Tthagata.
Chalmers, Robert
The Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society
1898.01
pp.103--115
p.103
THE precise meaning of this familiar title of the
Buddha is still unsettled. As the word tathagata is
not used either in the Upanishads or (so far as I am
aware) in older Sanskrit writings, there exists no
available evidence earlier than the Pali Pitakas; and
there its use is so common as to merit special
investigation. Before submitting my own
interpretation to the judgment of scholars, I propose
to state the views already advanced by others,
including the great scholar Buddhaghosa, and next to
examine Pitaka passages in which the title tathagata
occurs.
I.
The following are the chief interpretations which
have been advanced: --
(i) Professor Fausboll, doyen of Pali scholars,
has the following note at p. 377 of his
edition (1855) of the Dhammapada:-
"Meo judicio primum intelligenda est vox hoc
sensu: in tali conditione versans (cfr. supra
p. 295 sugata) talis, deinde: praestans,
consummatus, beatus."
(ii) Childers, in his Pali Dictionary (l875),
says (following the Abhidhanappadipika):--
"It is quite evident that the term tathagata
was first applied to a sentient being
generally and afterwards transferred to a
Buddha. As a name for a Buddha it means the
Being par excellence, the Great Being (comp.
dipaduttamo narasiho). Gautama Buddha
frequently in the Suttsts speaks of himself
as the Tathagata, and the
p.104
epithet is analogous to that of Son of Man
applied to Himself by Jesus Christ. As a name for a
sentient being it means 'one who goes in like
manner,' i.e., one who goes the way of all flesh, one
who is subject to death, a mortal. The native
explanations of the term are purely fanciful."
This follows Buddhaghosa's interpretation at Sum.
Vil., i, 118: 'Hoti tathagato ti adisu satto tathagato
ti adhippeto." In dealing with the phrase Hoti
tathagato param marana in Part II of this paper, I
will endeavour to show that Buddhaghosa's note is not
to be construed baldly as a general definition.
(iii) Rhys Davids(1) and Oldenberg have the
following note at p. 82 of Part I
of their translation of the Vinaya (vol. xiii of
the Sacred Books of the East," translated by various
Oriental scholars and edited by F. Max Muller"):--
"The term Tathagata is, in the Buddhistical
literature, exclusively applied to Sammasambuddhas,
and it is more especially used in the Pitakas when
the Buddha is represented as speaking of himself in
the third person as 'the Tathagata.' The meaning
'sentient being,' which is given to the word in the
Abhidhanappadipika and in Childers's Dictionary, is
not confirmed, as far as we know, by any passage of
the Pitakas. This translation of the word is very
possibly based merely on a misunderstanding of the
phrase often repeated in the Sutta Pitaka, Hoti
tathagato param marana, which means, of course,(2)
'does a Buddha exist after death?'
"In the Jaina books we sometimes find the term
tatthagaya (tatragata), 'he who has attained that
world, i.e. emancipation, ' applied to Jinas as
opposed to other beings who are called ihagaya
(idhagata), 'living in this world.' See for example
the Jinacaritra, # 16.
-----------------------
1 In a note to p. 147 of his " Buddhist Suttas "
Rhys Davids does not appear to adopt for himself
the view advanced in the Vinaya translation.
2 But see infra, pp. 108-9, where this passage is
discussed.
p.105
"Considering the close relationship in which most
of the dogmatical terms of the Jainas stand to those
of the Bauddhas, it is difficult to believe that
tathagata and tatthagaya should not originally have
conveyed very similar ideas. We think that on the
long way from the original Magadhi to the Pali and
Sanskrit, the term tathagata or tatthagata (tatra and
agata), 'he who has arrived there, i.e. at
emancipation,' may very easily have undergone the
change into tathagatta, which would have made it
unintelligible, were we not able to compare its
unaltered form as preserved by the Jainas." (It is an
obvious comment on the foregoing, even if we ignore
the shortness of the antepenultimate a in the Jaina
term, that the latter, so far from preserving the
unaltered original, may itself be a corruption of the
Pali tathagata, or again may be wholly distinct in
origin. Before the above interpretation can be
adopted, evidence would require to be forthcoming to
support the use of tattha in Pali as meaning the
emancipated state.)
