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Venerable Buddhaghosa:  Great Buddhist Scholar and Commentator

By Dr. Ari Ubeysekara

Introduction

Lord Gautama Buddha lived and preached in India during the 6th and 5th century BC. During the ministry of forty five years from enlightenment at the age of thirty five years to passing away at eighty, the Buddha, through compassion for other beings, travelled from place to place, mainly in North Eastern India, teaching the path out of suffering to a diverse range of people. They included kings and rulers, followers of other religions and ordinary people from all walks of life. Since the passing away of the Buddha, three Buddhist councils were held in India to collect, check the authenticity and to preserve the enormous amount of the Buddha’s teachings in a pure and pristine form for the benefit of the future generations of disciples.

The Buddha’s teaching which is believed to consist of 84000 items were divided into three baskets (Tripitaka) as follows.

  1. Basket of the disciplinary rules for the monastic community (vinaya pitaka)
  2. Basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka)
  3. Basket of the Buddha’s higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka)

The basket of the disciplinary rules (vinaya pitaka) consists of five books:

  1. Major offences (parajika pali)
  2. Minor offences (pacittiya pali)
  3. Greater section (mahavagga pali)
  4. Lesser section (culavagga pali)
  5. Summary and classification (parivara pali)

The basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka) consists of:

  1. Collection of long discourses (digha nikaya)
  2. Collection of middle length discourses (majjhima nikaya)
  3. Collection of connected discourses (samyutta nikaya)
  4. Collection of numerical discourses (anguttara nikaya)
  5. Collection of minor discourses (khuddaka nikaya)

The basket of the higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka) consists of seven books:

  1. The book of classification (dhammasagani)
  2. The book of analysis (vibhanga)
  3. Discussion with reference to elements (dhathukatha)
  4. Description of individuals (puggalapannatti)
  5. Points of controversy (kathavatthu)
  6. The book of pairs (yamaka)
  7. The book of conditional relations (patthana) (1)

Since the time of the Buddha, the three baskets of the Pali Canon were initially preserved orally by the Buddhist monks who had memorised them and passed on from generation to generation. Following the third Buddhist council that was held around 250 BC, King Ashoka arranged to send Buddhist emissaries to neighbouring countries to propagate Buddhism and his own son Arahant Mahinda was sent to Ceylon (present Sri Lanka). When a group of monks led by Arahant Mahinda visited Sri Lanka around 247 BC, they brought with them the whole of the Buddha’s teachings and the  commentaries to the teachings that was available to them. These commentaries (atthakatha) included traditional interpretations and detailed explanations to the original Buddhist scriptures.

Since their visit, they continued to prepare further commentaries in Sinhalese which was the language spoken in Sri Lanka. Following the passing away of Arahant Mahinda and accompanying Indian monks, the commentaries in the Sinhalese language were continually made by generations of Buddhist monks who were based at the Maha Viahara temple in Anuradhapura until the arrival of Venerable Buddhaghosa in the 5th century AD. It is believed that by the time of Venerable Buddhaghosa’s visit, a complete set of commentaries to the Buddha’s teaching in Sinhalese had been preserved by the Sri Lankan monks. The Buddha’s teachings in the form of the three baskets (tripitaka) were first written down on palm leaves following the 4th Buddhist council that was held in Sri Lanka during the 1st century BCE.

The back ground of Venerable Buddhaghosa

Venerable Buddhaghosa was an Indian Buddhist monk who visited Sri Lanka in the 5th century AD. It is difficult to find many sources that give clear descriptions of his personal back ground. In the Buddhist writings, three possible sources have been identified which can provide some brief and sketchy details of his back ground and the personal life. These are: a Sri Lankan chronicle named “Mahavamsa”, a later biography of Venerable of Buddhaghosa called “Buddhaghosuppatti” written in Burma and a few instances when he has referred to himself in his commentaries.

The Sri Lankan chronicle Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle), was written by a Buddhist monk based at the Maha Vihara temple in Anuradhapura around the 5th century AD. It was written in a poetic style in the language of Pali, giving a historical account of events that happened in Sri Lanka from the time of the arrival of Prince Vijaya from India in the 5th century BC, till the reign of a king named Mahasena in the 4th century AD whose capital was Anuradhapura (2).

