VepacittiSambara

An Asura chieftain, who was present with Namuci (Māra) at the preaching of the Mahāsamaya Sutta. DN.ii.259

Vepacitti was the friend of Rāhu, and when Rāhu seized Candimā and Suriya and these invoked the power of the Buddha, it was to Vepacitti that Rāhu fled for comfort.SN.i.50 SN.i.51 The Asuras being once defeated in a fight with the Devas, the latter took Vepacitti prisoner, and brought him, bound hand and foot, to Sakka in the Sudhamma hall. There Vepacitti reviled and railed at Sakka with scurrilous words, both on entering and on leaving the hall, but Sakka remained silent, and, when questioned by Mātali, said it was not proper for him to bandy words with a fool. SN.i.221f. SN.iv.201 His bondage caused him no inconvenience so long as he remained with the devas, but the moment he experienced the wish to rejoin the Asuras, he felt himself bound. Vepacitti’s capture is referred to in the Theragāthā. Thag.749

On another occasion Vepacitti suggested that victory should be given to him or to Sakka, according to their excellence in speech. Sakka agreed to this, and Vepacitti, as the older god, was asked to speak a verse. Sakka spoke another, the Devas applauding. Several verses were spoken by each, and both Devas and Asuras decided in favour of Sakka, because Vepacitti’s verses belonged, they said, to the sphere of violence, while those of Sakka belonged to one of concord and harmony. SN.i.222f. Once, when Sakka was revolving in his mind the thought that he should not betray even his enemy, Vepacitti read his thoughts and came up to him. “Stop,” said Sakka, “thou art my prisoner”; but Vepacitti reminded him of his thought, and was allowed to go free. SN.i.225

When Vepacitti lay ill, Sakka visited him and offered to cure him if he would teach him Sambara’s magic art. Vepacitti consulted the Asuras, and, as they were unwilling, he refused Sakka’s offer, warning him that Sambara, having practised magic, was suffering in purgatory and that he should avoid a similar fate. SN.i.238f.

Mention is made SN.i.226 of a visit once paid by Sakka and Vepacitti to a company of seers dwelling in a forest hut. Vepacitti, in his buskins, his sword hanging at his side and his state canopy borne over his head, entered by the main gate, while Sakka, in all humility, used the side gate.