Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c36.3765

v2.c36.3765

When news reached Suddhodana that his son had reached Enlightenment, he sent a messenger to Veḷuvana in Rājagaha with ten thousand others to invite the Buddha to visit Kapilavatthu. But the messenger and his companions heard the Buddha preach, entered the Order, and forgot their mission. Nine times this happened. On the tenth occasion, Suddhodana sent Kāḷudāyī with permission for him to enter the Order on the express condition that he gave the king's invitation to the Buddha. Kāḷudāyī kept his promise and the Buddha visited Kapilavatthu, staying in the Nigrodhārāma. There, in reference to a shower of rain that fell, he preached the Vessantara Jātaka (q.v.). The next day, when Suddhodana remonstrated with the Buddha because he was seen begging in the streets of Kapilavatthu, the Buddha told him that begging was the custom of all Buddhas, and Suddhodana hearing this became a sotāpanna. He invited the Buddha to his palace, where he entertained him, and at the end of the meal the Buddha preached to the king, who became a sakadāgāmin.⁵ He became an anāgāmin after hearing the Mahādhammapāla Jātaka,⁶ and when he was about to die, the Buddha came from Vesālī to see him and preach to him, and Suddhodana became an arahant and died as a lay arahant.⁷