Sudinna
1. Sudinna.– Father of Piyadassī Buddha (J.i.39); but see Sudatta (9).
2. Sudinna Kalandakaputta.– A monk who, after being ordained, returned to his former wife and had relations with her, thus becoming guilty of the first offence of defeat (Pārājika). When there was a famine in the Vajjī country, Sudinna went to Vesāli, hoping to be kept by his rich relations, to the mutual benefit of both parties. They gave him sixty bowls of rice, which he distributed among his colleagues. When he went to his father’s house, in Kalandaka-gāma, he saw a servant girl about to throw away some boiled rice and asked her to put it into his bowl. The girl, recognising his hands and feet and voice, told his mother of his arrival. Both she and his father visited him as he was eating the rice, and his father took him by the hand and led him home. There he was provided with a seat and asked to eat: but he refused, saying he had already eaten. The next day he was again invited; he went, and they tried to tempt him back to the lay life. His former wife joined in the attempt, but on being addressed by him as “Sister,” she fell fainting. Then he begged for his meal, saying that if they desired to give it to him they should do so without worrying him. Later his wife visited him, with his mother, at the Mahāvana, and begged that he would give her a son, so that the Licchavī might not confiscate their wealth for want of an heir. Sudinna agreed, and had intercourse three times with her. She became pregnant, and in due course a son was born, who was called Bījaka. When Sudinna realised what he had done he was filled with remorse, and his colleagues, discovering the reason, reported him to the Buddha, who blamed him greatly. (Vin.iii.11‑21; see Sp.i.270, where Sudinna is held not guilty of the Pārājika offence because he was the first offender (ādikammika).¹
The Buddha’s censure of Sudinna forms the topic of one of the dilemmas of the Milindapañha. (p.170 f).
¹ All of the rules were laid down only when an occasion arose, i.e. when a monk or nun did something inappropriate. The first offender has not broken the rule since it had not yet been laid down (ed.)
3. Sudinna.– Evidently a famous commentator. Buddhaghosa quotes (DA.ii.566; AA.ii.551) him as saying that there is no word of the Buddha that is not a sutta (asuttaṃ nāma kiṃ buddhavacanaṃ atthi ?) and thus rejecting the Jātaka, Paṭisambhidā, Niddesa, Suttanipāta, Dhammapada, Itivuttaka, Vimānavatthu, Petavatthu, Thera° and Therīgāthā and Apadāna.
