Kutadanta Sutta

There was a Brahmana named Kutadanta, honoured and patronised by Seniya Bimbisara, the king of Magadha, living in Khanumata, a Brahmana village in the country of Magadha. He was preparing for a great sacrifice in which a large number of beasts would be killed : seven hundred oxen, seven hundered caves, seven hundred cows, and seven hundred sheep. At that time, the Buddha, touring Magadha with an assembly of five hundred Bhikkhus was staying at Ambalatthika in Khanumata.

Kutadanta, having heard that the Buddha knew the triple sacrifice with its sixteen accessories, wanted to go to him in order to learn how to perform the sacrifice properly. He was, however, prevented from doing so by other Brahmanas. He convinced them of the desirability of doing so by recounting the Buddha’s good qualities as Sonadanda had done. He went to the Buddha and enquired about the triple sacrifice with its sixteen accessories.

The Buddha, in the course of answering Kutadanta’s question, gave him a full account of the ideal sacrifice as performed in the remote past by King Mahavijita. Following the advice of his Brahmana priests, the king eradicated the poverty of the people, and removed the roots of corruption, theft, and other evils. Thus, King Vijita the Great was certainly worthy to offer such an ideal sacrifice. Similarly, the chief priest who initiated him was worthy.

Kutadanta was overjoyed to hear such an account of the ideal sacrifice recounted by the Buddha. He asked : “Lord, is there another sacrifice of much less troubles but of much more fruit ?”

Thereupon the Buddha preached the Dhamma gradually, from the beginning to the experience of liberation. read more

“More profitable than such a sacrifice would be daily donations for the renunciant Bhikkhus who practice morality. More profitable than this sort of donation is the building of monasteries for the sake of the assembly of Bhikkhus coming there from all the four quarters of the globe. There is still more profitable a deed, which is that of taking refuge in the Three Jewels; the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Greater than this is the religious fruit that comes of observing the five Precepts. Thus, the Buddha explained the means of acquiring spiritual profit in order of rising importance from renunciation, through all the stages enumerated in the Samanna-phala Sutta (the second discourse recounted above), up to the ultimate stage of complete liberation. This was the gradual teaching of the Buddha.

Having heard this preaching, Kutadanta attained this religious insight, ‘Whatever is subject to production is also subject to destruction.’