Sahampati untranslated

Sahampati. A Mahā Brahmā. When the Buddha was at the Ajapālanigrodha, hesitating as to whether or not he should preach the Dhamma, Sahampati appeared before him and begged of him to open to the world the doors of Immortality. The Buddha agreed to this urgent request (Vin.i.5f.;SN.i.137f), and accepted from Sahampati the assurance that all the Buddhas of the past had also had no other teacher than the Dhamma discovered by them. SN.i.139; see also SN.v.167f.,185, 232, where he gives the same assurance to the Buddha regarding the four satipaṭṭhānas and the five indriyas; AN.ii.10f.

Buddhaghosa (e.g., SN­a.i.155) explains that the Buddha was reluctant to preach, not on account of indolence, but because he wished Sahampati to make him this request. For, thought the Buddha, the world honours Brahma greatly, and when people realized that Brahma himself had begged of the Buddha to spread his teaching, they would pay more attention to it. Sahampati was, at this time, the most senior of the Brahmas (jeṭṭha Mahā Brahmā) (DN­a.ii.467).

Sahampati once saw that the Brāhmiṇī, mother of Brahmadeva Thera, habitually made offerings to Brahma. Out of compassion for her, Sahampati appeared before her and exhorted her to give her offerings to Brahmadeva instead (SN.i.140f). On another occasion, when Kokāliya died and was born in Padumaniraya, Sahampati appeared before the Buddha and announced the fact to him (Snp. p.125; cp. SN.i.151; AN.v.172).

The Saṁyutta (SN.i.154f) contains a series of verses spoken by Sahampati at Andhakavinda, when the Buddha sat out in the open during the night and rain fell drop by drop. The verses are in praise of the life and practices of the monks and of the results thereof. Sahampati again visited the Buddha, simultaneously with Sakka, and as they stood leaning against a doorpost of the Buddha’s cell, Sakka uttered a verse in praise of the Buddha. Sahampati then added another verse, exhorting the Buddha to preach the Dhamma, as there were those who would understand (SN.i.233). A verse spoken by him immediately after the Buddha’s death is included in the books (DN.ii.157; SN.i.158).

During the time of Kassapa Buddha, Sahampati was a monk, named Sahaka, who, having practised the five indriyas (saddhā, etc.), was reborn in the Brahma world. Thereafter he was called Sahampati (SN.v.233). The Commentaries say (Snp­a.ii.476; SN­a.i.155) that he was an Anāgāmī Brahma born in the Suddhāvāsā, there to pass a whole kappa, because he had developed the first Jhāna as a monk. The Buddhavaṁsa Commentary (Bv­a.p.11; see also p.29) says that, strictly speaking, his name should be “Sahakapati.”

When the Buddha attained Awakening, Sahampati held over the Buddha’s head a white parasol three yojanas in diameter. Bv­a.239; this incident was sculptured in the Relic Chamber of the Mahā Thūpa (Mhv.xxx.74); cp. Ja.iv.266.

Once he offered to the Buddha a chain of jewels (ratanadāma) as large as Sineru (Khp­a.171; Vin-a.i.115; Vsm.201). On the day that Ālindakavāsi Mahā Phussadeva attained Arahant-ship, Sahampati came to wait upon him (Vibh­a.352).

It has been suggested (VT.i.86, n.1) that Brahma Sahampati is very probably connected with Brahma Svayambhū of brahmanical literature.