Bhallikādisutta — closing the twelfth chapter of the Sixes, compressed via peyyāla
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
One compressed formula naming twenty lay disciples in sequence, each with the identical six-item attainment already spelled out in full at AN 6.119, representing twenty individually numbered discourses
Length
~2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
Several of these lay disciples — Anāthapiṇḍika, Citta of Macchikāsaṇḍa, Jīvaka Komārabhacca — are prominent figures recurring across the Chinese Āgamas' own lay-disciple material; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this compressed block as a whole
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a simple roll call in content, but naming twenty historical figures worth reading slowly rather than skimming past
Why this discourse
AN 6.119 named Tapussa's six qualities of confidence and attainment in full; this block represents what the source text gives next: the identical six-item attainment restated for nineteen further named householders and lay followers — Bhallika, Anāthapiṇḍika, Citta of Macchikāsaṇḍa, and sixteen more, closing with Sāragga — twenty discourses in total (counting Tapussa's own, already given separately) compressed by the source into a single continuous roll call.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The same six qualities named in full for Tapussa at AN 6.119 — experiential confidence in the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha, and noble ethics, knowledge, and freedom — are restated for nineteen further named lay disciples: Bhallika, Sudatta Anāthapiṇḍika, Citta of Macchikāsaṇḍa, Hatthaka of Āḷavī, Mahānāma the Sakyan, Ugga of Vesālī, Uggata, Sūrambaṭṭha, Jīvaka Komārabhacca, Nakula's father, Tavakaṇṇika, Pūraṇa, Isidatta, Sandhāna, Vijaya, Vijayamāhita, Meṇḍaka, and the lay followers Vāseṭṭha, Ariṭṭha, and Sāragga.
A roll call of recognizable figures, not anonymous names
Several names on this list are prominent elsewhere in the canon: Anāthapiṇḍika, the wealthy donor of Jeta's Grove where much of this collection's own action takes place; Citta of Macchikāsaṇḍa, celebrated elsewhere as a model lay teacher in his own right; Jīvaka Komārabhacca, the physician associated with the Buddha's own medical care; and Nakula's father, whose page (an-6.16.html) was published earlier in this series' original eighteen-page selection, before this systematic build-out began.
Twenty discourses, one continuous frame
Each name in this list technically opens its own numbered discourse, AN 6.120 through AN 6.139, sharing the identical six-item content and closing formula, differing only in whose attainment is being described. The bilara-data source compresses all twenty into one continuous line using the peyyāla convention already met throughout this collection, naming each figure once and eliding the repeated formula between them with “…”.
A closing colophon marking the chapter's end
The source text closes this block with its own double marker: “Tevīsatimaṁ,” “the twenty-third,” counting this chapter's full run of individually written and compressed discourses together, followed immediately by “Sāmaññavaggo dvādasamo,” “Sāmaññavagga, the twelfth” — explicitly marking the close of this, the twelfth chapter of the Sixes, with the Second Fifty's largest and final compressed block, Rāgapeyyāla, still to come.
Key terms
Bhallika, Sudatta Anāthapiṇḍika — the first two names in this list; Bhallika is traditionally paired with Tapussa as one of the first two lay disciples, while Anāthapiṇḍika is the wealthy donor of Jeta's Grove, the setting named or implied throughout much of this collection.
Citta gahapati, Jīvaka Komārabhacca — Citta of Macchikāsaṇḍa, celebrated elsewhere in the canon as a model lay teacher in his own right, and Jīvaka Komārabhacca, the physician associated with the Buddha's own medical care.
Nakulapitā — “Nakula's father,” whose own discourse (AN 6.16) was published earlier in this series' original eighteen-page selection, before this systematic build-out of the Sixes began.
aveccappasāda, ariya sīla, ariya ñāṇa, ariya vimutti — the same six qualities named in full at AN 6.119, restated identically for each of the nineteen further names in this block.
Tevīsatimaṁ; Sāmaññavaggo dvādasamo — “the twenty-third [discourse of this chapter]”; “Sāmaññavagga, the twelfth [chapter]” — the source colophon's double marker, closing both this compressed block and the chapter itself.
The text
The formula exactly as the source compresses it: nineteen further named lay disciples, each with Tapussa's identical six qualities. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Nineteen further names, one shared attainment
§1“Mendicants, having six qualities the householders Bhallika … Sudatta Anāthapiṇḍika … Citta of Macchikāsaṇḍa … Hatthaka of Āḷavī … Mahānāma the Sakyan … Ugga of Vesālī … Uggata … Sūrambaṭṭha … Jīvaka Komārabhacca … Nakula’s father … Tavakaṇṇika … Pūraṇa … Isidatta … Sandhāna … Vijaya … Vijayamāhita … Meṇḍaka … the lay followers Vāseṭṭha … Ariṭṭha … and Sāragga are certain about the Realized One, see freedom from death and live having realized freedom from death. What six? Experiential confidence in the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha, and noble ethics, knowledge, and freedom. Having these six qualities the lay follower Sāragga is certain about the Realized One, sees freedom from death and lives having realized freedom from death.”
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Self-check quiz
7 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 7
What content does this block represent, and where was it first given in full?
Correct: B. One shared attainment, restated by name nineteen further times.
Question 2 of 7
Which of the following named figures is celebrated elsewhere in the canon as a model lay teacher in his own right?
Correct: B. A recognizable figure, not an anonymous name in a bare list.
Question 3 of 7
Which named figure was already published as its own page earlier in this series, before this systematic build-out began?
Correct: B. A page from this series' original eighteen-page selection, predating this chapter-by-chapter build-out.
Question 4 of 7
How many total discourses does this compressed block represent, and how are they framed in the source?
Correct: B. Each name technically opens its own numbered discourse, sharing identical content.
Question 5 of 7
What does the source colophon 'Sāmaññavaggo dvādasamo' mark?
Correct: B. An explicit chapter-closing marker, with Rāgapeyyāla still to come.
Question 6 of 7
Who is Anāthapiṇḍika, named second in this list?
Correct: B. One of the most prominent lay figures in this entire literature.
Question 7 of 7
Is a setting stated for this compressed block?
Correct: B. A bare formula, matching AN 6.119 immediately before it.
