GAV??PATI

Gav??pati (P?li, Gav??pati) is a disciple of the Buddha, one of the first ten to be ordained and to have known the state of arhat. His name means "guardian of the cows" or "bull." Gav??pati is mentioned first of all in the Vinaya or monastic codes of the various schools. These sources report on Gav??pati's appearance after the ordination of Ya?a, an early convert, whose example Gav??pati seeks to emulate. Gav??pati is introduced as a friend of Ya?a's; like Ya?a, Gav??pati comes from a rich V?r??as? family. The episode, described precisely in the P?li Vinaya, is also evoked, with few differences, in Sanskrit texts (Sa?ghabhedavastu [Section on the Schism in the Community], Catu?parisat-s?tra [s?tra on the (Establishment of the) Fourfold Assembly]) and in their Chinese translations.

The Therag?th? (v. 38) mentions Gav??pati's supranormal powers and calls him a man of great wisdom "who has surpassed all attachments and reached the far shore of existence" (Norman, p. 5). His mythical nature is explained in the text's commentary (Therag?th?-a??hakath?): During three prior lives, Gav??pati accumulated merits that allowed him, in a fourth life, to live in a heavenly realm, where he resides in a sumptuous house, the Ser?ssakavim?na (Palace of Acacias). In his fifth life, in Gautama's time, Gav??pati saved a group of monks by stopping a river's flood waters so that the waters remained standing in the air, like a mountain. Echoing this theme, the Vinaya of both the Mah???sakas and the Dharmaguptakas shows how Gav??pati helped the Buddha and his retinue cross the Ganges on their way to Ku?inagara. Finally, both the P?y?si-s?tra and the Dhammapada-a??hakath? (Commentary on the Word of the Doctrine) emphasize that Gav?mpati resides, in a timeless fashion, in the Palace of Acacias.

Gav??pati's unusual personality is even more obvious in the texts of north Asian schools. Jean Przyluski showed how Tibetan and Chinese texts glorify Gav??pati at the moment of his parinirv??a. Gav??pati was summoned to the R?jag?ha Council after the Buddha's death. A young monk came to his celestial palace to invite him, but Gav??pati immediately understood that the Buddha had passed away, and decided that he, too, would accomplish his parinirv??a. Then, he performed a series of wonders: He sprang into space; his body started to radiate water and fire; his hands touched the sun and the moon; and, finally, his body wasted away while the river of his waters reached the land of men, and R?jag?ha, putting an end to the dry season.

Przyluski considered this story to be the expression of a pre-Buddhist myth that belongs more to the Asia of monsoons than to Indo-European stock. He proposed the hypothesis that Gav??pati was the incarnation of dry winds chasing the waters away, and that his parinirv??a could be interpreted as a bull-sacrifice that brought the drought to an end. Some scholars have criticized this thesis. Nevertheless, there remain textual facts that are disconnected from any known cult in Indian Buddhism or in the Mah?y?na tradition and that feature Gav??pati's strange powers over water.

Within the context of Southeastern Asian Buddhism, Gav??pati has become a preeminent character because his textual dimension is enhanced by his ritual dimension. The Sanskrit text of the Mah?karma-vibha?ga states that "The saint, Gav??pati, converted people in…the Golden Land [Suvar?abh?mi]," a region identified with Lower Burma (Myanmar) or with the central plain of Thailand. The S?sanava?sa, a late historical chronicle, tells more specifically that Gav??pati was the first to preach the Buddha's doctrine in the Mon kingdom of Thaton. Ancient Mon inscriptions confirm this legend, and one of them points out that Gav??pati founded ?r? Ksetra, the ancient capital city of the Pyus. Some Pagan inscriptions add that a cult, which probably disappeared around the fourteenth century, developed around his images. According to Gordon H. Luce, the limited number of statuettes of the "Fat Monk" found at Pagan are indeed those of Gav??pati. Such images are today innumerable in Thailand, where they are called Kachai, Mah?kachai, or Sangkachai when they represent the fat monk seated in meditative fashion, and Phagawam when they show him covering his eyes or other bodily orifices. These images are venerated for their protective virtues and for the symbol of renunciation of the senses they express.

Therefore, it is mostly in Thailand, but also in Laos, Cambodia, and in the Shan states, that the Mon cult of Gav??pati has survived. Several local texts in P?li, Thai, and Lao (such as Gav??pati-sutta, Gav??patinibb?na, or Kacc?yananibb?na) tell the story of a monk who resembled too closely the Buddha and so was often confused with him. He therefore decided to transform himself into a shapeless being and to take on another name, Gav??pati. This tradition was then extended to another disciple, Mah?kacc?yana.

See also:Disciples of the Buddha; Folk Religion, Southeast Asia

Bibliography

Lagirarde, François. "Gavampati et la tradition des quatrevingts disciples du Bouddha: textes et iconographie du Laos et de Thaïlande." Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient 87, no. 1 (2000): 57–78.

Luce, Gordon H. Old Burma-Early Pagan. Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin, 1969.

Norman, K. R., ed. and trans. The Elders' Verses, Vol. 1. London: P?li Text Society, 1969.

Przyluski, Jean. Le concile de R?jag?ha: Introduction à l'histoire des canons et des sectes bouddhiques. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1928.

Shorto, H. L. "The Gavampati Tradition in Burma." In R.C. Majumdar Felicitation Volume, ed. Himansu Bhusan Sarkar. Calcutta: K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1970.

FranÇois Lagirarde