Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 1031

190
MAHÁVAGGA.
VIII, 1, 29.
the place where the Magadha king Seniya Bimbisâra was; having approached him he told the whole thing to the Magadha king Bimbisâra.
(Bimbisâra said), 'You have done right, my good Givaka, that you have not returned; that king is cruel; he might have had you killed.
29. And king Paggota, being restored to health, sent a messenger to Givaka Komârabhakka (with this message), “May Givaka come to me; I will grant him a boon.'
(Givaka replied), 'Nay, Sir, may His Majesty remember my office.'
At that time king Paggota had a suit of Siveyyaka cloth 1, which was the best, and the most excellent, and the first, and the most precious, and the noblest of many cloths, and of many suits of cloth, and of many hundred suits of cloth, and of many thousand suits of cloth, and of many hundred thousand suits of cloth. And king Paggota sent this suit of Siveyyaka cloth to Givaka Komârabhakka. Then Givaka Komârabhakka thought: This suit of Siveyyaka cloth which king Paggota has sent me, is the best and the most excellent (&c., down to :) and of many hundred thousand suits of cloth. Nobody else is worthy to receive it but He the blessed, perfect
Buddhaghosa gives two explanations of Siveyyakam dussayugam. 'Either Siveyyaka cloth means the cloth used in the Uttarakuru country for veiling. the dead bodies when they are brought to the burying-ground (sivathika). (A certain kind of birds take the bodies to the Himavat mountains in order to eat them, and throw the cloths away. When eremites find them there, they bring them to the king.) Or Siveyyaka cloth means a cloth woven from yarn which skilful women in the Sivi country spin. No doubt the latter explication is the right one.
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