Koṇāgamana Buddha


Koṇāgamana Buddha, known as Kanakamuni in Sanskrit, also known as Koṇāgon or Kanakagamana, is one of the ancient Buddhas whose biography is chronicled in chapter 23 of the Buddhavamsa, one of the books of the Pāli Canon.

Buddhist tradition

According to Theravāda Buddhist tradition, Koṇāgamana is the twenty-sixth of the twenty-nine named Buddhas, the fifth of the Seven Buddhas of Antiquity, and the second of the five Buddhas of the present kalpa.
The present kalpa is called the bhadrakalpa. The five Buddhas of the present kalpa are:
  1. Kakusandha
  2. Koṇāgamana
  3. Kassapa
  4. Gautama
  5. Maitreya
Koṇāgamana is said to have been born in Subhagavati Park in Sobhavati on Wednesday; because of this Koṇāgamana is placed on the Wednesday pedestal.

Historical mentions of the Koṇāgamana Buddha

The Koṇāgamana Buddha is mentioned in a 3rd-century BCE inscription by Ashoka at Nigali Sagar, in today's Nepal. There is an Ashoka pillar at the site today. Ashoka's inscription in Brahmi is on the fragment of the pillar still partly buried in the ground. The inscription made when Emperor Asoka at Nigali Sagar in 249 BCE records his visit, the enlargement of a stupa dedicated to the Kanakamuni Buddha, and the erection of a pillar:
According to Xuanzang, Koṇāgamana's relics were held in a stupa in Nigali Sagar, in what is now Kapilvastu District in southern Nepal.

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