A Study on Rebirth Expressions:: Gabbhassa avakkanti and gandhabba

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No. 3,
March 2014 (103)
A Study on Rebirth Expressions:
Gabbhassa avakkanti and gand7zabba
NAwA Ry[iken
Introduction
Okkanti
is
one of the (re-)birth
expressions enumerated in
DN 22 (III
p.305,
IL6-9),
and there are several alternatives as to what this term refers to, such as namantpassa olb-
kanti,
vinrvfianassa okkanti, etc. (c
£ entries in CPD: derived from ava-kTane, e.g. avakkanti,
okhanti) . In
this
paper,
I
shalr investigate the fbllowing expressions: gabbhassa avakkanti,
gabbhe okkanti, and gabbhavakkanti.
Gabbha means `the womb' or `the embryo,' and
cn,a-kT"am means `to descend'
or `to enter into' (CPD
s.v. `o-kkamati' lb.
In
this
paper,
I
translate ava-kram by `to descendi)
')
. Researchers
give
various translations
fbr
the
above
three
expressions. One purpose
ofthis paper
is to clarify their meanings.
On the
other hand,
in
MN 38 (I
p.265,
l.35-p.266, l.6) and 93
(II
p.157,
ILI-3),
it
is
said that
gnbbhassa
avakkanti needs the fo11owing three conditions: (1)
a mother and fa-
ther
are in
a state ofunion (mdtlipitaro
ca sannipatita honti) ,
(2)
the mother is
in
a fertile
period
(mdtb
ca utuni hoti)
, (3)
gancthabba
is participating
in (gandhabbo
ca
paecupag-
thito
hoti)
. Regarding the third
condition, a number ofstudies2) take
gancthabba
as the
one
who descends into the womb (namely,
gabbha).The other purpose
ofthis paper is
to
ex-
arnine the validity ofthe hitherto studies.
1. (]abbhassa
avakkanti /
gabbhe okkanti /
gabbha-vakkanti
1.1.
Gabbhassa avakkanti
Now I start
my discussion.
In MN 38 (I
p.266,
ll.3-7),
there is
a statement ofhow
gabbhassa
avakkanti occurs: ` (the
Buddha said:) and, bhikkhus,
since a mother and father
are in
a state ofunion, the
mother is in a fertile period,
and gancViabba
is participating
in,
thus,
on the basis of the union of the three, the descent ofthe embryo occurs. Bhik]ighus, the
mother carries around the embryo by her belly fbr
nine months or ten months' (yato
ca kho
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bhildthave mampitaro ca sannipatitd
honti,
mdtd ca
utuni hoti,
gandhabbo capaccupa#hito
hoti,
evai?2 tin,
rpa,rT
sannipata gabbhassavakkanti
hoti. tam enam bhikkhcnie
mata nava va
clasa vd mase gabbhamp kucchind
pariharati)
.
The commentary on this
section explains
that although
gabbha can mean either `the womb' or `the embryo,' gabbha
here
means
`the
embryo.' Gabbhassa avakkanti should be taken as `the descent
ofthe embryo3)' because
ofits word fbrm
and ofthe statement `gabbharp kucchindpariharati.'
1.2.
Gabbhe okkanti
Among various explanations of
dukkha
in
Nidd I (I
p.17,
ll.11-12) , there is the expres-
sion `gabbhe4) okkantimfilakarp dukkham ... gabbhe thitimitlakam
dukkham ... gabbhd
vu#hdinamitlakam dukkham.' Here, gabbha should mean
`the
womb,' and gabbhe okliranti
5),
should be taken as `descent into
the womb.
1.3.
Gabbhdvakkanti
In
DN 28 (III
p.103,
ll,3-19),
fbur kinds ofgabbhavakkanti are defined on the
basis
of
whether or not the
one who descends
into
the
womb retains consciousness (sampoja-no)
in
the fbllowing
three periods:
(1)
when he descends
into the mother's belly (matu
kucchi) ,
(2)
stays there, and (3)
goes out from there. For exarnple, the fburth
gabbhavakkanti
runs
thus:
`icth' ekacco
sampay'a-no6) matu kucchim. oiVtamati, sampoja-no matu kucchismim. thati,
sampay'a-no mdttt kucchismb nikkhamati. ayain
catuttha gabbhavakkanti.'
Here,
gabbhavak-
hanti
can be translated
as `the descent
of
the embryo' or `descent into
the
womb.7)' It
is
noteworthy that
gabbhavakkanti here represents the fo11owing sequence of three actions:
descent
into
the mother's belly,
staying there, and going
out from there. Although the word
crvakkanti i'tself
originally indicates
only the
first
action of this sequence, here it includes
the whole sequence.
