*Adhiccasamuppadavada in the Early Buddhist Scriptures

Abstract

*Adhiccasamuppadavada, which asserts the arising of something without any causes, is one of the heretical theories transmitted in the early Buddhist scriptures. In this paper, I intend to examine the heterodoxy of this theory from the viewpoint of Buddhism, and to get some new information about the Buddha's paticcasamuppada (arising by way of a cause), which is considered the opposite theory of the *adhiccasamuppadavada.By looking into the Pali canon, the following conclusion is drawn. To be sure, adhiccasamuppada is located as the antonym of the paticcasamuppada. But when dealing with the topic of who makes the pain [or the happiness and pain], adhiccasamuppada and the paticcasamuppada get the same valuation, that is, both are insisting that the pain is neither made by oneself nor by others. In that case, a special expression is used to distinguish between them. The Buddha may have been able to suppose that heretics would criticize Buddhism by confusing the paticcasamuppada with adhiccasamuppada.