This said we most often hear of accharās constituting the retinues of more senior devas. It should be noted that not only male devas enjoy this privilege. There are several examples in the Vimānavatthu of female devīs possessed of their own vimānas and retinues, typically of one thousand accharās.569 In one place we are told of a female devatā who was “served by many and various males and females” (anekacittaṃ naranārisevitaṃ).570 The same chapter goes on to say that the chief devatā is surrounded by nymphs who “dance, sing and enjoy themselves.” (pamodayanti) It would seem that if the accharās are indeed subservient to the higher devas, they are not unhappy with their lot, nor do they always take a passive role. At one time Sakka’s accharās begged him to fetch a famous human musician from earth, and the king of the devas meekly complied with their request (Jāt 243).
There are a few references to accharās living independently. Jātaka 541 mentions five hundred accharās “clever in song and dance” living in their own mansion. Then there is this curious passage from the Majjhima Nikāya which does not fit very well into the context of the verses preceding or following it:
In the middle of the ocean
There are mansions aeon-lasting,
Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming
With a clear translucent lustre,
Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance
In complex, intricate rhythms.571
There are also, especially in the later sources, mention of female devas who belong to grades lower than the accharās properly so-called. In some places, Sakka’s retinue is said to consist of twenty-five millions (or two-and-a-half koṭi) of accharās,572 but elsewhere this is said to consist of twenty-five millions of paricārikā (translated as “hand-maidens”) and five-hundred accharās, implying a higher status for the latter (Jāt 182).
Among the various sense pleasures of Tāvatiṃsa, music and dance are frequently mentioned. One of the female devas in the Vimānavatthu describes how she is woken from her sleep in the morning by sixty thousand musical instruments. There follows a list of the names of some of the instruments composing this celestial orchestra, but we do not have any more information about them.573
For the accharās and other devas, dancing seems to be a favourite pastime. This is aided by one of the favourite drinks of the devas, madhumadāva, which is said to induce suppleness for the dance (Vv-a 50). Since the Pali word madhu means “honey” this may be a kind of mead. The food of the devas is sudhābhojana, often translated as “ambrosia.” Sudhābhojana probably has a liquid or loose texture, because it is served in a cup. It is described as being white, pure and sweet-smelling and the consumption of it is said to conquer many defilements (Jāt 535).
3:5:12 VIMĀNAS
A dwelling place of a deva is called a vimāna, commonly translated as “mansion.”574 The nature of a vimāna is most thoroughly developed in one small book of the Khuddaka Nikāya, the Vimānavatthu. The canonical book is, like the Jātakas and the Dhammapada, a collection in verse to which prose stories have been appended by the commentators. The verses and stories take the form of morality lessons and mostly follow a fixed pattern. First, the glory and happiness of a deva is described and this is followed by a description of the kamma done in his or her previous human existence which merited this divine reward. In the course of this text we have many descriptions of vimānas and can discern something of their form and nature.
Vimānas vary greatly in detail from one another, and these differences depend on the degree of merit made by the deva. They are usually described in extravagant fashion as being brilliantly luminous, made of precious substances; most often gold is mentioned, but gems and lapis-lazuli575 are also commonly found, and they are often surrounded by parks, groves and lotus ponds. The interior may include multiple rooms and storeys, furnishings such as divans, many musicians and dancers (gandhabbas and accharās) and sometimes song-birds.576
The following example, one of the more detailed in the collection, is quite typical:
On a mound of gold sits a vimāna entirely radiant,
Covered by a golden net, full of tinkling bells,
Eight-sided pillars, very well made, all of lapis-lazuli.
The trim is adorned with the seven precious things:
Lapis-lazuli, gold, crystal and silver
Cat’s eye jewels and rubies.
On the delightful mosaic floor no dust settles ever,
Yellow beams support the roof
Four stair-cases are there, one in each direction,
The many jewelled inner-chambers are brilliant as the sun.
Four railings are there, dividing the space in a measured way.
It shines forth brilliantly in all four directions. (Vv-a 78)
Sometimes the size of the vimāna is given, and although this varies somewhat, by far the most common is twelve yojana. While this may seem huge, it should be recalled that the devas themselves are said to be three gavutas (three-quarters of a yojana) in size. Reduced to a human scale, this would make the vimāna perhaps one hundred feet long. Still a large dwelling, deserving of the name “mansion”, but far from excessively so, as the interior must accommodate not only the chief deva but many hundreds or even thousands of attendant minor devas. One thousand accharās is a very common number, and to this must be added the musicians. In two extreme cases, we hear of devīs who are awakened from sleep each morning by an orchestra of sixty thousand pieces! (Vv-a 18 & Vv-a 50) This seeming discrepancy highlights once again the magical and dream-like quality of these realms. Although the outside dimension may be only twelve yojana, the interior filled with throngs of devas does not seem cramped.
