• Anomadassī

1. Anomadassī. The seventh Buddha. He was born in the park Sunanda in Candavatī, his parents being Yasavā and Yasodharā. He lived in three palaces: Siri, Upasiri and Vaddha (Sirivaddha, according to BuA.). His wife was Sirimā and his son Upavāna. He renounced household life at the age of 10,000 years, leaving home in a palanquin, and practised austerities for ten months. A maiden, Anupamā, gave him a meal of milk-rice before his Enlightenment, and the Ājīvaka, Anoma, provided him with grass for his seat, his Bodhi being an ajjuna tree.

His first sermon was preached in the park Sudassana in Subhavatī. The Twin-Miracle was performed at Osadhī at the foot of an asana tree. Nisabha and Asoka (v.l. Anoma) were chief among his monks, and Sundarī and Sumanā among his nuns. Among laymen, Nandivaddha and Sirivaddha were his foremost supporters, and among laywomen, Uppalā and Padumā.

King Dhammaka was his royal patron; his constant attendant was Varuna. He lived to be 100,000 years old and died at Dhammārāma. He held three assemblies at which were present 800,000, 700,000 and 600,000 respectively.

The Bodhisatta was a powerful yakkha-chief and entertained the Buddha and his following (Bu.x.; BuA.141-6).

It was a sermon preached by Nisabha and Anoma, the chief disciples of this Buddha, that made Sarada-tāpasa (Sāriputta in his last birth) wish to become an aggasāvaka himself. Later, Sirivaddha (Moggallāna), at Sarada's suggestion, entertained the Buddha and wished for the post of second disciple under Gotama (DhA.i.88-94).

Bakkula Thera was an ascetic in Anomadassī's day. The Buddha once suffered from an abdominal affliction and it was this ascetic who cured him(AA.i.169; Mil.216).

It is said that at Anomadassī's birth seven kinds of jewels rained down from the sky and that this was the reason for his name. From the time of his conception the aura of his body spread round him to a distance of eighty hands. BuA.141.

2. Anomadassī. An ascetic who gave grass for his seat to Sikhī Buddha. BuA.201.

3. Anomadassī. A Sangharāja of Ceylon, at whose request the Hatthavanagalla-Vihāra-Vamsa was written (D'Alwis' edition, p.7, n.6). He was the author of a Sinhalese work on astrology, the Daivajña-kāma-dhenu, and he is generally identified with the Elder for whom, according to the Cūlavamsa (lxxxviii. vv.37-9; see also P.L.C., 219), Patirājadeva, minister to Parakkamabāhu II., built in Hatthavanaggalla, following the king's orders, a temple of three storeys and a lofty pinnacle.

4. Anomadassī. An Elder of Ceylon, at whose request a pupil of Ananda Vanaratana wrote a commentary called Sāratthasamuccaya on four Bhānavāras of the Tipitaka. P.L.C., 227. The work has now been published in the Simon Hewavitarana Bequest Series (Colombo), vol. xxvii. For a discussion on this Anomadassī see the Introduction, p. x-xi.