Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24.12

c24.12

**Different kinds of Dwelling provided for a Saṁgha.** The texts speak of the variety of the gifts. We read of an Upāsaka offering a quantity of wood cut in the forest for a Vihāra in ruins and sending word to the monks in retreat that they might "fetch that wood" [ib.]. We read how Udena, a Kosalan devotee, having a Vihāra built for the Saṁgha, sent a messenger to the Buddha and his monks, then spending the rains at the Jetavana park at Sāvatthi, with the following words: "Might their Reverences come hither! I desire to bestow gifts on them and to hear the Dhamma and to see the Bhikkhus" [ib., 5, 1–5]. In this connection, we are also told that these gifts to the Order from their Upāsakas comprised the following, viz. the five types of dwelling already mentioned, and their various adjuncts, of Karla : Interior of Cave-Monastery [ *c.* second century A.D. ]