Vimānas are not fixed to one spot but are able to travel through the air by the psychic power (iddhi) of the owner (Vv-a 44). They are said to travel as swiftly as thought (manojavaṃ) (Vv-a 2). The devas may travel in their vimānas to attend festivals, to visit Nandana or other groves or even, on rare occasions, to the human realm. There are several incidents in the Vimānavatthu of devas coming with their mansions and retinues to see the Buddha.577
Devas may nonetheless use other conveyances to travel, such as chariots (ratha). We have two descriptions of such marvellous chariots, (Vv-a 63 & 64) as brilliant as the sun, covered all over with gold, jewels and lapis-lazuli and pulled by one thousand horses. These steeds are described in extravagant terms as covered in jewels, tall, swift, powerful and obedient. Their trappings make a delightful musical sound as they course through the sky. The rathavimāna is seven yojana in size and of course comes fully equipped with a retinue of accharās. We also hear of flying elephants with spacious pavilions on their backs. On the enormous tusks of one such elephant, there are said to be lotus ponds and on the lotuses accharās whirling in dance while gandhabbas make music (Vv-a 41).
The vimāna arises as a direct result of the kamma made by someone in the earthly realm. When asked how his glorious vimāna had come to be, the Cātumahārājika deva Serīsaka replied: “I have received this pleasure not by chance arising, nor by ripening (pariṇāmajaṃ), nor did I build it, neither was it a gift of the devas. It came into being as the result of the good kamma I myself made” (Vv-a 84). Like the devas themselves, the vimāna simply arises fully formed, in a single moment. This may occur long before the death of the person on earth, the vimāna arising at the instant of some good kamma being made. There the vimāna stands awaiting its owner, who after his human death is greeted there joyously by his retinue of minor devas like relatives celebrating the return of a traveller (Dhp-a 16:9). The action taken to earn a vimāna in Tāvatiṃsa may be great or trifling. In the stories of the Vimānavatthu, sometimes it is good morality in general but most often a simple offering such as some water, a handful of rice or the like. Two factors accentuate the effect of the kamma: the quality of the recipient and the mind of the donor. Gifts given to arahants or to the Buddha are of very powerful effect, although gifts given to the saṅgha as a whole are best of all. In one story, two sisters made offerings: one
gave to individual bhikkhus but the other gave to the saṅgha. The former was reborn into a vimāna in Tāvatiṃsa, and the latter came to birth among the nimmānaratī devas (A sagga much higher than Tāvatiṃsa) (Vv-a 34).
The mind-state of the donor is equally important for determining the efficacy of the gift. An aspiration made while making the offering may result in a specific result. An example may cited of a woman who made an offering to Sāriputta with the mental determination: “By the power of this meritorious offering, may there be for me a divine elephant with a splendid pavilion and seat on his back, may there be heavenly bliss and at all times, lotuses” (Vv-a 5). Naturally, upon her decease she found herself in Tāvatiṃsa mounted upon an elephant:
A beautiful devī, mounted on an elephant, with a bejewelled harness;
Pleasing, powerful, moving swiftly through the air.
With lotus spots, with lotus eyes, resplendent with lotuses
His limbs lotus powdered, his trunk golden wreathed
On roads lotus strewn, adorned with lotuses
The elephant treads smoothly, pleasantly, without a jolt.
As it steps forward, there is the peal of golden chimes,
Their pleasing sound like that of the five musical instruments.
Seated on her elephant, robed in pure cloth, adorned
Among her great accharā host, her beauty outshines them all. (Vv 5)
If the mind is composed, tranquil, unified and full of faith even a very trivial act may bear great fruit. One layman merely re-arranged some flowers at a stupa, but did so using the act as an occasion for meditation upon the qualities of the Buddha, and was therefore reborn in a twelve yojana large golden vimāna (Vv-a 85).
3:5:13 BIRTH AND DEATH
(NOTE: although we are here discussing the Tāvatiṃsa realm, most of what follows in this section holds for the devas of the other sensuous plane saggas as well).
When thinking about the devas of the Buddhist tradition, it should never be forgotten that they too are subject to birth and death; they are in no sense immortal like the gods of other pantheons. Existence as a deva is just one more possible station of rebirth in the endless wheel of saṃsāra, albeit one of much longer duration than the human. The Buddha declared that no samaṇa or brahmin, no deva or māra can find security against aging, disease, death or the results of kamma (AN 4: 182). The devas themselves, immersed in an exquisitely pleasant and seemingly endless dream-like existence, may not always be aware of the fact of their own mortality. “When the devas, long-lived, beautiful, extremely blissful, living in magnificent vimānas, hear the Dhamma taught by the Buddha, for the most part they fall into fear and tremble, ‘We thought we were permanent, ever-lasting but it seems that is not so” (AN 4: 33).
The devas of the sensual plane, including of course, Tāvatiṃsa, are divided into two genders and presumably engage in sexual intercourse. The Pali canon and commentaries, despite all the florid passages describing the beauty of the accharās, are rather reticent on this point.578 However, the Abhidharmakośa tells us that the devas of the two lowest heavens, the Cātumahārājika and Tāvatiṃsa devas, “… unite by coupling, like humans, but they appease the fire of their desire through the emission of wind, since they do not have any semen” (AK 3:5, Eng. p. 465).
