Venerable Chongdok C. H. Park
Joong-Ang Sangha University
Sweet foods appear in some biographical traditions of the Buddha. The first meal offered to the Buddha after his awakening, given by two merchants who became his first lay disciples, was reportedly wheat and honey. In later Indian Buddhism, the pilgrimage center of Vaiśāli was famed as the site of a monkey’s gift of honey given to the Buddha, one of the “Eight Great Events” in late accounts of his life.
There are a few sweets seen in the episodes from the monastic code of the Mūlasarvāstivāda School of Buddhism (Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya). In one episode, when the Buddha returned to his home kingdom, his former wife, Yaśodharā, offered him an aphrodisiac sweetmeat (vaśīkaraṇamodaka) in an effort to entice him to return to his life as a ruler and husband. Yaśodharā sent their son, Rāhula, to deliver it to the Buddha, but the Buddha merely returned it to Rāhula, who ate it and became so intoxicated with his father that he decided to abandon his mother to follow the Buddha.
In the same monastic code, there is another episode about the Buddha’s eating horse-fodder barley. In the episode, the Buddha was invited by the brahmin-king, Agnidatta. However, owing to Agnidatta’s ignorance, the Buddha and the monks did not receive food. At that time, a caravan leader offered them horse-fodder barley and the Buddha and the monks ate it. When the Buddha ate the barley, Ānanda was sad. Upon knowing his mind, the Buddha suggested that he eat his barley. Ānanda said that he had never tasted such sweet (甘美) food. The Buddha said that whatever the Tathāgata eats becomes sweet and the best among all foods.
In other Buddhist narratives, sweet food is not something good or bad, but a useful tool according to the context. The Buddha and monks accept any food offered with respect as alms, including sweets and meat. On the other hand, the flexible attitude to food by Buddhists seems to have threatened the very existence of the Jain community. In the Jain story of Surastra in the commentary to the Mūlasuddhiprakaraṇa, the Jains scold the Buddhists saying: “A soft bed, something to drink as soon as you rise, dinner at noon and tea in the afternoon, grapes and sugar at night, and finally liberation: this is what the Buddha taught.” The Jains produced this kind of story to keep their tradition from the tempting life style of Buddhists.
(Presented in the 2016 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: Sweet Culture and the Joy of Life, 17-18 August 2016, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies and Indian Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University)