There is only the Commentar>' on the L'clana. which Bud- 

 dhaghosa presented as hearsa}, to show that Cunda the 'sudra 

 knew of the use made h) the Brahmans of the Putika. Cunda 

 certainly knew this mushroom as a uni\ersal favorite among 

 mushroom eaters when it was in season and it was in season 

 right then: he was taken aback when the Buddha recogni/ed the 

 mushroom and asked him, in astonishing language unfamiliar 

 to his ears, to ser\e them to the Buddha onl\'. Cunda had done 

 himself proud in assembhng mushrooms for the whole com- 

 pany, and now he was forbidden to give them to the guests or 

 even to himself. 



Shortlv after the Buddha had eaten his mushrooms with rice 

 he fell violent!} ill. This must ha\e caused Cunda consternation 

 and chagrin. Alarm was felt, and there was murmuring against 

 Cunda and the mushrooms in the assembly, for all or almost all 

 were twice-born men and had been indoctrinated against mush- 

 rooms. We can imagine Cunda's embarrassment but we ha\e no 

 information: an opaque cloud of silence falls over him. 



In the Di^ha Mkaya the Buddha exonerates Cunda, some- 

 what stiltedly under the circumstances. Perhaps everyone re- 

 membered that the Buddha had spoken up for Cunda and many 

 had heard him but none could recall what precisely he had said. 

 Someone seems to ha\e drafted the paragraph much later. The 

 fitting exoneration of Cunda demonstrated the thoughtfulness 

 and the nobility of the Buddha under most trying circumstances. 



Was not '\sukara-madclava'' introduced in place of Punka at 

 Rajagrha to a\oid confusing people as to the Buddha^s attitude 

 toward the Old Religion? He showed an attitude toward the 

 Putika. and he reacted to them, in a way that we today, under 

 the circumstances, can understand for the first time. 



And as for the di\erse explanations in the two canonical 

 Commentaries for Sukara-niaddava, they may have been intro- 

 duced at Rajaghra also, or perhaps more likely late in Ashoka's 

 reign when the need for an explanation became increasingly felt 

 by the Buddhist community. No theological importance was 

 ever given, then or later, to the Pava episode because, after all, 

 the Buddha was under acute stress at the time, what with his 

 illness, his imminent extinction freely predicted since he was in 



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