2.
Gandhabba in
the Statement of Conception
As I
mentioned above, in
MN 38 (I
p.265,
l.3-p.266,
l.6),
it is said that gabbhassa
avakkonti needs the
three conditions, and the
third
¢onditon is
`gancV)abbo...paccupae
thito
hoti.'
A number ofhitherto studies state that this gan(ihabba
descends into
the womb.
Next,
I
shall examine this interpretation. For this purpose,
I shall pick
up some examples of
praty-upa-stha
and sapa-ni-pat, which are important
for
the understanding ofthis gancthab-
ba.
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2.1. Rraty-upa-stha-
Regarding praty-upa-stha,
I
can not find
any example implying `to descend
into'
in
the
Pali
canon. ExamplesIfind are as fo11ows:`(the Buddha said:) by the
son ...the mother
and father
should be attended on (thinking thus:)
"1, who have been supported by them,
will support (them).I'11 do the duties for them. I'11 keep the family line
going..."'
(puttena
.
.
.
mdtopitaropaccupatghdtabba-: bhato nesam bhaFissdmi.
kiccam
nesam karissjmi.
kztla-
vantsarp thapessami...DN 31
(III p.189,
ll.5-7));
`(Ajackal searching fbr fbod) ap-
proached
to
(a
tortoise) and awaited close to
the
tortoise,
(thinking
thus:)
"when this
tor-
toise
extends one or another ofhis limbs
including his neck as the fifth,just at the
time,
I'11
catch it,
pull
it
out, and eat it"'
(upasanhamitva
kummam hacchoparp
pacct4)a#hito
ahosi:
yaddyam kummo kacchapo
sondipaficamanam afigdnain afifiatarapa va-
afifiataram vb
afigam abhininnamessati, tatth
'
eva napa gahetva uddZilitva khddissami. SN 35,
199
(IV
p.178,
ll.5-8)).
As shown in the above examples, praty-upa-stha
seems to
mean not `to
descend into' but `to attend on' or `to await close,'
2.2. SZz4-ni-ipat
Regarding the examples ofsarp-nizpat in
the Pali canon, it is dithcult to
find
the
meaning
`to
descend into.'
For
example: `when a number of bhikkhus got
up at first light of dawn,
sat down together,
and gathered
together,
this topic came out' (sambahulanarp
bhikkhtznam
rattlyi pacctisasamayaip pacculvhitanai?i
marpdalama4e sannisinndnarp sannipatittrnatrz
ayam
saitkhtyadhammo udapiidi. DN 1 (I
p.2,
IL7-9)
)
. CBhikkhus, meeting, union and as-
sembling of
these three things is
called contact by the eye' (ya
kho bhikkhave imesam tin.-
nam d7iammanairr
sangati sannipato samavdyo, ayam vuccati cakkhusamphasso. SN 35,
93
(IV
p.68,
ll.8-1O)
).
Here, sannipbta (sahgati,
and samavdye, too) of
three things
is
called
`contact (by the eye)' ((cakkhu-)samphassa).As
observed above, sam-ni:pat does
not
mean
`to
descend
into'
in
most ofthe examples. However, in MN 38 (I
p.265,
l.35-p.266,
L6)
,
sam-ni-;pat in
`matiipitaro ca sannipatita honti' seems to imply the intercourse
ofpar-
ents. At least
in
this
context, sam-ni pat can represent that a part
ofthe father's
body enters
into
the mother's. But, in
this
case, we should not overlook the fact that sapa-ni?at is used
only fbr
the action ofparents whereas
praty-upa-stha
(instead
ofsapa-ni-;pat or ava-kram)
is
used for
gancthabba.
This
fact
seems to support the understanding that gancihabba
does
not descend
into
the
womb. Thus,
from
the result of
above investigation
ofpraty-upa-stha
and sarp-nipat, it seems diMcult to take gnncthabba
as the
one who enters into
the womb.
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However,
the
hitherto
studies have actually understood gancthabba
as the one who enters
into
the
womb on the grounds
of the commentary on the
statement of conception in
MN 38
(Ps
II
p.31O)
and the centext ofMN 93 (II
p.154,
l.26-p.157,
l.10)
without
carefu11y pay-
ing
attention to the canonical statements al)out
the
three
conditions for
gabbhassa avak-
hanti
itsel
£ So now, I shall investigate these two passages.
2.3.
The Commentary on the Statement ofConception
In Ps II
p.310,
ll.25-28, gandhabba is
explained as follows:
`gandhabbo
ti
tatr'iipakasatto.
paccupa#hito hoti ti
na matiipittinam sannipdtam olokayamano sam'rpe
thito
8)
ndma hoti,
kammayantayantito
pana eko satto tasmim. okase nibbattanako hoti
ti.'
