• Nigrodhārāma

A grove near Kapilavatthu, where a residence was provided for the Buddha when he visited the city in the first year after his Enlightenment (MA.i.289). It belonged to a Sākyan named Nigrodha, who gave it to the Order. In order to convince his proud kinsmen of his attainments, the Buddha performed there the Yamakapātihāriya, and when, at the conclusion of the miracle' a shower of rain fell, wetting only those who wished to be wetted, he related to them the Vessantara Jātaka (Vin.i.82; J. i.88f.;vi.479; BuA.22; DhA.iii.163; also Mtu.iii.101, 107, 114,138,141, 179). It wa's during this visit that Mahāpajāpati Gotamī first asked permission for women to enter the Order. This was refused, and from there the Buddha went on to Vesāli (Vin.ii.253; A.iv.274).

The Buddha stayed at the Nigrodhārāma on several other occasions, and several Vinaya rules are mentioned as being first promulgated there (E.g., Vin.iii.235, 244; iv.55, 101, 167, 181, 262, 314). Various Sākyans came to see the Buddha at the Nigrodhārāma, among them, Mahānāma, Godha, Sarakāni, Nandiya and Vappa (S.v.369 78; 395 7, 403 4, 408; A.ii.196; iii.284; iv.220; v. 83, 328, 332, 334).

The Buddha himself visited Kāligodhā during his residence there. It was during a discussion with Mahānāma that the Cula Dukkhakkhandha Sutta was preached. During one of the Buddha's residences in Nigrodhārāma, the Sākyans invited him to consecrate their new Mote Hall, which he did by preaching there far into the night and then asking Moggallāna to continue his discourse (S.iv.182ff.; also M.i.353, Sekha Sutta). On another occasion the Buddha is mentioned as having spent a period of convalescence at Nigrodhārāma (A.i.219f ); he was there also when the quarrel broke out between the Sākyans and the Koliyans regarding the water of the Rohinī (SnA..i.357; but see J. v.413, where he is said to have been in Sāvatthi). It seems to have been the Buddha's custom, when staying at Nigrodhārāma, sometimes to spend the noonday siesta in the Mahāvana near by (E.g., S. iii.91f).

Among others mentioned as having stayed at Nigrodhārāma are Anuruddha (DhA.iii.295) and Lomasakangiya. M.iii.200; a deva called Candana there taught him the Bhaddekaratta Sutta. Is this Lomasakangīya the same as Lomavangīsa, who is also mentioned (S.v.327) as having lived in Nigrodhārāma?

Near Nigrodhārāma was once the site of the dwelling of a hermit (isi) called Kanha. The Buddha, remembering this, once smiled, and, when asked the reason for his smile, related the Kanha Jātaka (J.iv.6).

There is a tradition (CypA.1,7; BuA.3) that the Cariyā Pitaka and the Buddhavamsa were preached by the Buddha to Sāriputta during his first stay in Nigrodhārāma. It was probably there that Anuruddha's sister built, at his request, an assembly hall of two storeys for the Sangha (DhA.iii.295f). Buddhaghosa says (MA.ii.906; M.iii.109f ) that Kāla Khemaka, the Sākyan, built a special vihāra near Nigrodhārāma, on one side of the grounds.

A grove in Rājagaha. The Buddha says that there he once gave Ananda the chance of asking him to live for a whole aeon, but Ananda missed his opportunity. D.ii.116.