Tribes in Ancient India c32.123

c32.123

The Pāli Buddhist literature is full of facts regarding the glories of Sāvatthī. Many of the Buddha’s most edifying discourses were delivered at the Kośala capital, which was the place of residence of two of the most munificent benefactors of the Buddhist Saṃgha, viz. Anāthapiṇḍika, the great merchant, and Visākhā Migāramātā, the most liberal-hearted of the ladies figuring in the Buddhist literature. Sāvatthī is mentioned in the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta of the Dīgha Nikāya as a great city. It was the resort of many wealthy nobles, Brahmins, heads of houses and believers in the Tathāgata. In one of the Jātakas we read that there was at Sāvatthī a rich merchant who was worth eighteen crores ⁵; in another we read that at Sāvatthī, in the house of Anāthapiṇḍika, food was always ready for 500 brethren, and the same thing is told about Visākhā and the king of Kośala.⁶ In the Vimānavatthu we read that the Kosalas and especially the inhabitants of Sāvatthī were remarkable for their charity, which, they believed, was one of the principal ways of obtaining heavenly bliss.