Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s3.13

c13.s3.13

ŚĀLABHAÑJIKĀ—The term śālabhañjikā originally denoted a female sport implying the gathering of śāla flowers by women standing under blossoming śāla trees. This was a kind of garden sport which was popular in eastern India referred to as prāchām krīḍā by Pāṇini (6.2.74). A graphic account of the śālabhañjikā festival is found in the Avadānaśataka which was undoubtedly based on a much earlier tradition. 'Once the Lord Buddha dwelt at Śrāvastī in the Jatvana, the garden of Anāthapiṇḍada. Now at that very time the festival called śālabhañjikā was being celebrated at Śrāvastī. Several hundred-thousands of beings assembled there and, having gathered śāla blossoms, they played, made merry and roamed about". And again quoting from the Nidānakathā the description of the śālabhañjikā festival celebrated in the Lumbinī