Return to Bodhgaya: Sujata's Tale

En route to Birgunj. A sunrise through smoke and smog.

It was a long stretch to Bodhgaya. My bus left Kathmandu an hour late, expected and no big deal and we reached the border at Birgunj around seven-thirty Friday morning. Since I overstayed my visa in Nepal, I had to pay a 4000 rupee ($40 US) fine. Passport stamped and I was on my next bus to Patna. We reached Patna around 4:30 or 5 and I considered taking the train to Gaya, the later built city, sister to Bodhgaya. Gaya's a kind of dirty hole but Patna's worse. In any case, which city is the bigger shit-hole is moot since I wasn't staying in either one.

I was impatient and decided to hire a taxi to Bodhgaya to go straight to the guest house.

My patience returned and the ride was about five hours. A substantial part- forty kilometers out of 115 - was spent in unmoving traffic owing to an accident. Maybe two hours altogether spent dozing, chatting with the driver and in general, reflecting on the trek I'd taken this way before with Kapil Kumar six or so years before when I was heading back to Dharamsala. We left in the morning and the Bihar plains were hazy and dreamlike.

You go through Gaya in the morning in all its "Trainspotting's worst toilet in Glasgow" splendor and then through a series of villages so typical of India. These are clothing emporia, chai stalls, mechanics and more, working out of rickety storefronts with dodgy, propped-up tin roofs and awnings and dimly lit interiors from some forgotten memory.

In the early morning hours, these are shuttered behind pad-locked doors and metal roll-ups.

The ride across the plains, back then, was a ride between past and present. In the dark of night, it was traversing womblike amniosis, the night viscous and the lack of visual referent oneiric.

Arriving at the Tara Guest House reminded me of the best of Bodhgaya, a warm welcome, ease of accommodation (and lovely appointment of lodging), and a sense of home. As I nodded off, I wondered how the town itself may have changed.

Morning came around seven and for a moment, I readied myself to meditate when I took to the idea of resting one more hour. At eleven, I was again sentient!

I had 137 emails, of which only 15 were interesting and quickly deleted. I messaged with Kapil and Mahendra and we met at Tergar Monastery around one. The team was reassembled, but I need some time to arrange the syllabus for the kids and draw up a schedule of sorts for my month here.

In any case, yes, Bodhgaya has changed. The town is more populous, there is a Barista/Tavazza restaurant in town and on the site of where a wine store stood at the Sujata By-pass is now a Cafe Coffee Day. Across the street is an amusement park with a Ferris wheel!

The circle around the Mahabodhi Temple seems cleaner and less dusty. But oh, very, very much crowded. Mahendra and Kapil caught up quickly and we agreed I'd accompany Mahendra to his home and meet up with Kapil later. As it is, we met with Mahendra's wife Sundar and his partner at a Rice-threshing area. His partner ( they divide the rice fifty-fifty), Sundar, and another woman were separating the rice from the husks and my assumption is this is a days-long effort. Mahendra and I left everyone to return to their work while we ambled over to Sujata's stupa.

Threshing.

Sujata's presence in the Buddhist creation narrative cannot be overstated. According to legend, one could argue that no Sujata, no Shakyamuni awakening. The larger implications of the tale bear examination and ask for deeper analysis of the place of women in the cycle of tales that form the structure of biography, myth, and later hagiography of narrative in Indic Buddhism. It might be valuable to track the variations of the material in later traditions, but it's difficult to consider those when you're in Sujata Village at the epicenter of the "sujatic" material.

At Sujata's stupa. The dating is unknown, but the earliest strata may date to second century BCE. The most recent may be as late as 10th Century CE.

The tale is found in a post-Ashvagoshan story of Buddha's life (the Jinacaritam). The Sujatakatha can be read here in middle Pali with English translation: http://bit.ly/2wZeTaM. The story was elaborated on (https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/lifebuddha/15lbud.htm).

