The first Buddhist synod

This post presents chapter 54 of the ရုပ်စုံ ပုဒ္ဓသါသနာဝင် (Illustrated History of Buddhism), published by the YMBA. The image below accompanies the text. Vocabulary and my translation are included below.





Vocabulary:

ရဟန္တာ ။ Arahant
ရဟန်း ။ monk
အရှင် ။ master; lord; noble, venerable, powerful person.
သင်္ဂါယနာ ။ [Buddhist] synod
တောထွက်ကြီး ။ someone who ordains as a monk at an old age (lit. forest-flee-old)
အချုပ်ချယ် ။ control
သံဝေဂ ။ apprehension
အောင့်အည်း ။ to feel hurt by a remark; to feel a dull pain
သည်း ။ be violent; be strong; liver
ဓာတ်တော် ။ relics of a Buddha or an arahant
ဝေခြမ်း ။ to distribute
လူစား ။ type of person

Translation:

54 ။ Together with 500 arahants Venerable Mahakassapa held [lit. 'put'] a [Buddhist] synod

At the time when seven days had passed after the noble lord Buddha's parinibbana, as the Venerable Mahakassapa together with 500 monks were coming during a journey from the country of Pavi to Kusinara, when [they] heard about the Buddha's parinibbana the young monks cried. As for one [monk] named Subhadda who had ordained as a monk at an old age, "My lords, don't cry. [We] had to experience much of the monk Gautama's control. Now [we] are free from his grip [lit. hand]." [he] said with pleasure.

The great noble master [Mahakassapa] heard that speech and [he] was not at ease for the future [of the Buddha's] teaching and with apprehension [he] felt a strong pain. After that the relics of the Buddha were distributed, [and] in the midst of the Sangha, [the monks] joined in agreement [that] if a [Buddhist] synod was not held, the type of person like Sudhadda [would] destroy the Buddha Dhamma, talking thus, a [Buddhist] synod was held with the help of King Ajatasattu together with 500 Arahants.