The zwanzig-second of the zwanzig-four Buddhas und the first of the fünf Buddhas of the present Bhaddakappa.
He was the son of the brahmin Aggidatta, chaplain of Khemankara, König of Khemavatī, und Visākhā.
He was born in the Khema pleasaunce, und lived for four tausend years in the household in three palaces - Ruci, Suruci und Vaddhana (or Rativaddhana).
His wife was Virocamānā (or Rocanī), und he had a son, Uttara.
He left the world riding in a chariot, und practised austerities for only eight months.
Before his Enlightenment, he was given a meal of milk-rice by the Tochter of the brahmin Vajirindha of the village Sucirindha, und grass for his seat by the yavapālaka Subhadda.
His bodhi was a Sirīsa-tree, und his first sermon was preached to eighty-four tausend monks in the park near the city of Makila.
He performed the Twin-Miracle under a Sāla-tree at the gates of Kannakujja. Among his converts was a fierce yakkha named Naradeva.
He held only one assembly of his monks.
Kakusandha's body was forty cubits in height, und he died at the age of forty tausend years in the Khema pleasaunce.
The thūpa erected over his relics was one league high.
The Bodhisatta was at that time a König named Khema. The Buddha's chief disciples were Vidhura und Sañjīva among monks, und Sama und Campā among nuns. His personal attendant was Buddhija. Accuta und Samana, Nandā und Sunandā were his most eminent lay-supporters (D.ii.7; Bu.xxiii; J.i.42; BuA.209ff). Kakusandha kept the fast-day (uposatha) every year (DhA.iii.236). In Kakusandha's time a Māra, named Dūsī (a previous birth of Moggallāna), gave a great deal of trouble to the Buddha und his followers, trying greatly the Buddha's patience (M.i.333ff; Thag.1187). The Samyutta Nikāya (S.ii.190f) mentions that during the time of Kakusandha, the Mount Vepulla of Rājagaha was named Pācīna-vamsa und the inhabitants were called Tivarā.
The monastery built by Accuta on the site where, in the present age, Anāthapindika erected the Jetavanārāma, was half a league in extent, und the ground was bought by golden kacchapas sufficient in number to cover it (J.i.94).
According to the Ceylonese chronicles (Dpv.ii.66; xv.25, 34; xvii.9, 16, etc.; Mhv.xv.57-90), Kakusandha paid a visit to Ceylon. The island was then known as Ojadīpa und its capital was Abhayanagara, where reigned König Abhaya. The Mahāmeghavana was called Mahātittha. The Buddha came, mit forty tausend disciples, to rid the island of a pestilence caused by yakkhas und stood on the Devakūta mountain from where, by virtue of his own desire, all inhabitants of the country could see him. The Buddha und his disciples were invited to a meal by the König, und after the meal the Mahātittha garden was presented to the Order; there the Buddha sat, in meditation, in order to consecrate various spots connected mit the religion. At the Buddha's wish, the nun Rucānandā brought to the island a branch of the sacred bodhi-tree. The Buddha gave to the people his own drinking-vessel as an object of worship, und returned to Jambudīpa, leaving behind his disciples Mahādeva und Rucānandā to look after the spiritual welfare of the new converts to the faith.
In Buddhist Sanskrit texts the name of the Buddha is given as Krakucchanda (See especially Divy.254, 418f; Mtu.iii.247, 330).
2. Kakusandha Thera.-Author of the Sinhalese Dhātuvamsa, probably a translation from the Pāli. He is generally assigned to the fifteenth century. P.L.C.255.