Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24.2

c24.2

**Residence.** From food, medicine, and dress we now come to the dwelling of the monk, on which the texts give us much interesting and apparently trustworthy information. Originally the monks were devoid of any dwelling-house properly so called. They "dwelt now here, now there—in the woods, at the foot of trees, on hill-sides, in grottoes, in mountain caves, in cemeteries, in forests, in open plains, and in heaps of straw". Then the Seṭṭhi of Rājagaha seeing them coming from all such places offered to erect fixed dwellings for them. The offer was accepted by the Buddha who ruled: "I allow you, O Bhikkhus, abodes of five kinds (*pañcha lenāni*)—Vihāras, Aḍḍhayogas [*Suvaṇṇa-vaṅgagehā* (Buddhaghosha),¹ i.e. a gold-coloured Bengal house, or a house shaped like a garuḍa bird (Childers)], Pāsādas or Prāsādas (i.e. storied dwellings or towers), *Hammiyas* or Harmyas (i.e. stone houses with a flat roof), and *Guhās* or caves" (defined by Buddhaghosha as a hut made of bricks, or in a rock, or of wood) [*Mahāv.*, i, 30, 4, and *Chullav.*, vi, 1, 2]. Then the merchant "had sixty dwelling-places put up in one day" which, under the Buddha's directions, he dedicated "to the use of the Saṁgha of the four directions whether present or to come". The Buddha gave him thanks in the following words which admirably explain the need of dwelling-places: