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Maṅgala

He was born sixteen asaṅkheyyas and one hundred thousand world-cycles ago in the Uttaramadhura Park, in the city of Uttara, his father being a khattiya named Uttara and his mother Uttarā. It is said that from the day of her conception, an aura shed its rays night and day from her body, to a distance of eighty hands — hence his name. He surpassed other Buddhas in glory of body. In his last birth as a human being (corresponding to that of Vessantara in the case of Gotama) he lived with his family as an ascetic. A man eating yakkha, named Kharadāthika, took from him his two children and ate them in his presence, “crunching them as though they were yams,” while the blood dripped from his mouth. (It is probably this incident, which is referred to at J.iv.13). The Bodhisatta stood firm in his resolve and repented not of his gift to the yakkha, but registered a desire that in future births his body should emit light as bright as the blood which flowed down the yakkha’s face. In a previous birth, Maṅgala paid honour to the cetiya of a Buddha by wrapping his body in cloth drenched with oil, setting fire to it and walking round the cetiya throughout the night, carrying on his head a golden bowl filled with scented oil and lighted with one thousand wicks. Not a hair on his body suffered damage.

For nine thousand years Maṅgala lived in the household in three palaces, Yasavā, Sucimā and Sirimā, with his wife Yasavatī, by whom he had one son, Sīvala. He left the world on a horse and practised austerities for eight months. Just before his Enlightenment he ate a meal of milk rice given by a maiden, Uttarā, daughter of Uttaraseṭṭhi in Uttaragāma; an Ājīvaka, named Uttara, gave him grass for his seat. His Bodhi was a Nāga tree. After his Enlightenment he lived for ninety thousand years, and for all that time the aura from his body spread throughout the ten thousand world systems, shutting out sun, moon and stars. People knew the times and the seasons by the cries of the birds and the blooming of the flowers.

Maṅgala’s first discourse was taught in the Sirivaruttama Grove, near Sirivaddha. His chief disciples among men were Sudeva and Dhammasena, and his chief nuns Sīvalā and Asokā. Pālita was his constant attendant (BuA.124 calls him Uttara). Nanda and Visākha were his chief patrons among lay men and Anulā and Sutanā among lay women. In Maṅgala’s time the Bodhisatta was the brahmin Suruci (q.v.) Maṅgala’s body was eighty cubits high; he held three assemblies: the first at the teaching of the Dhammacakka, the second at Cittanagara, when he taught to Sunanda, king of Surabhinagara, and his son Anurāja, and the third at Mekhala to Sudeva and Dhammasena who later became his chief disciples.

He died in the park of Vessara, and a cetiya, thirty leagues high, was erected over his ashes (Bu.iv.1ff.; BuA.115ff.; J.i.30 ff.; the particulars found in Mtu.i.248 50, are slightly different). It is said (Bu.iv.29) that all Maṅgala Buddha’s personal disciples attained Arahantship before their death.

Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names • G.P. Malalasekera