Question

Why did angulimala bury his evil?

Answer 1

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Certainly the most notorious and interesting arhant in the Pali Canon is Angulimala, whose name literally means “finger garland,” in allusion to his reputed habit of killing passersby in the Jalini Forest and wearing a garland or necklace of their finger bones before entering the Buddhist sangha and attaining nirvana. This story, startling and even macabre, is highly paradoxical and serves as an invaluable indication of original Buddhist beliefs concerning the nature of enlightenment, karma, and the Act of Truth. The story is so distasteful and unconventional that its historicity seems certain, and the confusion that resists any conventional explanation suggests a deeper meaning, as has been proposed by Buddhist scholar Richard Gombrich.

First, let’s summarize the conventional story as it appears in the Pali Canon and its commentaries. Angulimala, whose birth name was changed from Himsaka (“harmful”) to Ahimsaka (“the harmless one”), was the son of the brahmin Bhaggava Gagga and his wife Mantani. Bhaggava was a spiritual adviser (sometimes rendered “chaplain”) to King Pasenadi of Kosala, one of the sixteen great regions of ancient India from which the Buddha himself came. Pasenadi himself was a disciple of the Buddha who was subsequently dethroned by another of his advisers and died of exposure while trying to regain his throne. Kosala was later annexed by the Magadha kingdom after a series of wars.

In accordance with the custom of the time, Ahimsaka’s horoscope was cast when he was born and it was discovered that he was born under the nakshatra (“lunar mansion”) Aslesha, the so-called “robber constellation,” corresponding to the second and third decanates of Leo in Western astrology, which predestined him (according to the sutta) to a life of violence and criminality. Aslesha is, however, not only associated with robbery. It is also associated with sorcery, a fact the significance of which will become clear. The name Ahimsaka was chosen by his parents in order to attempt to circumvent this. He was sent to the great university of Takkasila, where he became the best student of his teacher. Generally, a student entered Takshashila at the age of sixteen. The Vedas and the Eighteen Silpas or Arts, which included skills such as archery, hunting, and elephant lore, were taught, in addition to its law school, medical school, and school of military science. The institution is very significant in Buddhist tradition since it is believed that Mahayana Buddhism took shape there.

So far the story is quite unexceptional and believable. However, according to the commentaries Ahimsaka, who appears to have been charismatic and attractive to women, became embroiled in a scandal in which he was accused of having an affair with his teacher’s wife. Whether this was true or not, his teacher, who is presented in the sutta as a fool, believed it and demanded that Ahimsaka complete his instruction by giving him the bizarre gift of one thousand human fingers. Bound by the ancient rule of fealty to the guru, Ahimsaka was obliged to comply with his teacher’s maliciously motivated demand, which in turn activated Ahimsaka’s innate predisposition to violence. Ahimsaka then went to the Jalini Forest where he became a serial killer, described as a bandit in the Angulimala Sutta. He was one finger short of fulfilling this project by murdering his own mother when he met the Buddha.

The absurdity of the foregoing story is palpable, and Richard Gombrich has suggested as an alternative that in fact Ahimsaka was an early Tantric practitioner, the left-hand form of which included ritual sex and even murder in an attempt to free oneself from all human limitations and to awaken the innate divine shakti. In this context, the fact that Takkasila subsequently became the original source of the Mahayana teachings, considered heretical by the more conservative Sri Lankan redactors of the Pali Canon, is suggestive. The earliest evidence for human sacrifice in the Indian subcontinent dates back to the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization. If this interpretation is correct, it puts the significance of the Buddha’s encounter with Angulimala and the Buddha’s subsequent acceptance of him in a completely different light.

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