A number of studies interpret
that
the
cornmentary I quoted
al)ove explains gancthabba as
the
one who descends
into
the
womb. But there are two difficulties with this interpretation.
First,
Ps explains gabbha befbre the explanation of
gandhabba (Ps II
p.310,
ll.19-25.
gabbha is called ditraka in
that place)
. In
other words, gabbha and gancthabba are ex-
plained
separately
(so
Ps-t). Secondly,
it
is
diMcult
to
understand that
Ps describes
gan-
cthabba as the one who descends
into
the
womb. We should take the Ps's explanation
above as fo11ows:
`gandhabba (means)
a being who stands beside
there.
paccupalghito
hoti
does not (mean
that
the gan(thabba)
is nearby looking at the union ofthe mother and
father,
but
he appears in
the place,
being driven by the hamma machine.' For
these
reasons,
Iconclude that
the
above explanation in Ps does not intend
to imply
gandhabba as the
one
who descends
into
the womb.
2.4.
MN 93
Then, I
shall investigate
the context of MN 93 (II
p.154,
l.26-p.157,
l.10).
Here,
the
Buddha talks
to
Assa12yana
about an ancient discussion between
Asita
Devala and 7 brdh-
ma4as. In this
episode, to begin with, Asita Devala asks them whether the family
line
of
their
parents
through
generations
has been purely
of brahma4a or not. [[hey
cannot answer
this
question.
Next, Asita Devala asks them how gabbhassa avakkanti occurs, and they
an-
swer this
in
the same way as the
statement of conception in MN 38. And then,
Asita
Devala
asks them whether the
participating
gancthabba is
khattiya,
brahma4a,
vessa or suclda.
They carmot answer this question.
Finally, Asita Devala says `That being
so, sirs, do you
know
what you are to
be born as?' (evamp
sante,1'a"natha ke
tumhe
hotha)
But
they
do not
know the answer. The commentary does not explain this discussion.
Hitherto
studies claim
that
gancthabba
in the above context is
the one who descends
into
the womb, because
his
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caste is
asked. If
that
is
the case, it
is
suspicious that
despite
Asita Devala asks the family
line
ofthe parents
extending far
back,
he does not ask
gancthabba's
caste in
the same way.
Thjs
fact
seems to
support the understanding that gabbha and gancthabha
are diffbrent
be-
ings.
And the
theme of
this
discussion
is
whether the fbllowing thought is correct or not:
`Only
bnElhmauas
are the best of castes, others are inferior. Only brahma4as are the white
caste, others are black.
Only
brdhma4as are purified,
non-bra-hma4as are not (purified).
Only
brahmanas
are sons ofBrahma, offsprings ofBrahma, born from Brahmtz's mouth,
created by Brahmd,
successors ofBrahma' (brahmana
va se4ho vapmo, hino
afifio
vanuo.
brahmaub va sukko va44o, karpho
afifio va4uo. brdhmana va sttLi'hanti,
no abrahmapt.
brdhmatu
va brahmunoputto
orasd mukhato.ia-th brahmay'a-
brahmanimmita brahmadElyd-
dZi.
MN 93 (II
p.156,
ll.11-15)).
Now, we can understand sufficiently that
the
reason why
Asita
Devala asks the caste ofgancthabba is
because
the embryois purity
is spoiled unless
the caste ofgancthabba is
hra-hmarpa.
At
least,
it
cannot be argued that
gancthabba
who de-
scends into the womb is the only interpretation.
As a result of the above discussions
about
praty-upa-sthd and
sam-ni:pat, it
seems more reasonable to conclude that
gancthabba
in
the
context ofthe conception in MN 38 and 93
is
not the one who descends
into
the womb 9).
Conclusion
I
summarize the discussions
above. (1) In
the Pali
canon, there are (re-)birth
expres-
sions constructed from gabbha and ava-kram: gabbhassa
avakkanti, gabbhe okkanti,
gabbha-'vakkanti. Although
various translations
of
these expressions have been made, they
should be
translated
respectively as fo11ows: `the descent ofthe embryo,' `descent into
the
womb,' and the
third
expression can be understood as `the descent
of the embryo' or `de-
scent into
womb.' (2)
gabbhdvakkanti
in DN 28
(IV
p.103,
ll.3-19)
not only indicates
the
literal
meaning of ava-kram, but
also implies
the whole sequence of actions including
nis.
-
kxam.
This
is
such an expression that
the first action of the sequence represents the whole
sequence. It
is
notewonhy that
(re-)binh
expressions constructed from
gabbha and ava-
kram mean descent
and on the other hand
the same expressions mean descent including
nis.
