• Guttasāla, Guttasālaka

A village and a district in Rohana. Dutthagāmanī lived there before being crowned at Mahāgāma (Mhv.Xxiv.17). Guttasāla was thirty to thirty-five miles to the north of Mahāgāma, where the high road crossed the Mānikagañga, and lay on the main route which spread from Mahāgāma to Mutiyangana, and from there along the Mahāvālukagangā to Pulatthipura; hence its strategic importance. It was the centre of several campaigns at different periods. (E.g., of Mahinda, Cv.li.109, 117; Vijayabāhu I., Cv.lxviii.34; Jayabāhu I., Cv.lxi.12; Parakkamabāhu I., Cv.lxxiv.165f.; lxxv.15. See Cv.Trs.i.158, n.4).

The Atthasālinī (DhSA.398f) records the story of a nun of Guttasāla; she was an arahant, and when the village was destroyed by bandits she left it with a young nun carrying her baggage. At the village gate of Nakulanagara she met Mahānāga of Kālavallimandapa, who offered her a meal in his own bowl, as she had none of her own. She ate the meal, washed the bowl and returned it, telling him that from the next day he would get alms without exertion; and so he did.