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RELIGION
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the neighbouring hamlets, easy of access. This must be the fitting place for the scion of a noble race strenuously striving after the highest attainment 1."
Secondly, the Buddha's happy reminiscences of the sites at Rājagaha are vividly recorded thus in the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta: "Delightful is "Rajagaha, delightful is the Gijjhakūta mountain, delightful is the Gotama Nigrodha, delightful is the Corapapata, the Sattapanniguhă on a side of the Vebhāra mountain, the Sappasondika-slope in Sitavana, the Tapodārāma, the Veluvana Kalandaka-nivapa, the Mangogrove of Jivaka, and the Maddakutchi Deer Park.
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There varily I dwelt at Rajagaha in the Sattapanna cave on one side of the Vebhāra mountain. There verily I dwelt at Rājagaha on Kalasila on a side of the Isigili mountain'. So on and so forth 2.
It may be noted that the Kälasila was the very rock on which the Jaina recluses could be seen practising austerity in a standing posture from dawn to dusk 3.
1 Majjhima, i, pp. 166-187; Mahāvastu, ii, p. 123f.; Lalitavistara (Mitra's ed.), p. 311; Barua, Gaya and Buddhagaya, pp. 103, 162.
2 Digha, ii, p. 116f.; Law, Rajagriha in Ancient Interature (Memoir A.S.I., No. 58), p. 7f. The Theratherīgatha contains similar reminiscences.
s Majjhima, i, p. 92,
