Tribes in Ancient India c50.317

c50.317

Another grove which was presented to the Buddha and his Order was the Jīvaka-Ambavana, a mango-grove which Jīvaka converted into a vihāra, and gave to the Buddha and his Order. King Ajātaśatru had to go out of the city of Rājagṛha to reach this orchard.⁴ In the commentary on the Sāmaññaphala Sutta, Buddhaghosa says that the king proceeded by the eastern gate of the city, the ‘inner city of Rājagaha’, under the cover of the Gijjhakūṭa mountain, because the mango-grove stood somewhere between the mountain and the city wall.⁵ Fa-Hien places it at the ‘north-east corner of the city in a (large) curving (space)’.⁶ Hsüan Tsang, too, locates the site ‘in a bend of the mountain wall’, north-east from the (old) city.⁷ According to Watters’ suggestion, based upon a Chinese account in the Fo-shuo-sheng-ching, Chap. II, the orchard ‘was apparently in the inclosure between the city proper and the hills which formed its outer defences on the east side’.⁸