Sujata morphs from the daughter of a wealthy landowner to being rich herself. In the Jinacaritam, not much is said about her, except that her name means "well-born", thus a narrative context could be developed for her by extrapolation on her name alone). She is not to be confused with Sujata, the daughter-in-law of Buddha's patron Anāthapiṇḍika referred to in Anguttara Nikaya(7:59; IV 91-94). It's in the Lalitavistara that her tale is even more fleshed out and altered; it is this one that is most often recited around Bodhgaya. In it, she is one of ten maidens who have cared for the ascetic Gautama. No reference is made to mistaking him for a tree spirit or deva that had granted her wishes.

The verse summary follows:

After six years of austerities, the Blessed One thinks:
“I may have the strength of concentration and supernatural knowledge,
But if I go to the king of trees in order to awaken to omniscience under its branches
While I am this emaciated, that would not be kind toward beings in the future.
[F.133.b] [271]
“Gods and humans with little merit look for wisdom in mistaken ways;
Being in a weakened state, they are unable to attain nectar-like awakening.
Yet if I eat solid and excellent food, I will regain my physical strength;
Then I can go to the king of trees to attain omniscient awakening under its branches.”
The village girl Sujātā, who has done much good in the past,
Continuously makes offerings, thinking: “May this guide complete his discipline!”
When she hears the request of the gods, she brings milk porridge with honey;
She goes to the river and happily sits on the banks of the Nairañjanā.
For one thousand eons the Bodhisattva practiced discipline, and his faculties are at
peace.
He goes to the Nairañjanā surrounded by hosts of gods and nāgas as well as sages;
He makes the crossing and bathes with thoughts aimed at liberating others.
The Sage, pure and stainless, washes himself in the river out of love for the world.
Trillions of gods joyfully descend into the river and infuse the waters
With perfumes and scented powders so the Sacred Being can bathe.
When the Stainless Bodhisattva has bathed and rests serene on the shore,
Thousands of gods rejoice and take the bathing water as an object for venerating the Pure Being.
A divine son offers him saffron robes of beautiful stainless cloth;
Dressed in these suitable robes, the Blessed One rests on the banks of the river.
A nāga girl joyfully and devotedly erects a splendid throne
On which the guide of the universe peacefully sits.
Sujātā fills a golden bowl with food and offers it to the Mindful One;
She prostrates at his feet, saying joyfully, “Great Guide, please enjoy this!” [272]
The Mindful One eats as much as necessary and then throws the bowl in the river;
The highest god, the destroyer of cities, carries it off, saying, “I will venerate it!”
The very moment the Victorious One consumes solid and excellent food,
His body regains its former strength, magnificence, and splendor. [F.134.a]
To Sujātā and the gods he offers a teaching that benefits them greatly;
He, the lion with the bearing of a swan and the gait of the supreme elephant, proceeds to the Bodhi tree.

From the Tibetan rescension, 'phags pa rgya cher rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo,
The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Play in Full”
Āryalalitavistaranāmamahāyānasūtra
Toh 95, Degé Kangyur, vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1b–216b, translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Published by 84000 (2013) www.84000.co

Note that in this telling, Gautama is not the emaciated ascetic of the Jinacaritam; he had begun taking food at this point and was referred to as "the beautiful monk."

A quick update on the current situation of the stupa itself may be found here: http://www.mahabodhi.com/Sujata-Kuti/sujata-kuti.html.

From the stupa, we trod over to Sujata's temple which she shares with Shiva. One side is Shaivite and the other is Buddhist, rather a nice summary of India herself.

A stroll across the plain.

From Sujata's Temple.

A quick stroll over the land to Mahendra's house and I hear the disembodied voice of Kapil from next door! The three of us reunited on Kapil's roof overlooking Sujata Village as we sipped celebratory chai. I felt as though I'd never left. The sense of home is compelling. Mahendra took his leave to do his share of the work and tend to the family, leaving Kapil and me to catch up and whinge about traffic between Patna and Gaya.

Views of Sujata Village from Kapil's roof.

As the afternoon turned to evening, I felt it time to visit Mahabodhi but as luck would have it, there was no storage for cell phones. I elected to head over to the Tibetan Temple opposite from Mahabodhi and paid my respects. Altogether, this provided a satisfying conclusion to my first full day back in town.