(iv) Buddhaghosa has a long discussion of
tathagata at pp. 59-68 of Sumangala
Vilasini, vol. i, a discussion which he
repeats verbatim in commenting on the
first Majjhima Sutta in his Papanca Sudani.
According to Buddhaghosa the title tathagata is
susceptible of eight interpretations:--
1. Tatha agato, he who has arrived in such
fashion, i.e. who has worked his way upwards to
perfection for the world's good in the same fashion
as all previous Buddhas.
2. Tatha gato, he who walked in such fashion,
i.e. (a) he who at birth took the seven equal steps
in the same fashion as all previous Buddhas (cf.
Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta No. 123, in J.R.A.S. for
October, 1895; and Rhys Davids, "Buddhist Birth
Stories," p. 65); or (b) he who in the same way as
all previous Buddhas went his way to Buddhahood
through the four Jhanas and the Paths.
p.106
3. Tatha and agato (tatha-lakkhanam agato), he
who by the path of knowledge has come at the real
essentials of things.
4. Tatha and agato (tathadhamme yathavato
abhisambuddho), he who has won Truth. Buddhaghosa
explains this rendering as follows:-- "Tathadhamma
nama cattari ariyasaccani. Yath' aha: (1) Cattar'
imani, bhikkhave, tathani avitathani anannathani.
Katamani cattari? Idam dukkhan ti, bhikkhave, tatham
etam avitatham etam anannatham etan ti. Vittharo.
Tani ca Bhagava abhisambuddho. Tasma tathanam
abhisambuddhatta [by his discovery of the Four
Truths] Tathagato ti vuccati. Abhisambodhattho hi
ettha gata-saddo."
5. Tatha and agato (where the paraphrase is
tathadassitaya tathagato), he who has discerned
Truth. Buddhaghosa cites Ang., ii, 23, in support of
this rendering.
6. Tatha and agato (where agato = agado and the
paraphrase is tathavaditaya tathagato), he who
declares Truth. Buddhaghosa also suggests here that
gata = gada (the compound being tathagado, 'one who
speaks even as things are'), and cites Ang., ii, 24.
7. Tatha gato (tathakaritaya tathagato), he whose
words and deeds accord (gate = pavatto).
Buddhaghosa supports this derivation by a
quotation from Anguttara, ii, 24:-- " Ten' aha:
Yathavadi, bhikkhave, tathagato tathakari yathakari
tathavadi,.... tasma tathagato ti vuccatiti.
8. Tatha and agata [where agata=agada 'physic'],
the great physician whose physic is all-potent.
Buddhaghosa paraphrases this by
'abhibhavanatthena tathagato,' and quotes in support
the following from Anguttara. ii, 24:-- "Ten' aha:
Sadevake, bhikkhave, loke .. pe.. manussaya tathagato
abhibhu anabhibhuto annadatthudaso vasavatti, tasma
tathagato ti vuccatiti."
-----------------------
1 So far as I know, these words are never used by
Buddhaghosa except in quoting from a Pitaka
utterance attributed to the Buddha; but I cannot
trace the reference.
p.107
Trenckner, in commenting on Majjhima, i, 140,
cites as follows Buddhaghosa's note thereon in the
Papanca Sudani: Ettha satto ti pi tathagato ti
adhippeto uttamapuggalo khinasavo ti pi (here
tathagata means both creature and arahat). Trenckner
goes on to express his own view in the following
words: "It here rather retains the original sense of
'such a one,' cf. Suttanip., 30, vv. 13-24; and the
other significations of tathagata may have proceeded
from texts like these." (In my opinion the passage in
the Sutta Nipata above referred to, in no wise bears
out Trenckner's interpretation. The meaning there is
not 'such a one,' but an Arahat, not necessarliy a
Buddha, and it will be seen that this meaning is
supported by other passages, as well as by
Buddhaghosa's paraphrase khinasavo here. I may add
that, on looking out the above passage in the Royal
Asiatic Society's manuscript of the Papanca Sudani, I
find that the reading there given is not satto
'creature, as cited by Trenckner, but sattha
'master.' I shall recur to this point on page 110 in
discussing Majjhima, i, 140.)
