Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c23.20

c23.20

**The Buddha's non-Buddhist Hosts.** But the circle of the Buddha's hosts included not merely his own lay devotees but also the devotees of other faiths. The homage paid by the latter to the Buddha was the greatest compliment to his spiritual pre-eminence which thus won a universal recognition. Thus we read of the Brahman ascetic, Keniya the Jaṭila, living at Āpaṇa, hearing of the Buddha's reputation, was anxious to pay his respects to him, and thought: "What now should I have taken (as a present) to the Samaṇa Gotama?" Considering that he was an abstainer from food at night and wrong time like the Ṛishis of old [viz. Aṭṭhaka (Ashṭaka, author of Rigveda, x, 104, or Atri), Vāmaka (?), Vāmadeva, Vessāmitta, Yamataggi (Jāmadagni), Āṅgirasa Bhāradvāja, Vāseṭṭha, and Bhagu (Bhṛigu)], he saw the Buddha with "a quantity of drinkables carried on pingoes" with which he had permission to satisfy the Buddha and his disciples with his own hand. Moved by the Buddha's discourse, he asked for "the privilege of providing the to-morrow's meal" for him and his Bhikkhus. But the Buddha said: "Great, O Keniya, is the company of the Bhikkhus. Two hundred and fifty are the Bhikkhus in number. And thou art greatly devoted to the Brahmans." But Keniya's zeal had its own way at the end, and he offered with his own hand at his house plenty of "sweet" and "nice" food, both hard and soft, to the Buddha and his company [ib., 35]. The arrangements for the dinner were made on a generous scale with the co-operation of all his "venerable friends and servants, relatives and kinsmen" whom the Brahman requested to render him "bodily service" and "complying with his request, some of them dug fire-places, some chopped fire-wood, some washed the vessels, some placed water pots, some prepared seats", while the host himself provided a circular pavilion for the reception of his honoured guests [*Sutta Nipāta*, iii, 7, 21, 22]. The dinner was followed as usual by a discourse of the Buddha in which he praised the Rigvedic hymn of the Sāvitrī as the chief of the sacred verses, but the discourse was not followed on this occasion by its usual result of the conversion of the guest.¹ Another example of a dinner given by a non- Buddhist to the Order is that of "a certain high official at court" (of the Magadhan king) who was a follower of the Ājīvakas. The dinner was disturbed by Upananda the Śākyan coming late, and ousting from his seat the Bhikkhu next to him in rank, even when he was eating, whereupon the minister, annoyed, complained to the Buddha who gave the ruling that "a Bhikkhu is not to be made to get up out of his seat before the meal is over" (*Chullav.*, vi, 10, 1).