and caused a schism by reading out the initiation rites and codes ([[pāṭimokkha]]) to five hundred initiates, away from the Buddha and his followers.

The Buddha sent his two most trusted disciples, [[Śāriputra]] or [[Maudgalyayana]], to bring back the errant young monks. Devadatta thought they had come to join his Sangha, and invited Śāriputra to a discussion; the former then fell asleep. The Buddha's disciples then persuaded the young monks to return to the Buddha.<ref>Horner, I.B. (1963). ''The Book of Discipline'' Vol. V ([https://archive.org/details/p3sacredbooksofb20londuoft Cullavagga]), London Luzac, pp. 279–281</ref>

[[File:SHAKA GOICHIDAIKI ZUE 1839 Devadatta falling into Hell.jpg|thumb|Devadatta sucked into hell. Illustration by [[Hokusai]]]]
The Buddha did not show any hatred for Devadatta, even after what had happened. Soon after, Devadatta got sick and realized that what he had done was wrong. He tried to visit the Buddha and apologize for what he did, but it was too late; on the way to the Buddha, the earth sucked Devadatta into [[Niraya|Naraka]] (translated as purgatory or Hell) for his evil deeds. Beings are sent to Naraka as an inherent consequence of bad karma, and they stay there until bad karma is compensated for. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Thakur |first=Upendra |title=India and Japan: a study in interaction during 5th cent.-14th cent. A.D |date=1992 |publisher=Abhinav publ |isbn=978-81-7017-289-5 |location=New Delhi}}</ref>

===Pali Canon===
According to the [[Pāli Canon]], he taught his sangha to adopt five [[tapas (Sanskrit)|tapas]] (literally, ''austerities'') throughout their lives:<ref>{{cite book|last=Boucher|first=Daniel|title=Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahayana|publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]]|year=2008|page=47|isbn=9780824828813|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k7ODvLulbjgC}}</ref>

#that monks should dwell all their lives in the forest,
#that they should accept no invitations to meals, but live entirely on alms obtained by begging,
#that they should wear only robes made of discarded rags and accept no robes from the laity,
#that they should dwell at the foot of a tree and not under a roof,
#that they should abstain completely from fish and flesh.

The Buddha's reply was that those who felt so inclined could follow these rules – except that of sleeping under a tree during the rainy season – but he refused to make the rules obligatory. They are among the 13 ascetic practices ([[dhutanga]]).

His followers (including [[bhikkhu]]s and [[bhikkhuni]]s) were new monks from the [[Vajji (tribe)|Vajjī]] clan.<ref>Vinaya, Cullavagga (PTS pg. 198 ff.)</ref>

[[King Kalābu]] was one of Devadatta's past lives.

=== ''Milinda Panha'' ===
In the ''[[Milinda Panha]]'', a series of previous lives of Gautama Buddha and Devadatta are told by [[Nagasena]] to King [[Menander I]]. When asked by Menander why Devadatta sometimes prevails in their successive incarnations, Nagasena explains Devadatta is not always evil, and in fact has accrued much merit in some of his lives. Even after being ordained, he lives with virtue for a long time until developing an ambition to overcome the Buddha.<ref name=Faure>{{cite book|last=Faure|first=Bernard|title=The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha|publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]]|year=2022|page=141-142|isbn=978-0824893545|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-GSEAAAQBAJ}}</ref>