It may be convenient here to summarize the
etymologies recorded above.
(i) As regards the latter part of the word
tathagata, Buddhaghosa's fanciful gada, agada, and
agada suggestions may safely be dismissed, so that
the choice is limited to agata (which will suit all
eases) and gata (which call only follow tatha).
(ii) As regards the first part of the word, the
rival theories are:--
(a) Tatha (adverb) .
Fausboll, Childers, Trenckner, and
Buddhaghosa in three out of his eight
interpretations.
(b) Tattha.
(Rhys Davids and) Oldenberg.
p.108
(C) Tatha (adjective).
Buddhaghosa in five out of his eight
interpretations.
Leaving commentators and translators for the
present, I now proceed to investigate Pitaka passages
where the word tathagata occurs.
II.
In the present state of our knowledge concerning
the Pali Pitakas, it is difficult to say which of
these are original and which are merely derivative
compilations. We know that some of the Pitaka texts
are of the latter character, e.g., the Theragatha,
the Itivuttaka, and the Dhammapada. It is probable,
too, that, apart from the Abhidhamma, the Samyutta
and Anguttara, Nikayas (and possibly also the Sutta
Nipata, several Suttas of which occur in the Majjhima
Nikaya) are little better than rearrangements of the
Digha and Majjhima Nikayas. But, though certain
Suttas occur word for word in both of the latter, it
has not been suggested, nor is it in any way
probable, that these two great Nikayas are other than
original in their general character. It is,
therefore, chiefly to the Digha and Majjhima that I
have gone for the evidence of the Pitakas as to the
use and meaning of tathagata. While availing myself
of the assistance of the Vinaya, etc., I have been
careful to eschew later Pali works like the Jataka
Commentary all Buddhist texts in Sanskrit.
1. For beginning the study of the Pitaka use of
tathagata, the best passage is that stock passage to
which Rhys Davids and Oldenberg refer in the note
previously quoted as having probably misled Childers.
Let us take the passage as it occurs at Majjhima, i,
p. 486. Here, as at Digha, i, p. 188, it is a
non-Buddhist, a paribbajaka, who asks the Buddha the
following question (among others): "Hoti tathagato
param marana? Does a (or the) tathagata exist after
p.109
death?"(1) The Buddha having declined to discuss
the question, as being matter of useless speculation,
the non- Buddhist questioner asks: "Atthi pana bhoto
Gotamassa kinci ditthigatan ti? Well, has the
reverend Gotama any speculation of his own, then? "
To this the Buddha replies: " Ditthigatan ti kho
apanitam etam tathagatassa. The tathagata has put
from him what you call speculation." And he proceeds,
by way of contrast, to say what the tathagata has
discerned (dittham h' etam tathagatena), viz., the
Five Khandhas or elements of being, with their
respective origins and ends; and he concludes with
the words: ''Tasma tathagato vimutto ti vadamiti.
Therefore. is the tathagata emancipated, I say."
Very instructive is the next question of the
non-Buddhist: "Evam vimuttacitto pana, bho Gotama,
bhikkhu kuhim uppajjatiti? But whither, Gotama, does
such a mentally emancipated bhikkhu go for his future
state?" This question shows beyond dispute that, on
his side at any rate, the non-Buddhist questioner
interpreted tathagata as a saintly religieux, with no
special reference to Gotama in the sense of the
Buddha. And it is important to observe that the
Buddha does not controvert his questioner's
interpretation.
