Local Government in Ancient India c8.37.4

c8.37.4

*The stupendous munificence which met the Buddhist order at every step proceeded in great measure, perhaps in the greatest measure, from women* of whom the typical representative was the honourable matron *Viśākhā*, a rich citizen commoner at Sāvatthi, who made the first liberal preparations on a large scale to provide for Buddha's disciples who came to Sāvatthi the chief necessaries of life. For this she thus spoke to Buddha to obtain his permission: ‘I desire as long as I live, sire, to give the brotherhood clothes for the rainy season, to give food to stranger monks who arrive here, to give food to monks who are passing through, to give food to sick brethren, to give food to the attendants on the sick, to give medicine to the sick, to distribute a daily dole of cooked rice, to give bathing-dresses to the sisterhood of nuns.’ Pictures like this of Viśākhā, benefactresses of the church, with their inexhaustible religious zeal, and their not less inexhaustible resources of money, are certainly, if anything ever was, drawn from the life of India in those days: they cannot be left out of sight, if we desire to get an idea of the actors who made the oldest Buddhist community what it was. (Oldenberg, *Buddha*, pp. 155–69.)