Sankassa

Pali Canon

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Sankassa: A city, thirty leagues from Sāvatthi. (DhA.iii.224).

It was there that the Buddha returned to earth, after preaching the Abhidhamma Pitaka in Tāvatimsa, following the performance of the Twin Miracle under the Gandamba tree. As the time approached for the Buddha to leave Tāvatimsa , Moggallāna (Anuruddha, according to SNA.ii.570; cf. Vsm., p.391) announced his coming return to the multitude, who had been waiting at Sāvatthi, fed by Culla Anāthapindika, while Moggallāna expounded the Dhamma. They then made their way to Sankassa.

The descent of the Buddha took place on the day of the Mahāpavārana festival. Sakka provides three ladders for the Buddha's descent from Sineru. to the earth: on the right was a ladder of gold for the gods; on the left a silver ladder for Mahā Brahmā and his retinue; and in the middle a ladder of jewels for the Buddha. The assembled people covered the earth for thirty leagues round. There was a clear view of the nine Brahma worlds above and of Avīci below. The Buddha was accompanied by Pañcasikha, Mātali, Mahā Brahmā and Suyāma. Sāriputta was the first to welcome him (followed by Uppalavannā, SNA.ii.570), and the Buddha preached the Law, starting with what was within the comprehension even of a puthujjana, and ending with what only a Buddha could understand.

On this occasion was preached the Parosahassa Jātaka to proclaim to the multitude the unparalleled wisdom of Sāriputta (DhA.iii.224ff.; see also SNA.ii.570). It is said' that the Buddha's descent to Sankassa had provided opportunity for Moggallāna to show his eminence in iddhi, Anuruddha in dibbacakkhu, and Punna in skill in preaching, and the Buddha wished to give Sāriputta a chance of shining in his wisdom. (Ibid., loc. cit.; J.iv.266; see also Jhānasodhana, Sarabhamiga, and Candābha Jātakas). He therefore asked of Sāriputta questions which no one else could answer. The opening words of the Sāriputta Sutta are supposed to refer to this descent from Tusita (sic).

The site of the city gate of Sankassa is one of the "unchangeable" spots of the world (avijahitatthānam). All Buddhas descend at that spot to the world of men after preaching the Abhidhamma (BuA.106, 247; MA.i.371, etc.). From Sankassa the Buddha went to Jetavana (J.i.193).

A shrine was erected on the spot where the Buddha's right foot first touched the ground at Sankassa (DhA.iii.227). When the Chinese pilgrims, Hiouen Thsang and Fa Hien, visited the place, they found three ladders, which had been built of brick and stone by the ancients, to commemorate the Buddha's descent, but the ladders were nearly sunk in the earth. (Beal, op. cit., i.203; Fa Hien, p.24).

There was, in the Buddha's time, a deer park at Sankassa where Suhemanta Thera heard the Buddha preach (ThagA.i.212). During the Vajjiputta controversy, Revata Thera, on his way from Soreyya to Sahājāti, went through Sankassa. The road he took passed through Sankassa, Kannakujja, Udumbarā and Aggālapura (Vin.ii.299f).

Sankassa is now identified with Sankissa Basantapura on the north bank of the Ikkhumatī (Kālīnadī), between Atranji and Kanoj, twenty-three miles west of Fatehgarh and forty five north of Kanoj.

Source

www.palikanon.com

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Sankassa (Sanskrit Sankasya) was a town on the western edge of the Middle Land. Legend says the Buddha descended from the Tavtiṃsa heaven at this place after spending three months teaching abhidhamma to his mother, who had been reborn there after her death. Supposedly three ladders appeared in the sky Ý a golden one on the right for the god Sakka, a silver one on the left for Brahma and a jeweled one in the middle for the Buddha. Some versions of the legend say that Brahma held an umbrella over the Buddha as he descended from heaven to earth.

This so-called miracle at Sankassa is not mentioned in the Tipiñaka. The place itself is only referred twice and the Buddha only visited it once, passing through it while on his way to somewhere else (Vin.II,299; III,11). Apart from being incredible in itself, the Sankassa legend contradicts that Buddha's prohibition against the public display of psychic powers or miraculous abilities (Vin.II,110-111). There is also no mention in the scriptures of the Buddha mysteriously disappearing from the scene for three months. The Sankassa legend's association with the abhidhamma is a key to its origin and rationale.

The abhidhamma is conspicuous by its absence from the Buddha's discourses. It is not mentioned as one of the nine branches of the Buddha's teachings (navaṅga, A.II,103), and the account of the First Council describes the recitation of the monastic rules (vinaya) and the discourses (suttas), but not of the abhidhamma (Vin.II,285). As the abhidhamma approach became more popular in the centuries after the Buddha's passing, and the books of the Abhidhamma Piñaka were gradually composed, pressure grew to have them considered canonical and included in the Tipiñaka. In time an explanation of the abhidhamma's origin was needed and thus the legend of the Buddha going to heaven to teach the Abhidhamma Pitaka evolved.

King Asoka raised a great stone pillar at Sankassa, parts of which can still be seen there. There is, however, no evidence that this pillar was raised to commemorate the legend, which may not come into existence at that time. The earliest evidence of the Sankassa legend is a sculptural depiction of it from Sanchi which dates from about the 1st century BCE.

Source

buddhisma2z.com