2. The foregoing instance of vimuttacitto bhikkhu
may serve to introduce the use of the same term (at
Majjh., i, 140) by the Buddha himself. After
describing the Arahat, he goes on to say:--"Evam
vimuttacittam kho, bhikkhave, bhikkhum sa-Inda deva
sa-Brahmaka sa-Pajapatika anvesam nadhigacchanti:
Idam nissitam tathagatassa vinnanan ti. Tam kissa
hetu? Ditthe vaham, bhikkhave, dhamme tathagatam
ananuvejjo ti vadami. Evamhvadim kho mam, bhikkhave,
evamakkhayim eke
-----------------------
1 As noted above in Part I (ii), Buddhaghosa at Sum.
Vil., i, 118, says: "Satto tathagato ti
adhippeto." If this be read in the light of Lines
3-9 of Majjh., i, 140, the meaning is clear. It is
not affirmed that all creatures are tathagatas.
Rather the position is that the tathagata is
regarded, for the time being from the general
point of view of a creature, which erery tathagata
of course is--though he is also much more. Thus it
is as though a Christian commentator, dealing with
the words " Christ died upon the Cross,'' mere to
say " Christ, i.e. the man (in Christ)." Cf. Part
l, v, et infra.
p.110
samanabrahmana asata tuccha musa abhutena
abbhacikkhanti: Venayiko samano Gotamo, sato sattassa
ucchedam vinasam vibhavam pannapetiti. Yatha vaham,
bhikkhave, na, yatha caham na vadami, tatha mam te
bhonto samanabrahmana.... abbhacikkhanti:
Venayiko....vibhavam pannapetiti. Pubbe caham,
bhikkhave, etarahi ca dukkhan c' eva pannapemi
dukkhassa ca nirodham. Concerning such a mentally
emancipated bhikkhu, Brethren, not even the highest
of Angels can ascertain where resides the tathagata's
mind. And why? Because even in this present life,
here and now, the tathagata, as I affirm, is one who
cannot be traced out. When I say this, and when I
affirm this, certain persons falsely assert that I am
a nihilist, and preach the extirpation, the
destruction, and the annihilation of an existent
creature. I am no nihilist; I do not preach such
extirpation and annihilation. As in the past, so now
too, all that I expound is Suffering and the
Cessation of Suffering."
In this, as in the foregoing passage, I submit
that at first tathagata is equivalent simply to
vimuttacitto bhikkhu; while it seems equally clear
that towards the end of the passage tathagata is
equivalent to aham, i.e. to the Buddha. And this
appears to have been Buddhaghosa's interpretation of
the passage. For, in the R.A.S. manuscript of the
Papanca Sudani, his note is:--" Tathagatassati. Ettha
sattha ti pi [not satto ti pi, as read by Trenckner
at Majjh., i, 542] tathagato ti adhippeto,
uttamapuggalo khinasavo ti pi.-- Here tathagata
denotes both the Master and an Arahat." If satto be
read (to the detriment of the sense), the ex-
planation will be that given in the note on p. 109 to
Hoti tathagato param marana.
3. In the former of the two passages discussed
above, the term tathagata is used by a non-Buddhist,
the question being the familiar non-Buddhist question
"Hoti tathagato param marana? " Even more
noteworthy--as showing non-Buddhist familiarity with
the term--is the emphatic use of the title by Gotama
himself, at the very outset of his career as a
Buddha, in his very first words to his
p.111
first converts, the five bhikkhus with whom
(Majjh., i, 170) he had practised vain austerities.
When Gotama comes back to his old companions, and
when they addressed him in the old familiar style
(Majjh., i, 171)--"Hereupon (says the Buddha in
relating the incident) I said to those five Bhikkhus:
'Ma bhikkhave tathagatam namena ca avusovadena ca
samudacarittha.' O bhikkhus, do not address a (or
the) tathagata by his ordinary name or as reverend
sir." To me it seems impossible to mistake the
deliberate challenge involved in this initial
sentence addressed by the new Buddha to his old
companions and intended converts. He claims at the
very outset a title which he knew to be so well known
to them, and so tremendous in its accepted
connotation, that they were constrained either to
expose him as a charlatan or to follow him as their
spiritual lord.
