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Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c14.s2.t5: Important Sites in Magadha

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c14.s2.t5

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Important Sites in Magadha

v1.c14.s2.t5.1

Among the scenes of Buddha’s activity within Magadha the following may be mentioned: (i) Gayā, (ii), Uruvela, (iii) Rājagaha, (iv) Nālandā, (v) Pāṭaliputta, (vi) Ekanālā, (vii) Andhakavinda, (viii) Kallavālamuttagāma, (ix) Mātulā.

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(i) Gayā & (ii) Uruvela

v1.c14.s2.t5.3

Gayā arrests our attention first for it was the birth-place of the religion which became almost pan-Asiatic in later times. Buddha on his way from Benares to Uruvela, a suburb of Gayā, came across in a forest the thirty Bhaddavaggiya youths, who were seeking pleasures and enjoyments. These youths, according to the tradition, were related to the king of Kosala. On listening to the discourses of Buddha on *dāna*, *śīla*, etc. and on the four truths, they became bhikkhus and, it is said, they later on dwelt at Pātheyya, a country situated to the west of Kosala.¹ He then stopped at Uruvela, a stronghold of the Jaṭilas. As these ascetics were very difficult to be weaned from the cults in which they had placed implicit faith, it is said that Buddha was put to the necessity of exhibiting miraculous powers to soften their minds in his favour. After preparing his ground in this way, he tried to explain to them the efficacy of following the truth that he had discovered. This explanation shook the foundation of their beliefs to a great extent, though of course, their minds required to be worked up a little further before they could be fully converted.² They accompanied Buddha to Gayāsīsa where he delivered the discourse *Ādittapariyāya* (Fire Sermon) intended to explain to the Jaṭilas that the *summum bonum* which they wanted to attain through fire-worship could be had not through fire-worship but by the extinction of fires of *rāga*, *dosa*, and *moha* kindled by the action of the sense-organs by coming into contact with the objects of those senses. The Jaṭilas after hearing this discourse gave up their cults and joined the order as bhikkhus.

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¹ Hardy's *Manual of Buddhism*, p. 188; *SBE*, XVII, p. 146 n; *Mahāvastu*, III, p. 420; *Psalms of the Brethren*, p. 284; *Mahāvagga*, i. 14.

v1.c14.s2.t5.5

² *Vinaya*, I, pp. 34, 35.

Cites (3)