According to Mahavamsa, Buddhaghosa was born into a Brahmin family near Bodh Gaya in the kingdom of Magadha in Northern India. He learned the whole of the Vedas quickly and became an expert on the Vedas, travelled around India participating in debates on Vedas. The Vedas are a large group of religious texts written in the language of Sanskrit, containing the scriptures of Hinduism and Sanskrit literature. However, when he came across a Buddhist monk named Revata, he lost an argument in explaining a part of the Vedas which was explained correctly by Venerable Revata. Then he asked Venerable Revata to describe the teaching of the Buddha and when Venerable Revata recited a stanza from the Abhidhamma (Buddha’s higher teachings), Buddhaghosa could not understand it. He became impressed with the Buddha’s teaching and wanted to learn it, but Venerable Revata informed him that he could learn it only if he became a Buddhist monk. He ordained as a Buddhist monk and it is said that as his speech (ghosa) was deep and profound like that of the Buddha, he was given the name of Buddhaghosa. He quickly learned the three baskets of the Buddha’s teaching. Venerable Revata informed him that a certain part of the commentary to a particular text was not available to them which was only available in Sri Lanka and had been translated into Sinhalese by Arahant Mahinda. Venerable Revata requested him to go to Sri Lanka to learn it and to come back and translate it to the language of Pali. It seems Venerable Buddhaghosa decided then and there to visit Sri Lanka for that purpose.

The second source “Buddhaghosuppatti”, a later biographical text, which was written in Burma by a monk named Mahamangala around the fifteenth century AD, says that Buddhaghosa was born as the son of a Brahmin chaplain named Kesi in a town called Ghosa near Bodh Gaya. It also mentions an un-named elder monk, who was looking for someone to translate the Buddha’s teachings from Sinhalese to Pali and identified a deity named Ghosa in the Tavatimsa heaven who will be able to do it. The elder monk invited the deity to be born as the son of the chaplain Kesi. The story from then on is not very different from the description in the Mahavamsa though the circumstances given are different. Ghosa learned the Vedas quickly and when the elder monk visited his home for alms, he insulted the monk first and then challenged him to recite the Vedas which the monk did. Then he asked the monk to recite from the Buddha’s teaching and the monk recited a passage from the Abhidhamma. Ghosa became interested in learning the Buddha’s teaching, but being told that he could learn only as a Buddhist monk, he became a monk.

According to Buddhaghosuppatti, he learned the three baskets (thripitaka) in one month and then the elder monk asked him to go to Sri Lanka and translate the commentaries from Sinhalese to Pali language. It should be noted that some Buddhist scholars consider parts of this biography more as legend than true historical facts.

The third source of information about Venerable Buddhaghosa’s back ground and personal life which appear to be very brief are the commentaries that were prepared by himself. He has once mentioned that he has lived with a well-known monk named Jotipala in a place called Kanchipura. Kanchipura has been identified as the present city named Kanchipuram in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is believed that Kanchipuram has been a leading centre of Mahayana Buddhism producing well known Buddhist scholars such as Bodhidharma, Dignaga, Buddhaghosa and Dhammapala. The Chinese monk named Xuanzang who visited Kanchipuram in the seventh century AD has recorded that there were hundreds of Mahayana temples and ten thousand Buddhist monks during that time.

Venerable Buddhaghosa has also noted that once he lived with another senior monk named Buddhamitta in a place called “Mayurasuttapattana” which has been identified as a suburb of Madras, the capital city of Tamil Nadu. It is interesting that he has only mentioned places where he has lived rather than where he was born, and that he does not mention any connection with the Kingdom of Magadha where he is supposed to have been born according to the two other sources. Bhikkhu Nanamoli, who translated the Path of Purification into English language, has noted that Venerable Buddhaghosa, in a postscript to that book has mentioned that he should be called Buddhaghosa of Morandacetaka and that where Morandacetaka was has not been identified (3).

Visit to Sri Lanka

According to the two sources of information mentioned above, Venerable Buddhaghosa was sent to Sri Lanka by his preceptor Venerable Revata to learn the Theravada commentaries to the Buddha’s teaching that was available there in Sinhalese and to translate them into Pali language. It also appears that the senior Buddhist monks based at the Maha Vihara in Anuradhapura at that time had felt a need to revitalise the Pali language. By then new schools of Buddhism such as the Mahayana had developed in India whose language was not Pali, but Sanskrit. A few centuries earlier, some of those influences had reached Sri Lanka as well and at times, with royal patronage, gained prominence over the Theravada school.

One such period was the reign of King Vattagamini in the first century BC. There were invasions from South India which forced the king to flee and when his reign was restored, he built a rival temple named Abhayagiri in Anuradhapura itself and supported  a group of monks who had split from the Maha Vihara temple due to disciplinary issues. Those monks were influenced by a newer school of Buddhism from India and they were supported by the king in preference to the Maha Vihara. Though there were periods of recovery of the Maha Vihara sect on and off, by the 3rd and 4th century AD and particularly during the reign of another king named Mahasena, they were persecuted and chased out of Anuradhapura for a number of years leaving the Abhayagiri temple to be the dominant centre of Buddhism. The Theravada monks managed to return and re-establish themselves with the support of the people and a repentant king. However, by the 5th century AD, the senior monks of Maha Vihara may have felt that as the Sanskrit language associated with other sects has firmly established itself in Sri Lanka, there was a threat not only to the Pali language, but also to the Theravada school itself. They would have hoped for a revival of the Pali language which would also ensure better communication with other Theravada countries.

