Tribes in Ancient India c50.225

c50.225

It is not possible to refer to all of the stories told of the Buddha’s disciples and their connection with Magadha, and particularly Rājagṛha. We have already mentioned the fact that Sāriputta was a native of Magadha; he is often referred to in the Pāli literature.⁵ It was at Rājagṛha that Anāthapiṇḍika, the great banker of Śrāvastī, was converted by the Buddha.⁶ The *Manorathapūraṇī* relates that Piṇḍola Bharadvāja, one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples, was born at Rājagṛha in a rich Brahmin family.⁷ It further narrates that Cullapanthaka and Mahāpanthaka, grandsons of Dhanaseṭṭhi, a banker of Rājagṛha, could by their supernatural power create as many bodies as they liked.⁸ Kumārakassapa, foremost of the orators amongst the Buddha’s pupils, was born at Rājagṛha.⁹ While the Buddha was at Rājagṛha at Kalandakanivāpa, a party of six bhikkhuṇīs went to attend the Giraggasamajja, a kind of festival.¹⁰ Apparently such festivals were common in the Magadhan capital, for we read in the *Jātaka* (I, 489) that there was a festival at Rājagṛha where people drank wine, ate flesh, danced and sang; and in the *Visuddhimagga*¹¹ we read of a festival at Rājagṛha in which five hundred virgins offered Mahākassapa-thera a kind of cake which he accepted. Another celebration known as Nakkhattakīḷam, ‘sport of the stars’, in which the rich took part, used to be held at Rājagṛha, and lasted a week.¹²