Dhammadinna untranslated

Dhammadinna 01. Dhammadinna Thera also called Mahā Dhammadinna. An Arahant. He resided at Talaṅgapabbata (Talaṅgatissapabbata) (q.v.). He was one of the monks who partook of the meal of sour gruel given by Duṭṭhagāmaṇī when in dire distress for want of food. Dhammadinna distributed his share among ten thousand monks in Piyaṅgudīpa (Mhv.xxxii.52). He is also mentioned as having accepted a meal given by Sāliya and his wife when they were blacksmiths in a previous birth (Mhv­ṭ.606). Dhammadinna had a nephew who became an Arahant in the tonsure-hall. Dhammadinna read to him the three Piṭakas, and he learnt them all on that occasion (Vibh­a.389). Dhammadinna’s teacher was Mahā Nāga of Uccatalaṅka (v.l. Uccavālika). Dhammadinna visited him in his old age, knowing that, though he himself thought he had attained Arahant-ship, this was not the case. By a display of iddhi-power, Dhammadinna convinced Mahā Nāga of his error and gave him a subject of meditation. Almost immediately after, the Elder became an Arahant (Vibh­a.489; Vsm.634f). Once, while preaching the Apaṇṇakasutta, at Tissamahārāma, Dhammadinna pointed his fan downwards, whereupon the earth opened to the depth of Avīci, revealing all that was there. Similarly, he showed all things to the height of the Brahma-world. During his sermon he frightened the audience with the fear of hell and lured them with the bliss of heaven (Vsm.392).

The Majjhima Commentary records that soon after the ordination of Dhammadinna many monks, on his advice, became Arahants (MN­a.i.149ff. A variation of what is evidently the same story is found in AN­a.i.25). Hearing of this, the monks of Tissamahārāma sent a number of their colleagues to fetch him. He preached to them, and they attained Arahant-ship and remained with him. Three times this happened. On the fourth occasion an aged monk was sent. He gave the message of the monks and Dhammadinna started at once to go to them. On the way, at Haṅkana (v.l. Taṅgana) and at Cittalapabbata, he persuaded two monks, who thought they were Arahants, to display their iddhi-power, and, thereby convinced them of their error; thereupon he gave them topics of meditation. On his arrival at Tissamahārāma, the monks failed to pay him their respects. He thereupon made the earth tremble and returned to his own vihāra. The Saddhammasaṅgaha (p.88f) relates the story of a blind rat-snake who heard Dhammadinna recite the satipaṭṭhānas and was later born as Tissāmacca, minister of Duṭṭhagāmaṇī.

Dhammadinna 02. An eminent lay-follower of the Buddha. He once came with five hundred upāsakas to the Buddha at Isipatana and asked him to give them a lesson which might profit them, for, said he, it is difficult for a householder encumbered with a family and the luxuries of household life to comprehend the Buddha’s teachings in their fullness. The Buddha answers that they should practise the four limbs of Sotāpatti: loyalty to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha, and the cultivation of Āriyan virtues. Dhammadinna answers that they already possess these limbs. The Buddha then expresses his great satisfaction (SN.v.406ff).

The Commentary (SN­a.iii.223) says that Dhammadinna was one of seven laymen with followings of five hundred – the others being Visākha, Ugga, Citta, Hatthaka Āḷavaka and Cūḷa Anāthapiṇḍika and Mahā Anāthapiṇḍika.

Dhammadinna 03. A monk of Tissa Mahā Vihāra near Talaṅgarapabbata. Once, while on pilgrimage to Nāgadīpa with 500 others, he stopped at Sāgirivihāra, and they were looked after by Bahulamassutissa Thera. The next day they went for alms to Puṇṇasālakoṭṭhaka, where a resident entertained them to a meal with hare’s flesh. Dhammadinna later asked why Tissa Thera did not admonish his follower on the evils of killing, seeing that there was a heap of bones outside the house. Tissa asked Dhammadinna to do so the next day. This was done; the devotee confessed that he had never killed a hare, but in his house there was never any want of hare’s flesh, and he did not know why. Dhammadinna, with his divine eye, revealed to him that in the time of Padumuttara Buddha he had given alms with hare’s flesh. Ras.ii.128f.

Dhammadinnā 01. One of the two chief women disciples of Piyadassī Buddha. Bv.xiv.21; Ja.i.39.

Dhammadinnā 02. One of the chief supporters, among lay women, of Piyadassī Buddha. Bv.xiv.22.

Dhammadinnā 03. An eminent Therī, ranked foremost among nuns who possessed the gift of preaching (AN.i.25). She was the wife of Visākha of Rājagaha, and when he, having heard the Buddha preach, became an Anāgāmī, she left the world with the consent of her husband who sent her to the nunnery in a golden palanquin (MN­a.i.515 says this was provided by Bimbisāra). Dwelling in solitude, she soon attained Arahant-ship with the four paṭisambhidā (see Thīg.v.12 for a stanza uttered by her). She later returned to Rājagaha to worship the Buddha, and there Visākha asked her questions on the Dhamma, which she answered “as easily as one might cut a lotus-stalk with a knife.” The questions and answers are given in the Cūḷa Vedallasutta (MN.i.299ff). Visākha reported this interview to the Buddha, who praised her great wisdom and commended her eloquence.

In the time of Padumuttara Buddha she was a servant, and one day saw the Buddha’s disciple, Sujāta, begging alms and gave him a curry (Thīg­a. p.15 says Sujāta had just risen from samādhi). Her master, seeing this, made her his daughter-in-law. Later, while on a visit to the vihāra, she saw a nun declared to be chief of preachers and wished for similar eminence.

In the time of Phussa Buddha she obtained merit by giving to the Buddha’s half-brother double the gift prescribed by her husband (details of this are given in Pv-a., p.21).

In the time of Kassapa Buddha she was born as Sudhammā, the sixth of the seven daughters of Kikī, king of Benares; for twenty thousand years she lived in celibacy (her story is given in Thīg­a.15ff; Ap.ii.567f; AN­a.i.196f; MN­a.i.515ff; Dhp­a.iv.229ff).

Dhammadinnā was the teacher of Sukhā (Thīg­a.58).