Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c21.409

v1.c21.409

The capital city of Tāvatimsa was Masakkasāra.²² The average age of an inhabitant of Tāvatimsa is thirty million years, reckoned by human computation. Each day in Tāvatimsa is equal in time to one hundred years on earth.²³ The gods of Tāvatimsa are most handsome; the Licchavis, among earth-dwellers, are compared to them.²⁴ The stature of some of the Tāvatimsa dwellers is three-quarters of a league; their undergarment is a robe of twelve leagues and their upper garment also a robe of twelve leagues. They live in mansions of gold, thirty leagues in extent.²⁵ The Commentaries²⁶ say that Tāvatimsa was named after Magha and his thirty-two companions, who were born there as a result of their good deeds in Macalagāma. Whether the number of the chief inhabitants of this world always remained at thirty-three, it is impossible to say, though some passages, e.g. in the Janavasabha Sutta, lead us to suppose so.