Allakappa, Alla-kappa: 5 definitions
Introduction:
Allakappa means something in Buddhism, Pali, the history of ancient India. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
1. Allakappa - A country near Magadha. When the Bulis of Allakappa heard of the Buddhas death, they sent messengers to the Mallas asking for a portion of the relics, claiming that they too, like the Buddha, were khattiyas. Having obtained them, they later built a thupa over them (D.ii.166-7; Bv.xxviii.2).
Allakappa seems to have had a republican form of government, but its importance was not very great. According to the Dhammapada Commentary (DhA.i.161), Allakappa was ten leagues in extent and its king was on intimate terms of friendship with the King of Vethadipaka. They spent a great deal of their time together, so that the two countries must have been near each other.
2. Allakappa - The King of Allakappa and friend of King Vethadipaka. They both renounced their kingdoms and became ascetics in the Himalaya. At first they lived in the same hermitage, but later separated and lived apart, meeting once a fortnight, on fast days.
Vethadipaka died and was born a mighty king of devas. Soon after, when visiting Allakappa, he learned that the latters asceticism was being disturbed by wild elephants. Vethadipaka gave him a lute with which to charm them, and spells whereby he might influence them. The lute had three strings; at the plucking of the first, the elephants ran away at once, of the second they ran away but looked back at each step, but when the third was plucked, the leader of the herd came and offered the player his back on which to sit.
Some time later, Allakappa met the Queen of Parantapa, King of Kosambi, with her son Udena, who had been born in the forest, the queen having been carried thither by a large bird of prey. Allakappa took them to the hermitage and looked after them, in ignorance of their high estate. He later lived with the queen as his wife. One day he perceived, by the occultation of Parantapas star, that the king was dead; he told this to the queen who then confessed her identity and that of Udena, the legitimate heir to the throne. Allakappa gave to Udena the magic lute and taught him the spells that by their power he might gain his heritage. See Udena.
Theravāda is a major branch of Buddhism having the the Pali canon (tipitaka) as their canonical literature, which includes the vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules), the sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons) and the abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology).
India history and geography
Allakappa was, in Buddhist tradition, one of the eight republics to whom were given the relics of the Buddha upon his death, or Parinirvana. Initially, the relics had been kept exclusively by the Mallakas of Kusinagara, where the Buddha died, but following the War of the relics, the relics were spread between nine cities or Republics by Drona the Brahmin. The eight other Republics or cities were Rajagriha, Vaishali, Kapilavastu, Ramagrama, Pava, Kushinagar, Vethadipa and Pippalivan. The people of Allakappa were called the Bulayas or Bulis. They were located somewhere in Bihar, in the historical area of the Buddha, but they are mentioned only in the Digha Nikaya.
A Stupa at Allakappa is originally supposed to contain part of Buddha’s cremated remains, according to Buddhist texts: Gautama Buddha’s parents were from two different Mahajanapadas (kingdoms) of the Solar dynasty — his father (Shuddhodana) belonged to the Shakya kingdom, while his mother (Maya) was from the Koliya kingdom. After Buddha’s Mahaparinirvana, his cremated remains were divided and distributed among the princes of eight of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. Each of the princes constructed a Stupa at or near his capital city, within which the respective portion of the ashes was enshrined. For example, Allakappa. About three centuries later, Emperor Ashoka sought to remove the relics from all of these eight original stupas, with the intent to distribute them among 84,000 new stupas to be constructed in his kingdom to honor the memory of the Buddha.
Allakappa (अल्लकप्प) is the name of an ancient locality situated in Majjhimadesa (Middle Country) of ancient India, as recorded in the Pāli Buddhist texts (detailing the geography of ancient India as it was known in to Early Buddhism).—In the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta we are told that the Bulis of Allakappa obtained the possession of a portion of the relics of the Buddha and built a stūpa over them. The Bulis, like the Licchavis of Vesālī, the Videhas of Mithilā, the Sākiyas of Kapilavatthu, the Koliyas of Rāmagāma, the Bhaggas of Suṃsumāra hill and the Moriyas of Pipphalivana, had a republican form of government. But their importance as a republican state was not very great.
Materials regarding the Bulis in Pāli literature are very meagre. The Dhammapada Commentary, however, refers to the kingdom of Allakappa. It was ten leagues in extent and its king was in intimate relationship with King Veṭhadīpaka of Veṭhadīpa. In Beal’s Si-yu-ki, Veṭhadīpa, the native land of Brāhmaṇa Droṇa, has been stated to be situated on the way from Masār in the Shāhābād district to Vaisali. It may, therefore, be assumed that Allakappa lay not very far from Veṭhadīpa.
The history of India traces the identification of countries, villages, towns and other regions of India, as well as mythology, zoology, royal dynasties, rulers, tribes, local festivities and traditions and regional languages. Ancient India enjoyed religious freedom and encourages the path of Dharma, a concept common to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
allakappa (အလ္လကပ္ပ) [(na,pu) (န၊ပု)]—
[alla+kappa¿]
[အလ္လ+ကပ္ပ¿]
[Pali to Burmese]
allakappa—
(Burmese text): (၁) အလ္လကပ္ပ-တိုင်း-တိုင်းပြည်။ (၂) အလ္လကပ္ပမင်း။ (၃) အလ္လကပ္ပရသေ့။ မူရင်းကြည့်ပါ။ အလ္လကပ္ပရာဇ,အလ္လကပ္ပတာပသ-တို့လည်းကြည့်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Allakappa - every country. (2) Allakappa king. (3) Allakappa deity. Please refer to the original. Also look at Allakappa Raja and Allakappa Tapasa.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches (+0): Alla, Kappa.
Starts with (+0): Allakappaka, Allakapparaja, Allakapparattha, Allakappatapasa.
Full-text (+0): Allakapparaja, Allakapparattha, Allakappatapasa, Allakappaka, Calakalpa, Vethadipa, Udena, Kesaputta, Xiang xing.
Relevant text
Search found 11 books and stories containing Allakappa, Alla-kappa; (plurals include: Allakappas, kappas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Amaravati Art in the Context of Andhra Archaeology (by Sreyashi Ray chowdhuri)
Division of Relics < [Chapter 3 - Amarāvatī and the Formative Stage of the Buddhist Art]
Buddhist Sutra literature (study) (by Gopika G)
Part 1.1 - Historical account of relics of Buddha < [Chapter 4 - Buddhist culture of worship in Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra]
Dhammapada (Illustrated) (by Ven. Weagoda Sarada Maha Thero)
Verse 396 - What is a Brāhman? < [Chapter 26 - Brāhmaṇa Vagga (The Brāhmaṇa)]
Verse 206-208 - The Story of Sakka < [Chapter 15 - Sukha Vagga (Happiness)]
Maha Buddhavamsa—The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw)
Part 4 - Notes on the Relics of the Buddha < [Chapter 41 - Utterings That Arouse Emotional Religious Awakening]
Chapter 27a - An Account of Rich Man Ghosaka of Kosambī Country < [Volume 3]
Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh (early history) (by Prakash Narayan)
Nati (extended kin-group) < [Chapter 4 - Social Process, Structures and Reformations]
Stupas in Orissa (Study) (by Meenakshi Chauley)
Development of Stupa Architecture in India < [Chapter 3]