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And the next day, as he sat in the king’s house after his meal was over, the king, sitting respectfully by him, said, “Master! when you were practising austerities, an angel came to me, and said, ‘Your son is dead!’ And I believed him not, and rejected what he said, answering, ’My son will not die without attaining Buddhahood!’”

And he replied, saying, “Why should you now have believed? when formerly, though they showed you my bones and said your son was dead, you did not believe them.” And in that connexion he told the story of his Birth as the Great Keeper of Righteousness.235 And when the story was ended, the king attained to the Fruit of the130 Third Path. And so the Blessed One established his father in the Three Fruits; and he returned to Rājagaha attended by the company of the brethren, and resided at the Grove of Sītā.

At that time the householder Anātha Piṇḍika, bringing merchandise in five hundred carts, went to the house of a trader in Rājagaha, his intimate friend, and there heard that a Blessed Buddha had arisen. And very early in the morning he went to the Teacher, the door being opened by the power of an angel, and heard the Truth and became converted. And on the next day he gave a great donation to the Order, with the Buddha at their head, and received a promise from the Teacher that he would come to Sāvatthi.

Then along the road, forty-five leagues in length, he built resting-places at every league, at an expenditure of a hundred thousand for each. And he bought the Grove called Jetavana for eighteen koṭis of gold pieces, laying them side by side over the ground, and erected there a new building. In the midst thereof he made a pleasant room for the Sage, and around it separately constructed dwellings for the eighty Elders, and other residences with single and double walls, and long halls and open roofs, ornamented with ducks and quails; and ponds also he made, and terraces to walk on by day and by night.

And so having constructed a delightful residence on a pleasant spot, at an expense of eighteen koṭis, he sent a message to the Sage that he should come.

The Master, hearing the messenger’s words, left Rājagaha attended by a great multitude of monks, and in due course arrived at the city of Sāvatthi. Then the wealthy merchant decorated the monastery; and on the day on which the Buddha should arrive at Jetavana he arrayed his son in splendour, and sent him on with five hundred youths in festival attire. And he and his retinue, holding five hundred flags resplendent with cloth of five different131 colours, appeared before the Sage. And behind him Mahā-Subhaddā and Cūla-Subhaddā, the two daughters of the merchant, went forth with five hundred damsels carrying water-pots full of water. And behind them, decked with all her ornaments, the merchant’s wife went forth, with five hundred matrons carrying vessels full of food. And behind them all the great merchant himself, clad in new robes, with five hundred traders also dressed in new robes, went out to meet the Blessed One.

The Blessed One, sending this retinue of lay disciples in front, and attended by the great multitude of monks, entered the Jetavana monastery with the infinite grace and unequalled majesty of a Buddha, making the spaces of the grove bright with the halo from his person, as if they were sprinkled with gold-dust.

Then Anātha Piṇḍika asked him, “How, my Lord, shall I deal with this Wihāra?”

“O householder,” was the reply, “give it then to the Order of Mendicants, whether now present or hereafter to arrive.”

And the great merchant, saying, “So be it, my Lord,” brought a golden vessel, and poured water over the hand of the Sage, and dedicated the Wihāra, saying, “I give this Jetavana Wihāra to the Order of Mendicants with the Buddha at their head, and to all from every direction now present or hereafter to come.”236

And the Master accepted the Wihāra, and giving thanks, pointed out the advantages of monasteries, saying,—

294. Cold they ward, off, and heat; So also beasts of prey, And creeping things, and gnats, And rains in the cold season. And when the dreaded heat and winds Arise, they ward them off.132

295. To give to monks a dwelling-place, Wherein in safety and in peace To think till mysteries grow clear, The Buddha calls a worthy deed.

296. Let therefore a wise man, Regarding his own weal, Have pleasant monasteries built, And lodge there learned men.

297. Let him with cheerful mien Give food to them, and drink, And clothes, and dwelling-places To the upright in mind.

298. Then they shall preach to him the Truth,— The Truth, dispelling every grief,— Which Truth, when here a man receives, He sins no more, and dies away!

Anātha Piṇḍika began the dedication festival from the second day. The festival held at the dedication of Visākhā’s building ended in four months but, Anātha Piṇḍika dedication festival lasted nine months. At the festival, too, eighteen koṭis were spent; so on that one monastery he spent wealth amounting to fifty-four koṭis.

Long ago, too, in the time of the Blessed Buddha Vipassin, a merchant named Punabbasu Mitta bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built a monastery there a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Sikhin, a merchant named Sirivaḍḍha bought that very spot by standing golden ploughshares over it, and built there a monastery three-quarters of a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Vessabhū, a merchant named Sotthiya bought that very spot by laying golden elephant feet along it, and built a monastery there half a league in length. And in the133 time of the Blessed Buddha Kakusandha, a merchant named Accuta also bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built there a monastery a quarter of a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Koṇāgamana, a merchant named Ugga bought that very spot by laying golden tortoises over it, and built there a monastery half a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Kassapa, a merchant named Sumaŋgala bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built there a monastery sixty acres in extent. And in the time of our Blessed One, Anātha Piṇḍika the merchant bought that very spot by laying kahāpaṇas over it, and built there a monastery thirty acres in extent. For that spot is a place which not one of all the Buddhas has deserted. And so the Blessed One lived in that spot from the attainment of omniscience under the Bo-tree till his death. This is the Proximate Epoch. And now we will tell the stories of all his Births.

END OF THE ACCOUNT OF THE CAUSES THAT LEAD TO THE ATTAINMENT OF BUDDHAHOOD.

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