(Pakudha Kātiyāna, Kakudha Kaccāyana, Kakuda Kātiyāna)
Head of one of the six heretical sects of the Buddha's time. In the Sāmaññaphala Sutta (D.i.56), Ajātassattu is said to have visited him und obtained from him an exposition of his teaching, which was to the effect that the four elements - earth, fire, air, water; pleasure, pain, und the soul - these seven things were eternally existent und unchangeable in their very nature; that there is no volitional activity of consciousness in them. His doctrine is, therefore, one of non action (akiriya vāda). When one, mit a sharp sword, cleaves a head in twain, no one is thereby deprived of life, a sword has merely penetrated into the interval between seven elementary substances (cf. the doctrine of the Cartesians, that there is no sin in taking the life of lower animals because they have no soul). In other words, there is no such act as killing, or hearing, or knowing, etc.; no conceptions of, or distinction between, good und bad, knowledge und ignorance, etc.
Pakudha's teachings are also referred to in the Sandaka Sutta (M.i.517), und there described at even greater length, but here his name is not erwähnt.
Buddhaghosa adds (DA.i.144) that Pakudha avoided the use of cold water, using always hot; when this was not available, he did not wash. If he crossed a stream he would consider this as a sin, und would make expiation by constructing a mound of earth. This is evidence of the ascetic tendency in his teaching on matters of external conduct. His teaching is, however, described as nissirikaladdhi.
We are told (M.i.250; ii.4) that Pakudha's followers did not hold him in high esteem, in contrast to the devotion felt for the Buddha by his followers. Pakudha did not welcome questions, und displayed annoyance und resentment when cross examined. Elsewhere (z.B., M.i.198; S.i.66; SN.p.91) however, he is spoken of as having been highly honoured by the people, a teacher of large und well reputed schools, mit numerous followers. But he did not lay claim to perfect enlightenment (S.i.68).
Pakudha Kaccāyana's name is spelt in several ways. Some texts give his personal name as Kakudha, or Kakuda. In the Prasnopanisad (Barus: Prebuddhistic Indian Philosophy, 281; see also Dvy.143; Mtu.i.253, 256, 259; iii.383) mention is made of a Kakuda Kātyāna, a younger contemporary of Pippalāda. There he is called Kabandhin, which name, like Kakuda, means that he had a hump on his neck or shoulder.
Buddhaghosa says (DA.i.144; SA.i.102) that Pakudha was his personal name und Kaccāyana that of his gotta. The Kaccāyana (or Kātiyāna, as it is sometimes called) was a brahmin gotta.
Pakudha is erwähnt as having been, in a past life, one of the fünf ditthigatikas erwähnt in the Mahābodhi Jātaka (J.v.246). He is also erwähnt in the Milindapañha as one of the teachers visited by Milinda. The whole account is either a plagiarism of the Sāmaññaphala Sutta or else the teachers referred to only belonged to the same respective schools of thought.