At first the Buddha, as he states, "was unable to
convince the five bhikkhus." It was only when he went
on to deliver the discourse which is given at Vinaya,
i, 10, and in the Samyutta Nikaya, that they were
converted to Buddhism. By comparing Majjh., i, 167
and 173, it will be seen that the intellectual
process was the same, and is described in the same
words by the Buddha, alike for the attainment of
Arahatship by the Five Bhikkhus and for the
attainment of Buddhahood by himself.
4. In contrast with the two passages discussed in
paragraphs 1 and 2 above, is Suttta I of the Majjhima
Nikaya, where the tathagata is expressly
differentiated from the Arahat or khinasavo bhikkhu.
Here the title occurs in its familiar setting and
amplificatory definition--tathagato arabam
sammasambuddho, "the tathagata, the Arahat, the Very
Buddha"--which recurs so often in the Buddha's stock
passage (e.g. Digha, i, 62):-- "Idha tathagato loke
uppajjati araham sammasambuddho. So imam lokam....
sayam abhinna sacchikatva pavedeti adikalyanam...,
kevalaparipunnam parisuddham brahmacariyam
pakaseti.-- A tathagata arises in the world: he
explains the world,
p.112
having of himself grasped and realized it. He
preaches the Doctrine.... and proclaims the perfect
way of holiness."
5. At Digha, i, 229, Anguttara, ii, 117, Vinaya,
v, 121, and elsewhere the Buddha speaks of
tathagatappaveditam dhammavinayam, "the Doctrine and
the Rule preached by the tathagata"; and at Majjhima,
i, 111, and Vinaya, iii, 42, the Buddha calls himself
dhammasami tathagato, "the tathagata, lord of truth."
In this connection I point out the frequent close
connection between tathagata and dhamma (e.g.,
Majjh., i, 83, 85, 136, 331), or between tathagata
and savaka (e.g. Ang., ii, 34; Majjh., i, 85, 136,
332, 371). This connection is shown clearly at Vinaya,
i, 43:"Nayanti ve mahavira, saddhammena tathagata. --It is
by means of true doctrine that the great conquerors,
the tathagatas, lead men."
6. The passages just quoted are passages in which
the Buddha uses the title of himself; and this is the
general usage of the term. Unless--like Ananda at
Digha, i, 206, or Assaji at Vinaya, i, 40--they are
expounding Buddhism ex cathedra to non-believers,
Buddhists rarely use the title tathagata in speaking
of the Buddha; and even when so expounding, Buddhists
use the title with a special significance: e.g., at
Majjhima, i, 356, Ananda, in preaching to Mahanama
the Sakyan, says (like the Buddha himself at
Majjhima, ii, 128):--"Idha ariyasavako saddho hoti
saddahati tathagatassa bodhim: Iti pi so bhagava
araham sammasambuddho.... buddho bhagava ti. Here a
disciple of the Noble One gets faith, and has faith
in the tathagata's illumination, so that he believes:
This Worshipful One is the Arahat, the Very Buddha...
." Here the disciple, as opposed to the expositor,
uses the title "Bhagava." Similarly (e.g.) the
Brahmin Pokkharasadi (Digha, i, 87) and the Licchavis
(Digha, i, 151), in using the stock passage cited
above, are careful to begin with the words "Iti pi so
bhagava araham sammasambuddho,'' and not with the
Buddha's own formula: Idha tathagato, etc. Another
example occurs at Digha, i, 95, where the Buddha
threatens
p.113
a recalcitrant young Brahmin in the words: "To
kho tathagatena yava tatiyakam sahadhammikam panham
puttho na vyakaroti, etth' eva assa sattadha muddha
phalissatiti." But the demon who appeared to split
the young Brahmin's head accordingly, in repeating
the words of the threat, is careful to substitute
another title for tathagata, and says: "Sacayam
Ambattho manavo bhagacata yava tatiyakam sahadhammi-
kam panham puttho na vyakarissati, etth' eva sattadha
muddham phalessamiti." Cf. Vinaya, iii, 2.
