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sūkara-maddava

A Dictionary of Buddhism | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

sūkara-maddava (Pāli). The name of the dish served to the Buddha shortly before he died, as recorded in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta. The term sūkara-maddava literally means ‘soft pork’. However, the understanding that this was a meat dish has been rejected by many Mahāyāna Buddhists who insist that the Buddha was vegetarian. It was also rejected by some very early sources who were probably not vegetarian themselves, not least because the natural expression for ‘pork’ in Pāli would be not sūkara-maddava but sūkara-maṃsa. The meal could therefore have been either some particular form of pork or something otherwise associated with pigs, such as a kind of food they enjoy. The name therefore may have only a tangential connection to the content of the meal itself, as in the case of a ‘hot-dog’, which does not contain dog meat. See also diet.

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