• Indaka (Sutta)

1. Indaka. A yakkha who lived in Indakūta, near Rājagaha. When the Buddha was staying at Indakūta, the yakkha questioned him as to how the soul finds its material counterpart. The Buddha, in reply, described how the embryo evolved into its final shape by the laws of physical growth and not by a soul's fiat (S.i.206).

Buddhaghosa says (SA.i.231) that the yakkha was an animist (puggalavādin).

2. Indaka. A deva. He had been a youth who gave a spoonful of food to Anuruddha. In consequence he was born in Tāvatimsa as a deva of great power and majesty. When the Buddha went to Tāvatimsa to preach the Abhidhamma, in the assembly of the gods who gathered there, those of lesser powers had to yield place to their superiors. Thus Ankura (q.v.), who, at the start, was very near the Buddha, found himself twelve leagues away. But not so Indaka; the power of his merit was very great and no deva was mighty enough to displace him; he had been lucky in the recipient of his gift. Ankura's generosity, much more lavish than Indaka's, had been bestowed on men who were not holy. Such was the explanation the Buddha gave in the assembly of the gods, on seeing the discrepancy between the positions of the two devas, Indaka surpassing the other in ten qualities. (Pv.pp.27f; PvA.136-8; DhA.iii.219-20; 80-1).

In one place, in the Petavatthu (p.28, v.69), Indaka is called a yakkha, but the Commentary (p.139) says it means deva-putta. He is, therefore, different from Indaka (1).

Indaka Sutta. Contains the question asked by Indaka and the Buddha's reply. (S.i.206).