1. Visákhá. One of the chief lay women supporters of Piyadassí Buddha. Bu.xiv.22.
2. Visákhá. Mother of Kakusandha Buddha and wife of Aggidatta. Bu.xxiii.58; J.i.94; D.ii.7.
3. Visákhá. One of the five queens of the third Okkáka. DA.i.238; SNA.i.352; MT. 131.
4. Visákhá Therí. She belonged to the harem of the Bodhisatta and left the world with Mahá Pajápatí Gotamí. She received a topic of meditation from the Buddha and in due course won arahantship. A verse uttered by her, admonishing her companions, is included in the Therígáthá. Thig.vs.13; ThigA.20.
The chief among the female lay disciples of the Buddha and declared by him to be foremost among those who ministered to the Order (dáyikánam aggá) (A.i.26; she is considered the ideal lay woman - e.g., A.iv.348). Her father was Dhanańjaya, son of Mendaka, and her mother Sumaná. She was born in the city of Bhaddiya in Anga. When she was seven years old, the Buddha visited Bhaddiya with a large company of monks, out of compassion for the brahmin Sela and others. Mendaka gave Visákhá five hundred companions, five hundred slaves, and five hundred chariots, that she might visit the Buddha. She stopped the chariots some distance away and approached the Buddha on foot. He preached to her and she became a sotápanna. For the next fortnight Mendaka invited the Buddha and his monks daily to his house, where he fed them.
Later, when, at Pasenadi's request, Bimbisára sent Dhanańjaya to live in Kosala, Visákhá accompanied her parents and lived in Sáketa. The messengers, sent by Migára of Sávatthi to find a suitable bride for his son Pańńavaddhana, saw Visákhá on her way to the lake to bathe on a feast day. At that moment there was a great shower. Visákhá's companions ran for shelter, but Visákhá herself, walking at her usual pace, came to the place where the messengers, already greatly impressed, were awaiting her. When they asked her why she did not run to seek shelter and so preserve her clothes, she answered that she had plenty of clothes in the house, but that if she ran she might damage a limb which would be a great loss. "Unmarried girls," she said, "are like goods awaiting sale, they must not be disfigured." The messengers offered her a bouquet of flowers (málágulam), which she accepted as a proposal of marriage, and then went on to her father's house. The messengers followed and laid Punnavaddhana's suit before Dhanańjaya. The proposal was accepted and confirmed by an exchange of letters.
When Pasenadi heard of it, he offered to accompany Punnavaddhana to Sáketa, as a mark of signal favour. Dhanańjaya welcomed the king and his retinue, Migára, Punnavaddhana and their followers, with all honour, attending personally to all the details of hospitality. He persuaded the king to stay with him during the rains, providing all that was necessary. According to the DhA. account (loc. cit.) Visákhá superintended all the arrangements.
Five hundred goldsmiths were engaged to make the Mahálatápasádhana (ornament), q.v., for the bride; three months passed, but it was still unfinished. The supply of firewood ran out, and orders were given that the wood of dilapidated houses should be used. This wood lasted for a fortnight, and then the storehouses containing cloths were opened, the cloths soaked in oil and used for cooking the food. The ornament was finished in four months. In the time of Kassapa Buddha she gave bowls and robes to twenty thousand monks, also thread and needles and sewing materials; as a result of this, she received her parure in this life (DhA.i.395).
Dhanańjaya gave his daughter, as dowry, five hundred carts full of money, five hundred with vessels of gold, five hundred each of silver, copper, various silks, ghee, rice husked and winnowed; also ploughs, ploughshares, and other farm implements, five hundred carts with three slave-women in each, everything being provided for them. The cattle given by him filled an enclosure three quarters of a league in length and eight rods across, standing shoulder to shoulder, and in addition to these, sixty thousand bulls and sixty thousand milk cows escaped from their stalls and joined the herd already gifted to her. In her birth as Sanghadási, she gave the five products of the cow to twenty thousand monks, begging them to eat; hence the escaping of the cattle for her benefit (DhA.i.397). Visákhá's relations continued to send her costly gifts even after her marriage. The Udána (ii.9) contains a story of a dispute she had with the customs officers regarding the duty they levied on one of her presents. She visited Pasenadi several times, trying to get the matter settled; but he had no time to give to the matter, and, in the end, she sought consolation from the Buddha.
