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The Buddha's white pony
G. P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Names) edited
by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
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| The Scythian prince loved his horse. |
The baby Prince Siddhartha -- before he renounced at 29-years-old, traveled East to meditate, and awakened thus becoming "the Buddha" at age 35 -- had a a white pony named Kanthaka. This horse was very devoted. It broke his heart when Prince Siddhartha left.
The horse on which Gautama left his father's palace, accompanied by his
attendant Channa, was the horse Kanthaka.
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| Stone carving of white pony Kanthaka. |
It is said that when he was saddled for the journey, he
realized the importance of the hour and neighed loudly for joy, but the devas ("shining ones")
muffled the sound of his neighing and his footsteps as he galloped
through the streets.
Ordinarily the sound of his neighing and galloping could be
heard throughout the seasonal royal palace in Kapilavatthu [modern Bamiyan, Afghanistan, according to Dr. Ranajit Pal].
He was 18 cubits long [cubit=length between elbow and fingertips] from neck to tail and
proportionately broad and white in color like a clean conch-shell.
In this journey of renunciation, leaving when all were asleep, Channa held on to Kanthaka's tail. The horse had
the strength, had it been necessary, to clear the ramparts of the city, 18 hands high, at a single bound, with the prince and Channa on his back.
Just outside
Kapilavatthu the prince stopped the horse to take one last look at the capital
city. A burial mound (cetiya) was later erected on this spot and called Kanthakanivatta cetiya.
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| Prince Siddhartha renounces worldly life by casting off his finery, jewellery, and long hair. |
.
The horse traveled 30 leagues between midnight and the following morning,
as far as the river Anomā. It is said that Kanthaka could travel around the whole realm [wold-system,
cakka-vāla, so perhaps it was an advanced craft or a supernaturally powerful horse] in one night.
With one leap the horse cleared the river, which was
eight fathoms wide [fathom=6 feet]. On arriving on the opposite bank, the Bodhisattva, the Buddha-to-be, gave orders
that Kanthaka should be taken back to Kapilavatthu.
But Kanthaka kept looking
back at the beloved prince, And when the Bodhisattva disappeared from view, the horse died
of a broken heart. And he was immediately reborn in (heavenly) Realm of the Thirty-Three, Tāvatimsa, under the name of
Kanthaka-devaputta (lit. "Kanthaka, son of god," one reborn as offspring of the devas). (J.i.62-5; Mtu.ii.159f., 165, 189, 190; VibhA.34, etc.;
Buddhacarita, v.3, 68; vi.53ff).
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| Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, grew up with a white pony named Kanthaka. |
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| The Buddha, a Scythian, lived on the Silk Route |
The pony Kanthaka had been born on the same day as the Bodhisattva (J.i.54; BuA.106, 234,
etc.) as had the bodhi tree and his cousin/future wife Bimba, aka Yasodhara, which would mean he was 29 when he passed away to be reborn.
In the Heaven of the Thirty-Three he had a magnificent palace of sapphire (veluriya) gems, which the male chief disciple Maha Moggallāna, foremost in psychic powers (counterpart of Ven. Uppalavanna, the chief female disciple, foremost in psychic powers), visited on one of his tours in Tāvatimsa. (Vv.73f;-VVA.311-18; see also
DhA.i.70; iii.195).
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