Cunda Kammāraputta चुन्द कम्मारपुत्त
Cunda preparing pork, Wat Kasatrathiraj, Ayutthaya
Personal
ReligionBuddhism
ProfessionSmith, Upasaka
Senior posting
TeacherGautama Buddha
Based inPāvā, kingdom of Malla
ProfessionSmith, Upasaka

Cunda Kammāraputta was a smith who gave Gautama Buddha his last meal as an offering while he visited his mango grove in Pāvā on his way to Kuśīnagara. Shortly after having Cunda's meal, the Buddha suffered from fatal dysentery.[1][2][note 1] The condition could have been Clostridial necrotizing enteritis due to a high protein (meat) diet,[3] which is provided as bhikkha as a mark of respect for high ranking Bhikkus in Theravada.

Before entering the parinirvāṇa, the Buddha told Ānanda to visit Cunda and tell him that his meal had nothing to do with his getting ill, and therefore should feel no blame nor remorse; on the contrary, offering the Tathāgata his last meal before passing away was of equal gain as of offering him his first meal before attaining buddhahood, and thus he should rejoice.[4][5]

Name

The name Kammāraputta (in Sanskrit, Karmāraputra) means son of the smith. In Chinese, his name is rendered as 準陀 (Zhǔntuó).

Cunda as a lay follower of Gautama Buddha

In the Cunda Kammāraputta Sutta, Gautama Buddha stays at Cunda's mango grove and they talk about rites of purification. Cunda declares that he approves of the rites of the brahmins of the West and the Buddha mentions that the rites of purification of these brahmins and the purification in the discipline of the noble ones is quite different. Cunda asks him to explain how there is purification in his discipline, and so the Buddha teaches him the ten courses of skillful action. Cunda praises him for his teachings and declares himself a lay follower from that day on.[6]

Cunda's Meal

In the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, Gautama Buddha and a group of bhikkus stay at Cunda's mango grove and are offered by him a meal. The meal consists of sweet rice, cakes and sūkaramaddava, which is translated differently depending on the buddhist tradition. Since the word is composed by sūkara, which means pig, and maddava, which means soft, tender, delicate, two alternatives are possible:

  1. Tender pig or boar meat.
  2. What is enjoyed by pigs and boars.

In the latter meaning, the term has been thought to refer to a mushroom or truffle, or a yam or tuber.[note 2] The idea that the Buddha's last meal consisted of pork is generally supported by the Theravada tradition; while that it was a vegetarian dish, by the Mahayana tradition.[7] These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the monastic precepts.

In the sutta, the Buddha asks Cunda to serve the rice and cakes to the community of bhikkus, and to only serve the sūkaramaddava to him. Any leftovers should be buried in a pit. Cunda does as he is told.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ The word used is lohitapakkhandikā which means diarrhea with blood.
  2. ↑ K.E. Neumann, in the preface to his German translation of the Majjhima Nikāya, quotes from an Indian compendium of medicinal plants, the Rajanigantu, several plants beginning with sūkara.

References

  1. ↑ Dīgha Nikāya II. 126
  2. ↑ Udāna VIII. 5
  3. ↑ Chen, Thomas S. N.; Chen, Peter S. Y. (May 2005). "The death of Buddha: a medical enquiry". Journal of Medical Biography. 13 (2): 100–103. doi:10.1177/096777200501300208. ISSN 0967-7720. PMID 19813312.
  4. ↑ Dīgha Nikāya II. 135f
  5. 1 2 Maha-parinibbana Sutta (DN 16), verse 56.
  6. ↑ Cunda Kammaraputta Sutta: To Cunda the Silversmith (AN 10.176)
  7. ↑ Buswell, Robert E. Jr.; López, Donald S. Jr. (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. p. 529.
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