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the Great Wood adjoining their capital of Vesāli, and often mentioned in the books as the resort of the Wanderers. Or a special space was set apart for them in the groves adjoining the settlement,— such were the sweet-smelling Champaka Grove on the borders of the lake dug out by Queen Gaggarā at Champa'; the Mora-nivapa, the place where the peacocks were fed, at Rājagaha,' and others.
The Wanderers are often represented as meeting one another at such places, or at the rest-houses (choultries) which it was a prevalent custom for villagers to put up on the roadside for the common use of travellers. And they were in the habit, on their journeys, of calling on other Wanderers, or on the learned brahmins, or on the Hermits, resident in the neighbourhood of the places where they stopped. So Digha-nakha calls on the Buddha,' the Buddha · visits Sakuludāyi,* Vekhanassa calls on the Buddha,' Keniya does the same, and Potali-putta calls on Samiddhi.' The residents also, both to testify respect and to listen to their talk, used to call on the Wanderers when the latter stayed in or near a village -evidence both of the popularity of the Wanderers, and of the frequent interchange of opinion.
The Wanderers, some of whom were women, were not ascetics, except so far as they were celibates. The practices of self-mortification are always referred to as carried out by the Hermits in the woods. The Buddha, before he attained Nirvana under the
BUDDHIST INDIA
—
Dialogues of the Buddha, 144.
3 M. 1. 497.
M. 2. I. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
S. X. p. 99. 1 M. 3. 207.
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
4 M. 2. i. 29. 5 M. 2. 40.
