Features
Where Mahakassapa – Waiting for Maitreya
by Bhante S. Dhammika of Australia
Grave, austere and given to solitude, Mahakassapa was one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples. When Sariputta and Moggallana predeceased the Buddha it was Mahakassapa who came to be seen as his successor. Several important discourses in the Tipitaka are attributed to him, he was the leader of the ascetic movement within the Sangha, and presided over the First Buddhist Council. In later centuries in China, he was seen as the founder of the Ch’an (Jhana) school of Buddhism.
Pali sources have much to say about Mahakassapa’s life but strangely, they are silent about his last years and his death, the details of which are found it the Sarvastivadin Vinaya, the Divyavadana and several other early Sanskrit works. Although the details differ slightly in different sources, its outline is basically the same. Just before his final Nirvana, the Buddha exchanged his robe with Makassapa’s – an incident confirmed in the Tipitaka, although there this is said to have taken place just after Mahakassapa’s first meeting with the Buddha.
Some 20 years later, feeling that death was approaching, Mahakassapa made his way to a remote mountain with the intention of climbing to the top. When a rocky cliff blocked his way, he struck it with his staff and it opened to let him through. As he reached the summit, a cavity appeared in the rocks; he entered, the cavity closed, and he fell into a deep samadhi. The legend concludes by saying that in the distant future when Maitreya appears in the world, he will come to this mountain and awaken Mahakassapa, who will pass the Buddha’s robe to him. Then Maitreya will proceed to proclaim the new dispensation. The place where all these events did and will unfold was called Gurupadagiri (Teacher’s Foot Mountain) or more usually Kukkutapadagiri (Cock’s Foot Mountain), apparently because its three pointed peaks resembled a cock’s foot.
During the time Buddhism flourished in India Kukktapadagiri was one of the most popular destination for pilgrims because of its association with both Mahakassapa and Maitreya. The stupa on the summit, said in the Asokavadana to have been built by King Asoka was always depicted on statues of Maitreya as nestled in his crown. One of the few statues of Mahakassapa ever found in India has an inscription on it giving his biography and concludes by saying that “he entered Nirvana on the charming hill of Gurupadagiri.”
The mountain gained the reputation as the abode of saints and sages. In one account we read: “On this mountain as of old, there are arahats abiding. Devotees from various countries go year by year to the mountain and present offerings to Kassapa, and those whose hearts are strong in faith arahats will come to them at night and talk with them, discussing and resolving their doubts and disappearing suddenly afterwards.”
One of the saints who is said to have lived on the mountain was the great philosopher Asanga. Legend says he spent 12 years meditating in a cave there, hoping to have a vision of Maitreya. After six years without success, he decided to give up and leave, but just as he was about to do so he noticed a bird’s nest and besides it the rock was worn smooth by the wing of the occupant brushing against it. This object lesson in patience inspired Asanga to continue his practice which eventually bore fruit.
Many of the Chinese pilgrims who visited India between the fourth and the 11th centuries CE went to the sacred mountain. I-tsing says he dreamed fondly of climbing Kukkutapadagiri even before leaving China – a dream he was later able to realize. The monk Hsuan-hui is said to have climbed the mountain often during the several years he stayed in Bodh Gaya. Faxian and particularly Xuanzang, left detailed descriptions of the place. So strong among Chinese was the desire to visit Kukkutapadagiri that as pilgrimage to India became increasingly difficult after the 11th century, a mountain in China, Che Chu Shan, in Yunnan Provence, came to be seen as the real one. Even today, Chinese Buddhists will express surprise and confusion when told that Mahakassapa’s mountain is actually in India, not in their country.
The sacred mountain continued to attract pilgrims right up to Buddhism’s twilight period in India. Taranatha, the great Tibetan historian, wrote that the Tantric adept Sanavasika lived in a cave on the mountain for some years. The last reference in traditional Buddhist literature to anyone going there is in the biography of the great rambler Buddhagupta, who stayed there briefly during his travels in the 16th century. After that, we here no more of Kukkutapadagiri.
During the second half of the 19th century, British archaeologists and antiquarians interested in the historical topography of India used the writings of the Chinese pilgrims and modern survey maps to try to identify ancient Buddhist sites, including Kukkutapadagiri. The first person to try to identify it was Major Markham Kittoe and he was followed by the intrepid Alexander Cunningham, Sir Aural Stein and several others. But despite their best efforts and the historical information they brought to the task, all the hills they thought were the sacred mountain turned out not to be so.
In 1906, two Indians, Sreegopal Bosa and Rakhal Das Banerji, brought to the attention of scholars yet another site some 20 miles from Bodh Gaya, suggesting that it might be Kukkutapadagiri. The evidence in favour of this place was compelling. Its modern name, Grupa, was an exact Prakritic development of Gurupada, the mountain’s alternative name; there were Buddhist sculptures and inscriptions there; it was still held sacred by local people; it had all the geological features mentioned by the Chinese pilgrims, in particular the great crack in the rock that legend said was made when Mahakassapa struck it with his staff; and finally, its distance and direction from Bodh Gaya as given by Xuanxang roughly corresponds with Grupa’s location.
There is a line of three small Hindu shrines on the top of the mountain and on the floor in one of these is a stone with a pair of footprints on it with an inscription. The first part of this inscription is the famous dhammapariyaya which was always used to consecrate Buddha images, while the remaining part has not yet been translated. This inscription is in Kutila script which dates from the 10th century CE. There seems little doubt that the footprints on the stone were believed to be those of Mahakassapa and which that they gave the mountain the second of its two names, Gurupadagiri, Mountain of the Teacher’s Footprint.
Next time you go on pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya plan to stay a little longer, make inquiries on how to get to Gurpa and make a point of visiting Kukkutapadagiri, the place where legend says Mahakassapa waits for Maitreya.