page_title: Sumedha
section_title: Role in Buddhism
hierarchical_section_title: Sumedha / Role in Buddhism
caption_attribution_description: English: Sumedha receiving a prediction from Dīpankara Buddha, British Library, Mss Burmese 202, f.1
context_page_description: In Buddhist texts, Sumedha is a previous life of Gotama Buddha in which he declares his intention to become a Buddha. Buddhist texts describe that this takes place when Gotama Buddha is still a Buddha-to-be. Traditions regard Sumedha's life as the beginning of the spiritual journey leading up to the attainment of Buddhahood by Gotama in his last life, a journey which takes place through many lifetimes. Born in a brahmin family, Sumedha begins to live as an ascetic in the mountains. One day he meets Dīpankara Buddha and offers his own body for him to walk over. During this sacrifice, he makes a vow that he also will be a Buddha in a future lifetime, which is confirmed by Dīpankara through a prophecy.
  The encounter between Sumedha and Dīpankara Buddha is the oldest Buddhist story known which deals with the path of a bodhisatta, and the story has been described as the Theravādin interpretation of this ideal. It is the most detailed story of a previous life of the Buddha, and is one of the most popular stories in Buddhist art. It is depicted in many Theravādin temples and is at least alluded to in innumerable Buddhist works.
context_section_description: In the Theravāda tradition, the story is usually regarded as the beginning of the Buddha's spiritual path, and is included in the first part (Pali: Dūre-nidāna, lit. 'Distant Epoch') in most traditional accounts about the Buddha's life. The model for this organization of information was the Buddhavaṃsa, and the Nidānakathā, part of the commentary on the Jātakas, in which the Dūre takes up half of the account. The story of Sumedha attempts to establish a relation between Gotama Buddha and a lineage of predecessors, thus legitimizing the message of the Buddha, and describing a "pre-enlightenment training". This is comparable to how an Indian king was anointed by his predecessor, and therefore conforms to Indian beliefs. Indeed, the medieval Pāli Jīnalaṅkāra dubs Dīpankara's prophecy "a great consecration", consecration referring to anointment of kings (Pali: mahābhiseka).
  The story is the longest and most detailed account about a previous life of the Buddha, and serves as the model for other such accounts. It is the oldest known Buddhist story about the path of a bodhisatta, and it forms the oldest instance in the Pāli tradition of the altruistic bodhisatta rationale, depicting a person aiming for the enlightenment of other living beings. Indeed, the story has been dubbed "a concise Theravādin reformulation of the Mahāyāna bodhisattva ideal", as it deals with the very question of what it means to be a Buddha-to-be. The story defines the role of the bodhisatta path within Theravādin Buddhist doctrine and terminology in a revolutionary manner,  using new terms like 'prediction' (Pali: vyākaraṇa), 'aspiration' (Pali: abhinīhāra) and 'service, meritorious act' (Pali: adhikāra). The Jātakanidāna describes the personal relationship between a Buddha and a bodhisatta within the Theravādin doctrine and normalizes, incorporates and integrates the bodhisatta in its structure. Scholar Juyan Zhang argues that accounts about Sumedha in the Ekottara Āgama and Jātaka Nidāna may have formed a prototype for the later Mahāyāna mythology and iconography of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, developing from the fifth century CE. Buddhist studies scholars Hikata Ryushō and Shizutani Masao believe the story of Sumedha to be part of "primitive Mahāyāna", the earliest stage in the development of Mahāyāna Buddhism, but archaeologist Rhi Juhyung believes the evidence is not yet definitive.
  The story of Sumedha's encounter with Dīpankara Buddha is one of the most popular in Buddhist art. It is depicted in many Theravādin temples and is at least alluded to in a huge amount of religious works. Indeed, in Theravādin Buddhist culture, the story of Sumedha, as well as hat of Vessantara, is as important as the final life of Gotama Buddha, and in some countries, Sumedha's story is included in children's books about the Buddha. The story of Sumedha's encounter with Dīpankara has been much depicted in Buddhist art. In depictions of rebirth narratives in Gandhāran art, the story dominates and has an "extraordinary" position in the iconography of Gandhāran monuments with relics (stūpas). It is often depicted integrated with the present life of the Buddha and is as at least as often depicted as key events in the Buddha's last life. The reason why the story was less influential outside of Gandhāra may have been because Vessantara's story was more popular there, Vessantara providing both a model in terms of spirituality and kingship.
  In the texts of monastic discipline of the Dharmaguptaka textual tradition, Sumedha receives the prediction of his future Buddhahood and flies away into the air. His hair, however, remains on the ground, still spread out, but now detached from his body. Dīpankara warns his disciples not to step on the hair. Hundreds of thousands of persons then come and make offerings of flowers and perfumes to the hair. In some versions of the story, such as in the Divyavadāna, stūpas are built by local kings to enshrine the hairs. Buddhist studies scholar John S. Strong argues that these accounts indicate a historical development toward a relic cult of
caption: Sumedha and Dīpankara Buddha. Burmese manuscript, British Library
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