Kappa

A Dictionary of the Pāḷi Language
Robert Caesar Childers
[EDITED ENTRY]

Kappo (adj.), Fit, suitable, worthy; nearly equal to, rivalling, resembling, like ... Kappākappesu kovido, skilled in distinguishing suitable and unsuitable things ...

Kappo, Time; a short time, moment; precept, rule, ordinance; the rules concerning rites, one of the Vedaṅgas; practice, usage, mode; alternative, permission; a chapter or section of a book; thought; all, the whole; a vast period, age, cycle ... The term Kappa is given to certain vast periods or cycles of time, of which there are three, mahākappo, asaṅkheyyakappo or asaṅkhyakappo, and antarakappo. All the Cakkavā'as are subject to an alternate process of deestruction and renovation, and a Mahāknppa is the period which elapses from the commencement of the destruction of a Cakkavā'a to its complete restoration. Each Makākappa is subdivided into four Asaṅkheyyakappas, called saṁvaṭṭo, sam vaṭṭhāyī, vivaṭṭo, and vivaṭṭaṭṭhāyī. In the first the destruction (by fire, water or wind) begins and is accomplished, the Cakkavā'a being resolved into its native elements, or consumed so that nothing remains; in the second this state of void or chaos continues; in the third the process of renovation begins and is completed, and the fourth is a period of continuance. After the end of the fourth period the dissolntion recommences as before, and so this alternate process of destruction and renovation goes on to all eternity. Each Asaṅkheyyakappa contains twenty Antaraknppas, an Anturakappā being the interval that elapses while the age of man increases from ten years to an asaṅkheyya, and then decreases again to ten years; this period is of immense duration, see Yugaṁ. A Kappa is either suññakappo, in which there is no Buddha, or asuññakappo or buddhakappo, in which one or more Buddhas appear. There are five sorts of Asuññaknppa,sārakappo in which one Buddha appears, maṇḍakappo in which two appear, varakappo in which three appear, sāramaṇḍakappo in which four appear, and bhaddakappo or mahābhaddakappo in which five appear. The present kappa is a Bhaddakappa; of its five Buddhas four have appeared, viz. Kakusandho, Koṇdgamano, Kassapo, and Gotamo (Cakyamuni), the fifth Metteyyo has yet to appear. By the word Kappa standing alone a Mahākappa is meant. The interval of time which elapses between one Buddhakappa and the next varies from one Mahākappa to so vast a number as an asaṅkheyya of Mahākappas. The names of the last twenty-seven Buddhas are preserved. Of these the four first, Taṇhāṅkaro, Medhaṅkaro, Saraṇaṅkaro, and Dīpaṅkaro, belonged to a Sāramaṇḍakappa the date of which was four asaṅkheyyas of Mahākappas plus a hundred thousand Mahākappas ago. Dīpaṅkara, the last of these four, was the first of the twenty-four Buddhas (see Buddho). Since his kappa there have heen eleven Buddhakappas, the present one being the eleventh, The interval between Dīpaṅkara's kappa and the next Buddhakappa was one asaṅkheyya of Mahākappas (Suññakappas). Twenty-nine Suññakappas elapsed between the present kappa and the last Buddhakappa, which was a Maṇḍakappa of two Buddhas, Sikhī and Vessabhu.—Kuppasatasahassādhikāni cattāri asṅkheyyāni, four asaṅkheyyas of kappas plus a hundred thouusand ... .