Devadatta was by tradition a Buddhist monk, cousin and brother-in-law of Gautama Siddhārtha.
The accounts of his life vary greatly, but he is generally seen as an
evil and divisive figure in Buddhism, who led a breakaway group in the
earliest days of the religion.
Devadatta is said to have joined the sangha along with Ananda,
who was possibly his brother, in the 20th year of the Buddha’s
ministry. Fifteen years later, strengthened by his friendship with the
crown prince of Magadha, Ajatashatru, Devadatta proposed formally at a
meeting of the sangha that the Buddha retire and hand over the
leadership to him. This proposal was rejected, and Devadatta is said to
have successfully instigated Ajatashatru to execute Bimbisara, his aged father and the king of Magadha.
He is also said to have made three abortive attempts to bring about the
Buddha’s death: by hiring assassins, by rolling a rock off a
mountainside at him, and by arranging for a mad elephant to be let loose in the road at the time of the collection of alms.
Sensing popular approval, Devadatta proposed stricter ascetic
rules for the sangha. When these were refused, he persuaded some 500 of
the Buddha’s followers to join in a secession. Nothing further is known
about Devadatta’s movement, but it may possibly be referred to under
the name of the Gotamakas in the Anguttara Nikaya (a canonical text), for Devadatta’s family name was Gotama (Sanskrit Gautama). The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang recorded that in the 7th century ce monks of a monastery in Bengal were following a certain regulation of Devadatta’s.
In The Lotus Sutra:
“Devadatta” chapter ［提婆達多品］ ( Daibadatta-hon):
The twelfth chapter of the Lotus Sutra. It teaches that both women and
evil persons are capable of attaining Buddhahood in their present
forms, something generally denied in the provisional, or pre-Lotus
Sutra, teachings, as well as the principle of attaining enlightenment
without completing many kalpas of
practice. In the first half of the chapter, Shakyamuni discloses that in
a past life he was a king who renounced his throne to seek the truth.
For one thousand years, he served a seer named Asita, who in turn taught
him the Lotus Sutra. This seer, he explains, was none other than
Devadatta. He then prophesies that, in the distant future, Devadatta
will attain enlightenment as a Buddha called Heavenly King. Devadatta
had tried on several occasions to kill Shakyamuni and foment disunity
within the Buddhist Order and is said to have fallen into hell alive.
The prediction of his future enlightenment indicates that even one
disposed to evil has the potential to become a Buddha.
Next Bodhisattva Manjushrī relates how he has preached the Lotus Sutra
in the palace of a dragon king and converted innumerable beings, and
Bodhisattva Wisdom Accumulated asks him if there is anyone there who by
practicing the sutra has attained Buddhahood quickly. Manjushrī replies
that the eight-year-old daughter of the dragon king has fully attained
the supreme Buddha wisdom. Wisdom Accumulated and Shāriputra both
challenge this; Wisdom Accumulated on the grounds that Buddhahood
requires the practice of austerities spanning many kalpas,
Shāriputra for the same reason and because he believes women to be
incapable of attaining enlightenment due to the five obstacles. But by
now the dragon king’s daughter has appeared in front of them. After
presenting a jewel to Shakyamuni Buddha, she at once transforms herself
into a male and perfects the bodhisattva practice. Acquiring the
thirty-two features and eighty characteristics of a Buddha, he appears
in a land to the south called Spotless World, where he preaches the
Lotus Sutra to all beings in the ten directions.
Nichiren (1222–1282) explains the significance of the dragon king’s daughter’s enlightenment in The Opening of the Eyes:
“When she attained Buddhahood, this does not mean simply that one
person did so. It reveals the fact that all women will attain
Buddhahood. In the various Hinayana sutras that were preached before the
Lotus Sutra, it is denied that women can ever attain Buddhahood. In the
Mahayana sutras other than the Lotus Sutra, it would appear that women
can attain Buddhahood or be reborn in the pure land. But they may do so
only after they have changed into some other form. It is not the kind of
immediate attainment of Buddhahood that is based on the doctrine of
three thousand realms in a single moment of life. . . . The dragon
king’s daughter represents ‘one example that stands for all the rest.’
When the dragon king’s daughter attained Buddhahood, it opened up the
way to attaining Buddhahood for all women of later ages”.
The enlightenment of evil people, represented by Devadatta, and that of
women, represented by the dragon king’s daughter, illustrate the
universal possibility of Buddhahood taught for the first time in the
Lotus Sutra. See also dragon king’s daughter.