When the time came for Visákhá to leave, Dhanańjaya gave her ten admonitions, which Migára overheard from the next room. These admonitions were: Not to give fire from the house outside; not to take into the house fire from without; to give only to those who give in return: not to give to those who do not give in return; to give to him that gives and to him that gives not; to sit, eat and sleep happily; to tend the fire and to honour household deities. These riddles were later explained by Visákhá to her father in law (DhA.i.403f.).
On the following day Dhanańjaya appointed eight householders to be sponsors to his daughter and to enquire into any charges which might be brought against her. When she left, Dhanańjaya allowed any inhabitants of his fourteen tributary villages to accompany her if they so wished. As a result the villages were left empty; but Migára, fearing that he should have to feed them, drove most of them back. Visákhá entered Sávatthi standing in her chariot, so that all might see her glory. The citizens showered gifts on her, but these she distributed among the people.
Migára was a follower of the Niganthas, and, soon after Visákhá's arrival in his house, he sent for them and told her to minister to them. But Visákhá, repulsed by their nudity, refused to pay them homage. The Niganthas urged that she should be sent away, but Migára bided his time. One day, as Migára was eating, while Visákhá stood fanning him, a monk was seen standing outside his house. Visákhá stood aside, that Migára might see him, but as Migára continued to eat without noticing the monk, she said to the latter, "Pass on, Sir, my father in law eats stale fare." Migára was angry and threatened to send her away, but, at her request, the matter was referred to her sponsors. They enquired into the several charges brought against her and adjudged her not guilty. Visákhá then gave orders that preparations should be made for her return to her parents. But Migára begged her forgiveness which she granted, on condition that he would invite to the house the Buddha and his monks. This he did, but, owing to the influence of the Niganthas, he left Visákhá to entertain them, and only consented to hear the Buddha's sermon at the end of the meal from behind a curtain. At the conclusion of this sermon, however, he became a sotápanna. His gratitude towards Visákhá was boundless; henceforth she was to be considered as his mother and to receive all the honour due to a mother; from this time onwards she was called Migáramátá. In DhA.i.406 we are told that in order to confirm this declaration, Migára sucked the breast of Visákhá. This account adds that she had also a son named Migára; thus there was a double reason for the name. AA.i.313 says that Migára was her eldest son.
Migára got made for her everyday use an ornament called ghanamatthaka, at a cost of one hundred thousand. (Some time after, Visákhá sold the Matálatápasádhana and built the Migáramátupásada.) On the day of the presentation of this ornament, Migára held for her a special festival in her honour, and she was made to bathe in sixteen pots of perfumed water. This account of Visákhá is summarized from DhA.i.384ff.; AA.i.219ff. contains a similar account but with far less detail. The DhA. account contains numerous other particulars, some of which are given below.
Visákhá had ten sons and ten daughters, each of whom had a similar number of children, and so on down to the fourth generation. Before her death, at the age of one hundred and twenty, she had eighty four thousand and twenty direct lineal descendants, all living. (But see Ud.viii.8, which speaks of the death of a grand daughter and of Visákhá's great grief; this evidently refers to Dattá). She herself kept, all her life, the appearance of a girl of sixteen. She had the strength of five elephants, and it is said that once she took the trunk of an elephant, which was sent to test her, between her two fingers and forced him back on his haunches (DhA.i.409). Visákhá owned such a great reputation for bringing good fortune that the people of Sávatthi always invited her to their houses on festivals and holidays (Ibid.).
