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BUDDHIST INDIA
finished whilst the Buddha was staying at the Nigrodhārāma (the pleasaunce under the Banyan Grove) in the Great Wood (the Mahāvana) near by. There was a residence there, provided by the community, for recluses of all schools. Gotama was asked to inaugurate the new hall, and he did so by a series of ethical discourses, lasting through the night, delivered by himself, Ananda, and Moggallana. They are preserved for us in full at M. 1. 353, foll., and S. 4. 182, foll.
Besides this Mote Hall at the principal town we hear of others at some of the other towns above referred to. And no doubt all the more inportant places had such a hall, or pavilion, covered with a roof, but with no walls, in which to conduct their business. And the local affairs of each village were carried on in open assembly of the householders, held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive a feature of each village in the long and level alluvial plain. It was no doubt in this plain, stretching about fifty miles from east to west, and thirty or forty miles to the southward from the foot of Himalaya Hills, that the majority of the clan were resident.
The clan subsisted on the produce of their rice. fields and their cattle. The villages were grouped round the rice fields, and the cattle wandered through the outlying forest, over which the peasantry, all Sākiyas by birth, had rights of common. There were artisans, probably not Sākiyas, in each village ; and men of certain special trades of a higher standing; the carpenters, smiths, and potters for instance, had villages of their own. So also had the brahmins,
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
| SR No. | 035274 |
| Book Title | Story of Nation Buddhist India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | T Fisher Unwin Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1916 |
| Total Pages | 356 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 88 MB |