deva (7495)

deva
Entry 7495, Page 270, Col. 1

(deva, deva)
deva¦ (Skt.), often also devaputra (rare in Skt., com- mon in Pali devaputta), god. More or less complete and corresponding lists of the classes of Buddhist gods are given in Pali in MN iii.100 ff.; Kvu 207, 208; Abhidh-s. (here called Abh) 21; Childers (Ch) 467 has a list nearly agreeing with the last; in BHS, in Mvy 3075 ff.; Dharmas 127 ff.; Mv (1) ii.314.4 ff.; (2) 348.16 ff.; LV 150.2 ff.; Av i.5.1 ff. (et alibi); Divy (1) 68.12 ff.; (2) 138.19 ff.; (3) 367.9 ff.; (4) 568.24 ff.; Bbh 61.27 ff.; Gv 249.10 ff. (the last in reverse order). There are other lists, mostly fragmentary, and often so confused as to be hardly usable. The gods fall into three grand divisions: kāmāvacara, living in the kāmadhātu (cf. Mvy 3071--4), usually six in number; rūpāvacara, in the rūpadhātu; ārūpyāva- cara, in the ārūpyadhātu. Cf. also the 9 sattvāvāsa, Mvy 2288 ff. (Pali DN 3.263). -- Kāmāvacara (deva). The standard list is: cāturmahārājika (BHS sometimes cat°); often °rājakāyika, so in Mvy, Dharmas, Divy 2, Bbh; trāyastriṃśa (Av, Divy, Bbh, trayas°); yāma (Bbh yama); tuṣita (in Dharmas before yāma); nir- māṇarati (see also nirmita); paranirmitavaśavartin. The Gv list omits 1 and 2. Before 1, Mvy inserts bhauma and āntarikṣavāsin, making 8 instead of 6. So Mv 2 prefixes bhūmyāṃ (see s.v. bhūmi) va carā (devāḥ; so read with mss.; va = eva) and antarīkṣecarā(ḥ). While no other of the above lists has these two items, bhauma and antarīkṣa (or antarikṣa; adjective) devas are asso- ciated with shorter lists (generally of kāmāvacara, or some of them, alone) in LV 266.1; 367.7 and 368.3; 396.14; 401.1; and correspondingly bhūmya and antarīkṣecara (deva) in Mv i.40.14; 229.14, 15; 240.3, 4; ii.138.12 and elsewhere. --Rūpāvacara (deva) dwell in the rūpadhātu (Mvy 3073), divided into the four dhyāna-bhūmi (Mvy 3084 ff., see dhyāna), the last of which includes, as its final and highest group, the śuddhāvāsakāyika gods, in five sub-groups. These being counted separately, the standard list of rūpāvacara contains usually 18 items in BHS, 16 in Pali, as follows. First dhyāna-bhūmi, usually 4 items, in Pali 3: brahmakāyika (not in Pali lists, but the word occurs, acc. to Childers as an inclusive term for the classes of the first dhyāna-bhūmi; perhaps rather for all the rūpāvacara, or for them plus the arūpāvacara, since they all inhabit brahmalokas, Childers s.v.; in Gv also omitted; in Mv put second, brahmā (devā) being first in Mv 1, and mahābrahmā in Mv 2); brahma- pāriṣadya (Dharmas, LV, Divy 4 °pārṣadya, Gv °pār- ṣada; om. Mv 1, Divy 1--3, Av, Bbh; after brahmapurohita in Dharmas, LV, Mv 2, Divy 4; our order is that of Mvy, [Page270-b+ 71] Gv, Pali); brahmapurohita (Gv omits brahma by haplo- graphy), mahābrahman (or °hma; as no. 1 in Mv 2). Second dhyāna-bhūmi, regularly 3 items in BHS and Pali; but Mv 1 and 2 and Pali MN iii.102.25 prefix another, ābhā(ḥ) (misprinted abhā in MN) devā(ḥ): parīttābha (Divy 1--3 mss. parītā°; Mv 1 omits); apramāṇābha (Mv 1 omits); ābhāsvara (Divy 3 apramāṇābhāsvara). Third dhyāna-bhūmi, regularly 3 items in BHS and Pali; Mv and Pali MN iii.102.30 add another, śubhā devāḥ (Pali subhā devā): parīttaśubha (Mv 2 omits); apra- māṇaśubha (Dharmas omits), śubhakṛtsna. Fourth dhyāna-bhūmi, usually three items in BHS, one in Pali, plus (sometimes app. included in the 4th dhy. bh. but sometimes not, cf. Childers s.v. jhānaṃ) the five śud- dhāvāsa(kāyika), who are usually not given this separate group-designation in the lists (but are so designated e.g. in Mvy 3101 and Abh): anabhraka (Pali and Mv omit); puṇyaprasava (Pali and Mv omit); vṛhatphala (so only Mvy and Mv 2 in BHS, others bṛh°, but Pali vehapphala); only in Dharmas, LV, and Abh of Pali there follows asaṃjñisattva, Pali (Abh) asaññasatta, a term which occurs as the 5th sattāvāsa in the Pali list of these DN iii.263.9 ff. (preceding the arūpadhātu), while in the cor- responding list of 9 sattvāvāsa in Mvy (2297) it is made the 9th and highest, above the arūpadhātu (an obvious error of Mvy); this item is also given in Childers's list and is needed to make up the traditional Pali number of 16 rūpa-brahmaloka. Then all lists have the five śuddhā- vāsakāyika: avṛha (Av, Divy 1--3, Bbh abṛha, Gv abṛhat); atapa (Gv atapo, as s-stem); sudṛśa (Mv 1 omits); sudarśana (Mv 2 omits; Divy 1 sudarśa); akaniṣṭha (for the Pali forms see these words). Here Mvy alone adds as additional stages of śuddhāvāsakāyika, aghaniṣṭha and mahāmaheśvarāyatanam (see these words). -- The ārūpyāvacara gods dwell in the four ārūpyadhātu bhūmi listed (only in Mvy and Dharmas, and in Pali MN, Abh. and Childers) as ākāśānantyā- yatana, vijñānānantyāyatana, ākiṃcanyāyatana, and naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatana; the gods dwelling in them are described in Dharmas as °āyatanopagāḥ (see s.v. upaga; similarly Pali °āyatanūpagā). In Suv 86.11 ff., curiously, the first three ‘stages’, ending °āyatana, are personified as gods (°āyatanānāṃ koṭiśataṃ), while only with the last °āyatanopagatānāṃ (for °nopagānāṃ) is used. The first of the four is found in the Pali Kvu list also. For the Pali forms of the names see s.vv.

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