-kram (c£ Vin I
p.93,
U.14-22).
(3)
gancthabba
in MN 38
(I
p.265,
l.35-p266,
l.6)
and in
MN 93 (II
p.157,
ILI-3)
is not the one who descends into the
womb. In
this
case,
however, who descends?
Ib answer this
question,
I should discuss
satta (the
being)
and
vinNfiarpa (the
cognition) in
detail,
which will fbllow
in
the
near future.
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I
would like
to express my thanks
to
Ms. Mariko Tomita for correcting my English.
Abbreviations
fbl-
low the Epilegomena
of
CPD except T:
IIbish6
shinshU daiz6ky6 JJ<iEsuvaJk
rass. All
references are
to the
PTS edition.
But partly
I
took the
readings of Be (Chattha
Safigayana
CD-ROM) and Se (e-
text)
.
In this paper,
I use mostly the Pali canon, in
consideration of
the
divergence
ofcanonical state-
ments on gandhabba among vamous sects.
1
)
Refer
to Goto
[2005].
Muroji [1996]
investigates the transmission ofthe foTmula on the
(re-)
birth
through
various Abhidharma
literatures. 2 )
Analayo [2008], which is
the latest
discus-
sion on this
topic
as far
as I
know,
takes gancthabba
as the one who enters into
the
womb. On the
other
hand,
Langer [2001
:
pp.9-17] does
not think so. For comparison, in
Japan,
whereas there
is
little
dis-
cussiell about this
matter in
Early
Buddhism,
there are numerous studies on antardbhava in
Abhidharrna
literatures.
3) This
seems to
describe
that as a result of the
descent
ofsatta (the
being),
the
embryo is
formed
(c
£ Nishimura
[201O:
p.83,
n.42].). In
other werds, how the subject ef descent
is
called depends
on the viewpoint of whether the subject is
seen from
his
previous
life
or his
current
life.
4) Be, Se:
gabbh'okkantiO.
5) In Th 790, there is
the expression gabbhe vokL
kantito
(v.l.
gabbhavokkantito).
It
is
diMcult
to decide the Skt.
form ofvokkantito. 6) Ee:
adds c' eva; Be,
Se:
omit. 7) gabbhdvakkanti
seems more likely
to
mean
`the
descent
of the
embryo,' because
ehacco is
in
masculine singular, and the destination
of descent
is
matu kucchi
(c£
1.1.).
However,
we can not reject the
possibility
that gabbha is paraphrased
by matu kucehi
(in this
case, gabbha means `womb'). 8) Be,
Se:
add
paccupat(hito.
9) Then, what role does
ganclhabba
play?
It seems dicacult te deterTnine,
since it
is
only said
`gancthabbe
paccupat(hito hoti.'
But some hypotheses
have
been
proposed
(for
example, see Langer [2001: pp.9-17]
).
References:
Analayo,
"Rebirth and the Gandhabba," Minhachulalongkornrojavidyalaya
Uhiversdy
.lburnal ofBudtthist
Studies 1,
pp.91-105,
2008; Goto,
Tbshifumi,
"Yajfiavalkya's Characterization
of
the
Atman
and the Four Kinds of Suffering
in Early Buddhism," Eiectronic
fournal qf
fedic
Studies
12,2,
pp.71-85,
2005; Langer, Rita, Das Bewwsstsein
als IPcZger
des
Lebens:
Einige
weniger beachtete
Aspekte
des vin""fia4a im Pdlikanon, Wien: Arbeitskreis
fur
Tibetische
und Buddhistische
Studien,
Uni-
versitUt Wien,
2000;
Nishimura,
Naoko ptltEi'g{:,
"Veda bunken ni okeru taiji
no hassei
to rinnesetsu"
[}f
= - Y Stwte:
i6
eJg EErSE(Dfi!ll
E
agpmnt,
Ronshti itk (The
Association fbr
Indology
and Study
ofReligion, T6hoku University)
36,
pp.69-93,
2010;
Muroji, YOshihito giCFXt, "TaniO (saisei) no
teikeihy6gen
o meguru Bukky6to
no shodensh6" seEE
(pt!k)
op ENXM lt ss 6 dlaXft
opsuiXpt,
in
l(Oyasan
Daigaku ronbunshti es
W LJI jC\deISt su, pp.
18
1-196,
K6yach6: K6yasan Daigaku,
1996.
(This
work was supported in part
by a Grant-in-Aid fbr
JSPS Fellows Grant
Number 25
1O04)
<Key
words> samsara, antarabhava, gandiran,a,
transmigration, intermediate
state ofexistence
(Graduate
Student,
Osaka University,
JSPS Research Fellow)
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