7. The most remarkable exceptions to the rule
that in the Pitakas Buddhists avoid using the title
tathagata, are two, viz.:--
(i) Ananda, "the beloved disciple," uses the term
in speaking to the Buddha at (e.g.) Majjhima, ii, 45,
and frequently in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta; and
(ii) The second exception occurs also in the
last-named Sutta, in the following passage: "Atha kho
Bhagava bhikkhu amantesi: Handa dani, bhikkhave,
amantayami vo: Vayadhamma: samkhara, appamadena
sampadethati. Ayam tathagatassa pacchima vaca.--Then
the Blessed One said to the Brethren: Behold now,
Brethren, I exhort you, saying: 'Decay is inherent in
all component things. Work out your salvation with
diligence.' This was the last word of the tathagata."
III.
I am not aware of any passage in any Pitaka text
which, in any material point, conflicts with the
series of passages above quoted, in the light of
which I now proceed to submit my own interpretation
of the word.
Tathagata, in my opinion, is derived from the
adjective tatha and agata, and means "one who has
come at the real truth." Hence, in the
Mahaparinibbana Sutta, Ajatasattu argues from the
etymology when he says: "Na hi
p.114
tathagata vitatham bhanantiti. --For no untrue
word is spoken by (those who, as their name imports,
are) truth- winners." In this sense tathagata was a
title already familiar to Indian thinkers before
Gotama's day, denoting one who had reached the goal
of intellectual emancipation. In this sense, too, it
was adopted by Gotama, who, while not denying the
title to those who had won the supreme goal of
Arahatship, specially appropriated it to himself as
the Arahat par excellence, and so came to use the
title (as his disciples used it of him) as a solemn
claim to recognition as the pioneer of truth, the
founder of true religion in theory and practice. The
truth Gotama claimed to have won, and to have been
the first to win, is formulated in the Four Truths
relating to Suffering and the Cessation of Suffering:
cattar' imani, bhikkhave, tathani avitathani
anannathani.--"Four in number, Brethren, are these
truths that can never be untrue, can never be other
than they are." In the Buddha's mouth, therefore, the
title tathagata assumes usually the specialized
meaning of discoverer of the Four Truths, i.e.
founder of Buddhism.
I have said above that even the Buddha himself
did not deny the title of tathagata to an Arahat. For
this, I think, a good reason can be given, apart from
pre-Buddhist use of the term to denote a saint who
had won emancipation of mind. That reason is that
Arahatship was the supreme goal of Gotama's
Buddhium--tad anuttaram brahmacariyapariyosanam.
This supreme goal every Arahat had to win by his own
thought and effort (sayam abhinna sacchikatva
upasampajja) in precisely the same manner as the
Buddha. In the Ariyapariyesana Sutta, therefore, the
Buddha describes the process of the conversion of
the Five Bhikkhus in precisely the same words as
those in which he describes the process of his own
attainment of Buddhahood, the hour of triumph being
marked in each case, alike by Buddha and by Arahat
bhikkhu, with the jubilant words: " Akuppa me
vimutti, ayam antima jati, na 'tthi dani punabbhavo.
Sure is my emancipation; this is my last birth; I
shall never be born again."
p.115
Consequently, it is not without significance that
the very first title assumed by the new Buddha was
not sammasambuddha, but tathagata; nor is it,
perhaps, a mere coincidence that in the Sutta of the
Great Decease the now aged Buddha assumes the same
title with markedly greater frequency than elsewhere,
while the writer or editor of the Sutta, in recording
the Buddha's dying word says: "Ayam tathagatassa
pacchima vaca.--This was the last word (not of the
Buddha but) of the tathagata, the truthwinner." It
would almost seem as though, alike at the dawn and at
the close of his Buddhahood, the Buddha, with a
shrewd foreboding of Mahayana heresies to be, was
sedulous to select a title which should exalt, not
Buddhahood, but Arahatship. "Tumhehi kiccam atappam,
akkhataro tathagata.--The struggle must be your own;
those who have won the truth can but point the
way."(1)
-----------------------
1 Dhammapada, p. 49.