Page last updated on 8 October, 2020
Kokālika Sutta
1. Kokālika Sutta.– See Kokālika (2). The tenth sutta of the Mahā Vagga of the Suttanipāta. It is the story of Kokālika — according to Buddhaghosa (SnA.ii.473), to be distinguished as Cūḷa Kokālika. It contains the verses taught by the Buddha to Kokālika. The verses describe the evil of back-biting and the terrors that await the back-biter after death. The Suttanipāta contains twenty-two verses (657‑78). The Suttanipāta Commentary says (p.477 f) that the last two stanzas are not explained in the Mahā Aṭṭhakathā, and that therefore they did not belong to the original sutta. Of the remaining twenty the last fourteen (663‑76) are called by Buddhaghosa the Turitavatthugāthā, and he says that they were uttered by Mahā-Moggallāna as Kokālika lay dying, by way of admonition, and that, according to others, Mahā Brahma was the speaker. The first three stanzas (658‑60) are, in the Saṃyuttanikāya (i.149), attributed to Tudu. In the Aṅguttaranikāya (v.171‑4; the verses are also found in A.ii.3 and in S.i.149 ff; Netti.132), also, Tudu speaks them; but according to this version the Buddha repeats them.
2. Kokālika Sutta.– The solitary Brahmā, Subrahmā and Suddhāvasa visits the Buddha at Sāvatthi and utters verses in reference to Kokālika. The man who tries to limit the illimitable becomes confused. S.i.148.
3. Kokālika Sutta.– Gives the story of Kokālika (2) speaking ill of Sāriputta and Moggallāna before the Buddha, of Kokālika’s illness and death, of his admonition by Tudu, and of the announcement of his death and subsequent birth in the Paduma-niraya by Sahampati to the Buddha. A monk questions the Buddha on the duration of suffering in the Paduma-niraya, and the Buddha proceeds to instruct him by means of various illustrations. The sutta ends with the repetition by the Buddha of Tudu’s verses. A.v.171‑4; also S.i.149 ff.