Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.2018

v2.c31.2018

Mahālatā-pasādhana (°pilandhana).—A very costly ornament of gold. In the time of the Buddha it was possessed only by three persons: Bandhula’s wife, Mallikā, Visākhā and Devadāniyacora.¹ Visākhā once left it behind in the monastery, where she had gone to hear the Buddha preach, and when she sent her slave-girl for it Ānanda had already put it away. She, thereupon, refused to take it back and had it sold. It was worth nine crores, the workmanship being worth one hundred thousand. No one was found able to buy it, so Visākhā herself paid the price for it, and, with the proceeds, erected the Migārāmātupāsāda.² Mallikā, after the death of her husband, refused to wear her jewels, and, when the Buddha’s body was being taken for cremation, she washed her ornament in scented water and placed it on the Buddha’s bier with the following resolve: “May I, in future births, have a body that shall need no ornaments, but which shall appear as though it always bore them.”³