Sukala-maddava that Buddha had taken at the last time in his life is now interpreted as rotten flesh of boar or mushroom, in a sense, poison. It is natural to think that either could have caused Buddha's death. Buddha himself, however, said that nobody could eat those substances except himself. It is difficult to believe that Buddha is portrayed as weak as an ordinary human in Buddhist texts, for Buddha defeated Mara, death. This interpretation makes nirvana seem somehow negative. Therefore we have to search for an affirmative answer for nirvana, in the background of Indo-Iranian or Indo-European culture, because the Pali language belongs to Ancient Prakrit.
A boar, if that is what sukala means, is identified as Vrtra in Rgveda (I. 121.11; I. 61.7; VIII. 66.10; X. 99.6 etc.), and as one of ten incarnations of Vishnu, Varaha which made the world reborn in the Bhagavatapurana (III. 13), also Verethragna who runs in front of Mithra in the Mihr Yasht (70). In addition, in the Taittiriyaranyaka (I. 10.8), a black boar saves the world by appearing from the bottom of water. His 10 incarnations symbolize winter, and death (RV. X. 51.3; Vendidad, 4), and these incarnations signify the voyage in the underworld. Now, Verethragna is the guide of Mithra in the darkness of night. Namely, the boar signifies an obstacle, winter, night, death and the underworld, and also acts a helper of renewal, of rebirth. Boar, therefore, has two meanings: obstacle and helper, psychopompos, to go to heaven.
While the name “Chunda” has no special meaning, it is important that he is a son of a blacksmith, kammarah. Blacksmith is an alchemist, which is symbolically important, and the divine blacksmith, Tvastr, is a creator of Vajra for Indra. An alchemist makes gold from base metals, and is a person who can make a mortal Buddha into a gold immortal being, and vajra is the weapon to kill Vrtra, to defeat death.
Another item is in the Mahaparinibbanasuttanta, “A pair of golden clothes” (4.35) that Buddha wore. “A pair” is equal to “twins”, whose meaning is “death and rebirth”. The twin Sala trees also mean “death and rebirth”, and “gold”, and the name of hiranna (golden) river (5.1), that Buddha crossed just before entering nirvana, are symbols of “eternity”. Two offering foods, Sujata's and Chunda's, that Buddha praised (4.42) are also “a pair”. One, Suj ata's, was for “birth” of Buddha and the other, Chunda's, was for his nirvana, “death”. This pair too has the same meaning. They all signify the future of Buddha.
Thus in my opinion, Sukala is a flesh of boar, and eating of it makes Buddha equal to vrtrahan, and means going to heaven. People who have the same Koine could easily understand that Buddha was eternal. Probably the interpretation of sukala as mushroom happened in China: sukala could be translated into a food of “eternity” in Chinese thought, ling-zhi for example.

抄録全体を表示