འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའ་གྲང་ཁྱར་ད་འཇག་པའ་མད་ཆན་པ intro.19

intro.19

Epidemics must have been relatively frequent occurrences at the time of the Buddha’s life, but the epidemic of Vaiśālī seems to have been particularly severe. Some of the accounts mention that it had been preceded by a famine, no doubt weakening human defenses. There are passing references in The Chapter on Medicines to both famine and epidemic in a wider region in the same period. All the accounts agree in ascribing the epidemic to the presence of harmful spirits and nonhuman beings, and some of them associate those unseen influences—whether as causes or effects—with the loose morals, licentiousness, and defiled mental states of the inhabitants of Vaiśālī.