The act must be entirely for pleasure, since the devas do not reproduce sexually. Birth into these realms is by way of opapātikā yoni, “spontaneous arising.” The deva simply appears fully formed, often into a vimāna already present, there to be greeted by his or her retinue. This experience is likened to “waking from sleep,” (suttappabuddhā). We have seen above how the bhikkhu who died suddenly and was reborn into Tāvatiṃsa was initially confused. It is said to be normal for newly arisen devas not to know where they are, or what has happened to them, when they suddenly arise in a vimāna to the sound of musical instruments, surrounded by heavenly dancers. They find out when they are “reminded” (sāritā) by one of their retinue (MN-a 123). On the other hand, it would seem from many incidents that the devas can recall at least their immediately preceding existence; we often hear of a deva reflecting on the meritorious deeds that earned him his magnificence. One story, where the transition was more striking than most, concerns a frog that was accidentally crushed after crawling out of his pond attracted by the sound of the Buddha’s voice. He was immediately reborn as a deva in a twelve yojana vimāna surrounded by the usual throng of accharās and reflected upon the marvel that transferred him there from a watery pond (Vv-a 51). It may be the absence of any pain or trauma in the birth process that enables the devas to retain this continuity of memory, which humans generally lack.
Nevertheless, there are many references in the texts to deva-sons and -daughters, devaputto and devadhītu. In many cases, this seems to be no more than a linguistic convention to establish the gender of the deva in question, but it is also said, for example, that Sakka had four daughters (Jāt 535). The commentary to the Saṃyutta Nikāya informs us that the familial relationship is established when a newly arisen deva appears in the lap of his or her parent (SN-a 2:1). We hear much less about the details of the birth of the minor devas who constitute the retinues, but there is one story in the Dhammapāda Commentary which bears on the matter:
A woman named Rohinī was inflicted with a severe skin disease, because in a previous existence she had done the evil deed of putting itching powder into the bedding of a rival. After listening to a discourse of the Buddha’s, with her mind concentrated and full of faith, she attained to the state of a sotāpanna, and was instantly cured of her disease.
Upon her death, many years later, she was reborn in Tāvatiṃsa endowed with a gloriously beautiful form. She came into existence just at the corner between the territories of four devas. Each wanted her for his own, and they took their quarrel to Sakka, king of the devas. Sakka looked at Rohinī and then asked the four disputing devas to state the condition of his mind after looking at the beautiful new devī.
One said his mind was as tumultuous as a battlefield, the second said his mind was racing as swiftly as a mountain river, the third said he could not take his eyes off her, it was just as if they were seized in a crab’s claw and the fourth replied that his mind would not keep still, it was whipping about like a flag in the wind.
Sakka declared: “Your minds are over-powered by this form. As for myself, I want to live; I do not want to die. And if I do not get Rohinī then I shall surely die.” The four devas replied as one, “Oh Mahārāja, that you should die, must not be!” So Sakka took Rohinī as his own dear wife, and they went off to enjoy various amusements together (asukakiḷa). When Sakka has spoken, no one may gainsay him. (Dhp-a 17:1)
In another passage, the commentary states that while deva sons and daughters are born in the lap of the parental deva, minor devas of a more servile class have their own places of birth. Female servants (pādaparicārikā itthiyo) appear in the bed of their lord, those of a presumably higher grade called “ornamental and decorative” (maṇḍanapasādhanakārikā devadhītā) appear beside the bed and those who are to become serving people or work-men (veyyāvaccakarā) are born “within the bounds” (MN-a 37). The image of the saggas we have from the commentarial literature mirrors ancient Indian society, or an idealized version of it, and the joys of heaven in no way include an egalitarian ideal.
Even though the devas of Tāvatiṃsa live for 1000 celestial years, or 36,000,000 years of the earth, they do eventually come to the end of their life-span. Although these devas are not prone to sickness in the human sense, their life-span may be cut short in a few ways; we have discussed above while describing the Cātumahārājika devas the fate of the khiḍḍāpadosikā devas, those “corrupted by play” and this kind of death occurs in Tāvatiṃsa also. As well, the devas might meet death in their wars with the asuras, or they may pass away simply through the exhaustion of the merit that caused their rebirth there (Vism 8:3).
There is a kind of aging in Tāvatiṃsa, but it is much less pain
ful than the human form. When a deva draws near to the end of his life, he is made aware of this fact by the arising of the “five signs.” These are: the withering of his garlands, his clothes appearing soiled, sweat coming out of his armpits, his body growing ill-favoured (kāye dubbaṇṇiyaṃ okkamati) and his becoming restless on his seat (It 3:4,4). If the deva then grows afraid and laments his fate, he is admonished by Sakka, king of the devas, as to the impermanence of all formations. Sakka then takes him by the arm and leads him to Nandanavana, where as we have seen above, all his fear of death melts away like a snowball in the sun (SN-a 1:11).
One such death is briefly described near the beginning of the Vessantara Jātaka:
Phusatī was the chief queen of King Sakka. When her time in Tāvatiṃsa drew near to completion, and the five signs appeared, Sakka escorted her with great pomp to the Nandanavana. There she reclined in a gorgeously adorned divan while Sakka sat beside her. The king of the devas told her that he would grant her ten boons for her next earthly existence.
The Buddhist Cosmos Page 43