When Venerable Buddhaghosa arrived in Sri Lanka, he went to reside at the Maha Vihara temple in Anuradhapura which was the main religious centre of Theravada Buddhism with very senior, respected and learned monks. A work  room was specially built for him in the Maha Meghavana Park in the vicinity of the Sri Maha Bodhi, a sapling of the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya and which was brought to Sri Lanka by Arahant Sanghamitta, the daughter of King Ashoka and sister of Arahant Mahinda. It was also adjacent to the Maha Vihara temple to enable him to have constant communication with the senior monks there. He began studying the Sinhalese commentaries to the Buddhist Canon that had been preserved by them and sought permission from the senior monks to translate them into Pali language.

There is a story in the Buddhist literature that before granting him access to the commentaries   to be studied and translated into Pali, the senior monks wanted to test his knowledge and ability to do so. They asked him to make an elaboration of the Buddhist doctrine based on two stanzas from a discourse of the Buddha that they gave him and what he produced was the large manual known as the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga). It is also said that to test his abilities further, certain deities hid the manual that he produced on two occasions making him re-write the complete manual three times. When the three texts were eventually compared, they were found to be identical and then the senior monks had decided to let him have access to the books of the three Pitakas and all the commentaries in Sinhalese that they had preserved. It should be noted that some Buddhist scholars have suggested that the incidence involving the deities hiding two texts of the Visuddhimagga written by Venerable Buddhaghosa may have been legendary rather than real events.

Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga)

Path of Purification, an elaboration of the Buddhist doctrine based on two stanzas of a discourse by the Buddha, was written by Venerable Buddhaghosa during the early part of the 5th century AD. It was written at the request of the senior monks of the Maha Vihara temple in Anuradhapura, who wanted to check his knowledge of the Buddhist doctrine and his capacity to translate the Buddhist commentaries that were available in the language of Sinhalese. It can be described as a condensed and systematized manual of the theoretical and practical aspects of the Buddhist doctrine as it was being practised by the senior and learned monks belonging to the Maha Viahara temple in Anuradhapura. In the book, Venerable Buddhaghosa has noted that he was writing it as suggested by the senior monk named Sanghapala of the Great Monastery (Maha Vihara).

Another manual of Buddhist practice named “The Path of Freedom” (Vimuttimagga) in the language of Pali, had already been written by a Buddhist monk named Arahant Upatissa during the first century AD. It also dealt with the practical aspects of the Buddhist doctrine leading to freedom from suffering and was systematized on the three aspects of the Buddhist path of liberation namely, moral discipline (sila), development of concentration of the mind (samadhi) and development of wisdom (panna). It is said to be more practical and less analytical and smaller than the Visuddhimagga and is believed to exist at present only as a Chinese translation. Though there are certain differences between the two manuals, there are many similarities particularly in the schematic presentation of the contents. It has led some Buddhist scholars to suggest that perhaps Venerable Buddhaghosa had access to Vimuttimagga and used it’s model in writing the Visuddhimagga.

Path of Purification consists of three sections;

  1. Moral virtue (sila)
  2. Concentration of the mind (samadhi)
  3. Development of wisdom (panna)

The section on virtue deals with the characteristics, different kinds and benefits of virtue in the practice of the Buddhist path. The section on concentration deals with different aspects of concentration meditation including the forty objects of meditation, fine material (rupa Jhana) and immaterial deep mental absorptions (arupa Jhana) and the supernormal powers that can be attained through meditation. The section on development of wisdom deals with aggregates, four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, the seven stages of purification and the benefits of developing wisdom.

The English translation of Visuddhimagga available at present was translated by the Western monk named Bhikkhu Nanamoli while he was residing in a monastery in Sri Lanka. He has commented on the style of writing by Venerable Buddhaghosa as being “characterized by relentless accuracy, consistency, and fluency of erudition, and much dominated by formalism”. The writing in the Visuddhimagga has also been described as being meticulous and specific. Visuddhimagga has been described by some Buddhist scholars as the most important text in Theravada Buddhism outside the Pali Tripitaka, which contributed to revamping of the Pali Buddhist literature and is still studied by students of Buddhism in all the Theravada Buddhist countries. However, it has also been criticised by some Buddhist scholars.  One criticism was that Venerable Buddhaghosa has introduced certain principles from the Mahayana Buddhism into his writing in a very subtle way. Another criticism was that he has introduced several terms such as preparatory concentration (parikamma samadhi), access concentration (upacarasamadhi), absorption concentration (arpana samadhi) and meditation on kasina objects into the section of concentration meditation that were not found in the Buddha’s discourses.

Other Buddhist scholars believe that Venerable Buddhaghosa has probably not expressed his own opinions in his writing, but that he was merely preparing a collection of the commentaries in Sinhalese that were available to the senior Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka at that time. In fact, he is said to have warned against relying on personal opinions and when he has included his own opinion, he has made it a point to describe it as his personal opinion. For example, when he has expressed his opinion on one occasion in the Visuddhimagga, he has added a note to say “our preference here is this”.

Other works by Venerable Buddhaghosa

In addition to writing the Visuddhimagga, Venerable Buddhaghosa has translated several other books from Sinhalese to the Pali language including the following commentaries to the three collections of the Theravada Tripitaka.

Two commentaries to the Vinaya Pitaka:

  1. Samantapasadika – A collection and translation of the commentaries to the Vinaya Pitaka in general that was available at the Maha Vihara temple in Anuradhapura.
  2. Kankhavitarani – A commentary to the Patimokkha, which is the code of monastic discipline.

Eight commentaries to the Sutta Pitaka:

  1. Sumangalavilasini – Commentary to the collection of the Buddha’s long discourses (Digha Nikaya).
  2. Papancasudani – Commentary to the collection of the Buddha’s middle length discourse (Majjhima Nikaya).
  3. Saratthappakasini – Commentary to the collection of the Buddha’s connected discourses (Samyutta Nikaya)
  4. Manorathapurani – Commentary to the collection of the Buddha’s numerical discourses (Anguttara Nikaya).
  5. Paramatthajotika 1 – Commentary to the Khuddakapatha of the collection of the Buddha’s minor discourses (Khuddaka Nikaya).
  6. Paramatthajotika 2 – Commentary to the Sutta Nipatha of the Khuddaka Nikaya.
  7. Dhammapada Aththakatha – Commentary to the Dhammapada of the Khuddaka Nikaya.
  8. Jataka Aththakatha – Commentary to the Jataka of the Khuddaka Nikaya.

Three commentaries to the Abhidhamma Pitaka:

  1. Atthasalini – Commentary to the Dhammasangani.
  2. Sammohavinodani- Commentary to the Vibhanga.
  3. Pancappakaranatthakatha – Commentary to the Dhatukatha.

Since the commentaries to the Theravada Tripitaka in Sinhalese were translated by Venerable Buddhaghosa to the Pali language, the original commentaries in Sinhalese are said to have been lost. There are many speculative theories in the Buddhist literature as to how those original commentaries may have been lost. One such theory mentioned in the above mentioned book named “Buddhaghosuppatti” is that once the translation of the commentaries was completed, Venerable Buddhaghosa arranged to make a pile of the original commentaries and got them burnt. It has also been suggested that perhaps Venerable Buddhaghosa did not do all the translations by himself and that he may have had a team of able assistants to help him in that task.

It is not clearly described anywhere as to how long Venerable Buddhaghosa lived in Sri Lanka and when he returned to his homeland India. Throughout his stay in Sri Lanka he seems to have lived only at the Maha Vihara situated in Anuradhapura. One source does mention that he returned to India and made a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to pay respect and venerate the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment.

In the postscript to the Visuddhimagga, Venerable Buddhaghosa has mentioned that with the merit that he has earned by writing the book, he hopes to be born in the Tavatimsa heaven. Then he hopes to be reborn during the dispensation of the next Samma Sambuddha named Maitriya and attain the highest fruit of the path of liberation.

With the act of writing the Visuddhimagga and translating commentaries to the books of the Theravada Tripitaka from the language of Sinhalese to the language of Pali, Venerable Buddhaghosa has come to be considered as one of the greatest Buddhist scholars and commentators in the history of Theravada Buddhism. Though there are certain criticisms from some Buddhist scholars that he has added certain spiritual matters that were not in the original Tripitaka, in general his works have been accepted as definitive interpretations of the Tripitaka by generations of Buddhist disciples in the Theravada Buddhist countries. As it was done during the time of a decline in the Pali language and threats from newer sects of Buddhism whose language was Sanskrit, his translations seem to have helped to revive not only the Pali language, but the Theravada Buddhism itself.

References

  1. Webb, Russell 1975, ‘An Analysis of the Pali Canon’, Wheel Publication No:217/218/219/220, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
  2. Ananda W.P. Guruge 1989, Mahavamsa, Published by Godage International Publisher, Sri Lanka.
  3. The Path of Purification 1975, by Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa, translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Nanamoli, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

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