Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c14.1008

v1.c14.1008

The Ceylon Chronicles⁶⁴ record that the Buddha visited the Island on three separate occasions. The first was while he was dwelling at Uruvelā, awaiting the moment for the conversion of the Tebhātika Jaṭilas, in the ninth month after the Enlightenment, on the full-moon day of Phussa (Dec.-Jan.). He came to the Mahānāga garden, and stood in the air over an assembly of yakkhas then being held. He struck terror into their hearts and, at his suggestion, they left Ceylon and went in a body to Giridīpa, hard by. The Buddha gave a handful of his hair to the deva Mahāsumana of the Sumanakūṭa mountain, who built a thūpa which was later enlarged into the Mahiyaṅgana Thūpa. The Buddha again visited Ceylon in the fifth year, on the new-moon day of Citta (March-April), to check an imminent battle between two Nāga chiefs in Nāgadīpa; the combatants were Mahodara and Cūḷodara, uncle and nephew, and the object of the quarrel was a gem-set throne. The Buddha appeared before them, accompanied by the deva Samiddhi-Sumana, carrying a Rājayatana tree from Jetavana, settled their quarrel and received, as a gift, the throne, the cause of the trouble. He left behind him both the throne and the Rājayatana tree for the worship of the Nāgas and accepted an invitation from the Nāga-king, Maṇiakkhika of Kalyāṇi, to pay another visit to Ceylon. Three years later Maṇiakkhika repeated the invitation and the Buddha came to Kalyāṇi with five hundred monks, on the second day of Vesākha. Having preached to the Nāgas, he went to Sumanakūṭa, on the summit of which mountain he left the imprint of his foot.⁶⁵ He then stayed at Dighavāpī and from there visited Mahāmeghavana, where he consecrated various spots by virtue of his presence, and proceeded to the site of the later Silācetiya. From there he returned to Jetavana.