Angulimala - Meaning and Interpretation

Meaning and Interpretation

To the Theravada and Mahayana, Angulimala's story serves as an example that even the worst of people can undo the faults in their beings and return to the right path. The Theosophical viewpoint on this story is similar, and also includes that Karma must be repaid, but it is up to the individual as to how they react to their karma that will determine the change in their character. Even though Angulimala had repented and was enlightened, he still had to pay the karma of killing so many. He was peaceful and accepted what was done, and was therefore liberated from the Wheel of Rebirth.

Angulimala's story also illustrates the Buddhist belief that individuals can be reformed more readily through compassion than through punishment. As Angulimala says, "Some prisoners are tamed with punishment of a stick, or a hook or a whip. I was tamed without a stick or a weapon. I was tamed by the kind words of the Compassionate Buddha."

Richard F. Gombrich, in his paper Who was Angulimala?, has postulated that the story of Angulimala may represent an encounter between the Buddha and a follower of an early form of Saivite or Shakti tantra. Gombrich reaches this conclusion on the basis of a number of inconsistencies in the sutta text that indicate possible corruption (particularly the failure of the verses in the Theragatha to conform to accepted Pāli metrical schemes), and the fairly weak explanations for Angulimala's behaviour provided by the commentators. He notes that there are several other references in the early Pāli canon that seem to indicate the presence of devotees of Siva, Kali, and other divinities associated with sanguinary tantric practices, and that Angulimala's behaviour would not be inconsistent with certain violent practices that were observed in India by Thuggee-like transgressive cults into recent times. However the fact that Thuggee itself was an army of ex-soldiers of the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad, who were Muslims, as documented by Sleeman et al., detracts from Gombrich's claim. If Gombrich's thesis could be conclusively proven, it would establish the Angulimala Sutta as likely being the earliest known documentation of tantric practices in South Asia, about which very little is known before the 7th century CE.