Visákhá fed five hundred monks daily at her house. (Thus, e.g., J.iv.144; two thousand, according to DhA.i.128; later she appointed her grand daughter, probably Dattá, to officiate for her.) In the afternoon she visited the Buddha, and, after listening to his sermon, would go round the monastery inquiring into the needs of the monks and nuns (*1). In these rounds she was sometimes accompanied by Suppiyá (*2). Visákhá begged for, and was granted, eight boons by the Buddha: that as long as she lived she be allowed to give robes to the members of the Order for the rainy season; food for monks coming into Sávatthi (*3); food for those going out; food for the sick; food for those who wait on the sick; medicine for the sick; a constant supply of rice gruel for any needing it; and bathing robes for the nuns (*4).
With the construction of the Mígáramátupásáda (q.v.) in the Pubbáráma Visákhá's ambitions were fulfilled, and it is said (DhA.i.416f) that when the monastery was completed and the festival of opening in progress, as the evening drew on she walked round the monastery accompanied by her children, her grandchildren and her great grandchildren, and in five stanzas sang her joy, saying, "Now is entirely fulfilled the prayer which I prayed in times of yore." (The wishes mentioned in these stanzas as having been fulfilled differ from the eight boons mentioned above). The monks heard her sing and told the Buddha; he related to them how, in the time of Padumuttara Buddha, Visákhá had been the friend of the principal women benefactors of that Buddha. In the time of Kassapa Buddha she was Sanghadásí, youngest of the seven daughters of Kiki, and for long after her marriage she gave alms and performed other good works with her sisters. (AA.i.219).
(*1) Because she wished the Sangha well she was appointed on the committee set up to enquire into the charge of misbehaviour brought against the mother of Kumárakassapa (q.v.); Visákhá's experience as the mother of several children stood her in good stead.
(*2) For an incident connected with one of these visits, see Suppiyá. DhA. (i. 100f.) says that once five hundred young men of good family entrusted the care of their wives to Visákhá. On one occasion, when accompanying her to the monastery, they became drunk and committed improprieties in the presence of the Buddha. The Buddha frightened them by emitting a dark blue ray of light, thus restoring them to their senses. This was the occasion of the preaching of the Kumbha Játaka; see also J.v.11f.
(*3) Probably on account of this boon the monks who had been to see Khadiravaniya Revata (q.v.) visited Visákhá immediately after their return to Sávatthi; but see the Pítha Játaka.
(*4) This list of boons and Visákhá’s reasons for begging them are given at Vin.i.290ff. According to the Suruci Játaka (q.v.), she obtained the boons owing to her virtue in the past as well e.g., in her birth as Sumedhá (J.iv.315ff.); see also Vin.i.296, where the Buddha accepts a face towel as a special gift from Visákhá but would not accept an earthenware foot scrubber (Vin.ii.129f.).
According to the Viháravimánavatthu (Vv.iv.6; VvA.189,191), Visákhá was born, after death, among the Nimmánaratidevá as the consort of the deva king Sunimmita.
Buddhaghosa says (DA.iii.740) that Visákhá, like Sakka and Anáthapindika, will enjoy one hundred and thirty one kappas of happiness in the Brahma-worlds before she finally passes away into nibbána.
Among Visákhá's relations are also mentioned, in addition to her two sons Migajála and Migára, a sister Sujátá, who became Anáthapindika’s daughter in law (A.iv.91; AA.ii.724; J.ii.347); a grandson, Salha (q.v.); a granddaughter, Dattá, who died (DhA.iii.278): and Uggaha (q.v.), called Mendakanattá. Mention is also made of a grandson of hers on whose behalf she interceded with the Buddha when the monks refused to ordain him during the rainy season. (Vin.i.153)
The books contain numerous suttas preached by the Buddha to Visákhá during her frequent visits to him, chief among such suttas being the famous discourse on the keeping of the uposatha, (A.i.205ff.; cf.iv.255; DhA.iii.58f) the discourse of the eight qualities which win for women power in this world and power and happiness in the next, (A.iv.269) and eight qualities which win for a woman birth among the Manápakáyika devas. (A.iv.267)
One of the women who will renounce the world at the same time as the future Buddha Metteyya. She will be accompanied by eighty four thousand other women. Anágat. vs. 63.