Pakudha Kaccayana
6th-century BCE Indian philosopher
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Pakudha Kaccāyana was an Indian teacher and philosopher who lived around the 6th century BCE, contemporaneous with Mahavira and the Buddha.
Pakudha Kaccayana |
|---|
(akiriyavāda; natthikavāda)There is no reward or punishment for either good or bad deeds.
(ahetukavāda; niyativāda)We are powerless; suffering is pre-destined.
(ucchedavāda; natthikavāda)Live happily; with death, all is annihilated.
| Views of the six heretical teachers | |
|---|---|
| The views of six śramaṇa in the Pāli Canon, known as the six heretical teachers, based on the Sāmaññaphala Sutta.[1] | |
| Pūraṇa Kassapa | |
| Amoralism (akiriyavāda; natthikavāda) | There is no reward or punishment for either good or bad deeds. |
| Makkhali Gośāla (Ājīvika) | |
| Fatalism (ahetukavāda; niyativāda) | We are powerless; suffering is pre-destined. |
| Ajita Kesakambalī (Charvaka) | |
| Materialism (ucchedavāda; natthikavāda) | Live happily; with death, all is annihilated. |
| Pakudha Kaccāyana | |
| Eternalism and categoricalism (sassatavāda; sattakāyavāda) | Matter, pleasure, pain and the soul are eternal and do not interact. |
| Nigaṇṭha Ñāṭaputta (Jainism) | |
| Restraint (mahāvrata) | Be endowed with, cleansed by, and suffused with [merely] the avoidance of all evil.[2] |
| Sañjaya Belaṭṭhiputta (Ajñana) | |
| Agnosticism (amarāvikkhepavāda) | "I don't think so. I don't think in that way or otherwise. I don't think not or not not." Suspension of judgement. |
Early life
According to the Pali Canon, Kacayana was his family name and he is said to have belonged to a Baman Family (meaning followers of dharma). He was sometimes called Pakkudha Katiyana, or Kadhudha Katiyana.[3]
Teachings
According to Pakudha, there are seven eternal "elements": Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Joy, Sorrow and Life. Pakudha further asserted that these elements do not interact with one another.
The Samannaphala Sutta (DN 2) represents Pakudha's views as follows:
- "'...[T]here are these seven substances — unmade, irreducible, uncreated, without a creator, barren, stable as a mountain-peak, standing firm like a pillar — that do not alter, do not change, do not interfere with one another, are incapable of causing one another pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain. Which seven? The earth-substance, the liquid-substance, the fire-substance, the wind-substance, pleasure, pain, and the soul as the seventh. These are the seven substances — unmade, irreducible, uncreated, without a creator, barren, stable as a mountain-peak, standing firm like a pillar — that do not alter, do not change, do not interfere with one another, and are incapable of causing one another pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain.
- "'And among them there is no killer nor one who causes killing, no hearer nor one who causes hearing, no cognizer nor one who causes cognition. When one cuts off [another person's] head, there is no one taking anyone's life. It is simply between the seven substances that the sword passes.'"[4]
In the Brahmajāla Sutta (DN 1), Sassatavāda (eternalism) is defined as the doctrine that the soul and the world are perpetual and unmoving.[5]
According to Buddhaghosa, he suffered from many obsessional rituals with regard to the use of water, avoiding the use of cold water and always using hot; when this was not available, he did not wash. If he crossed a stream he would consider this a sin, and would make expiation by constructing a mound of earth.[6]
He did not speak of God, the soul[clarification needed] or the other world, which has led some scholars to class him as a materialist.[7]