Konakamana (Pali, Konagamana; Sanskrit, Konaka-
muni or Kanakamuni). No names of other buddhas are
mentioned, and there is no way to determine whether
As ́oka viewed Konakamana as belonging to a larger lin-
eage scheme. Within a century or so after As ́oka’s time,
however—and possibly much earlier, depending on
what dates are assigned to materials in the Pali canon—
other names had been added to the list as well.
Seven buddhas.A wide range of literary, artistic,
and epigraphical sources refers to “seven buddhas of
the past,” a list including S ́akyamuni and six prior
buddhas: Vipas ́yin, S ́ikhin, Vis ́vabhu, Krakucchanda,
Kanakamuni, and Kas ́yapa. A terminus ante quemfor
the emergence of this tradition is again supplied by an
inscription, in this case on a stupa railing at Bharhut
in north-central India (ca. second century B.C.E.),
where S ́akyamuni’s predecessors (with the exception of
S ́ikhin, where the railing has been damaged) are men-
tioned by name. The same six buddhas, together with
S ́akyamuni, are prominently featured on the gateways
to the great stupa at SAN
CI(ca. first century B.C.E.).
Subsequently, they appear, both in artistic works and
in inscriptions, at a host of other Buddhist sites.
The widespread agreement on both the number
and sequence of these previous buddhas in surviving
sources—including canonical scriptures preserved in
Pali and Chinese that can be attributed to several dis-
tinct ordination lineages (nikayas)—suggests that the
list of seven was formulated at an early date. More
specifically, it points to the likelihood that this list
had been standardized prior to the first major schism
in Buddhist history, the split between the self-
proclaimed “Elders” (Sthaviras) and “Majorityists”
(Mahasamghikas, or Great Assembly), which took
place between a century and a century and a half af-
ter the Buddha’s death.
The most detailed discussion of S ́akyamuni’s pre-
decessors in early (i.e., non-Mahayana) canonical lit-
erature is found in the Pali Mahapadana-suttanta
(Dlghanikaya, suttano. 14) and in other recensions of
the same text preserved in Chinese translation (Taisho
1[1], 2, 3, 4, and 125[48.45]). Here the lives of the seven
buddhas, from Vipas ́yin (Pali, Vipass) to S ́akyamuni
himself, are related in virtually identical terms, from a
penultimate existence in the Tusita heaven, to a mirac-
ulous birth, to the experience of nirvana and a subse-
quent preaching career. Only in minor details—such
as the names of their parents, their life spans, and the
caste into which they were born—can these biogra-
phies be distinguished.
Implicit in this replication of a single paradigmatic
pattern is the assumption that all buddhas-to-be (San-
skrit, BODHISATTVA) must carry out an identical series
of practices, after which they will teach a dharma iden-
tical to that of their predecessors. In subsequent cen-
turies this would lead to the idea that by replicating
the deeds of S ́akyamuni and his predecessors in every
detail, other Buddhists, too, could strive to become
buddhas rather than arhats.Not all the members of this list of seven, despite
their parallel life stories, appear to have played equally
significant roles in cultic practice. If we divide the list
into subgroups of “archaic” buddhas said to have lived
many eons ago (Vipas ́yin, S ́ikhin, and Vis ́vabhu), and
“ancient” buddhas described as preceding S ́akyamuni
in the present eon (Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and
Kas ́yapa), a clear pattern can be discerned. While the
ancient buddhas are all associated with known geo-
graphical locations, the towns where the archaic bud-
dhas are said to have lived have no clear historical
referent. When the Chinese monk FAXIAN(ca. 337–ca.
418) visited India at the beginning of the fifth century
C.E., for example, he was taken to three towns in north-
east India (all within range of the city of S ́ravast),
where the ancient buddhas were said to have lived, and
he was shown stupas said to contain their remains. No
comparable pilgrimage sites connected with the three
archaic buddhas are mentioned, either in Faxian’s re-
port or in those of subsequent Chinese visitors. Based
on surviving images and inscriptions, as well as on fur-
ther data found in the travel accounts of Faxian and
later Chinese pilgrims, J. Ph. Vogel has suggested that
the buddha Kas ́yapa may have been an especially pop-
ular object of veneration.Twenty-five buddhas.An expanded version of the
list of seven, totaling twenty-five buddhas in all, is at-
tested in the Pali Buddhavamsa,though it appears to
be little known outside the THERAVADAtradition. This
list extends still further into the past to begin with the
buddha DIPAMKARA, in whose presence the future
S ́akyamuni made his initial vow to attain buddhahood.
Although the story of Dpamkara is not included in
the Pali collection of JATAKAtales recounting S ́akya-
muni’s former lives, it does appear in the Nidanakatha,
an introduction to that collection that is generally as-
signed to the fifth century C.E. and quotes directly from
earlier sources such as the Buddhavamsa and the
Cariyapitaka.The story is frequently depicted in art
from the Gandhara region, though it is virtually ab-
sent from other Buddhist sites, suggesting that it mayBUDDHA(S)