Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names • G.P. Malalasekera
Page last updated on 8 October, 2020
Ahipeta
Seen by Mahā-Moggallāna as he came from Gijjhakūṭa to Rājagaha in the company of Lakkhaṇa. He revealed the peta’s story in the presence of the Buddha. In the long past men had erected a bower of leaves and grass on the banks of the river near Bārāṇasī for a Pacceka Buddha. Here residents from the city would visit him morning and evening with offerings. On the way they had to pass a field, which in their many journeying they trampled and damaged. The farmer tried in vain to prevent them. One day, in exasperation, when the Pacceka Buddha was away, the farmer burnt his bower, destroying everything in it. When he confessed his guilt the followers of the Pacceka Buddha beat him to death. He suffered in Avīci until the earth was elevated one league, and was thereafter born a peta, twenty-five leagues in length, his body enveloped in flames. DhA.ii.64 ff; see also S.ii.254.