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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
atthi).1 According to the Purāņas, Śrāvasti is said to have been built by king Śrāvasta, eighth in descent from Vivaksu, son of Iksvāku.2
Sāvatthi was situated in what is now the province of Oudh.3 It is now known as Maheth of the village group Saheth-Maheth on the borders of the Gonda and Bahraich districts of the United Provinces.
The Pāli Buddhist literature is full of facts regarding the glories of Sāvatthi. Many of the Buddha's most edifying discourses were delivered at the Kośala capital, which was the place of residence of two of the most munificent benefactors of the Buddhist Samgha, viz. Anāthapiņdika, the great merchant, and Visākhā Migāramātā, the most liberal-hearted of the ladies figuring in the Buddhist literature. Sāvatthi is mentioned in the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta of the Dīgha Nikāya as a great city. It was the resort of many wealthy nobles, Brahmins, heads of houses and believers in the Tathāgata. In one of the Jātakas we read that there was at Săvatthi a rich merchant who was worth eighteen crores 5; in another we read that at Săvatthī, in the house of Anāthapiņdika, food was always ready for 500 brethren, and the same thing is told about Visākhā and the king of Kośala. In the Vimānavatthu we read that the Kosalas and especially the inhabitants of Sāvatthi were remarkable for their charity, which, they believed, was one of the principal ways of obtaining heavenly bliss.
References to the connection of the Buddha and his disciples with Sāvatthi are too numerous to be dealt with in full. Some famous names in the annals of Buddhism which are associated with the Kośalan capital are those of Nandaka,? Mahāpajāpati Gotami, Sāriputta ' and Ananda.10 Sāvatthi contributed a fair number of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis to the Order. For instance, Mahāsuvanna, a banker of Sāvatthi, had two sons, the elder of whom became a bhikkhu under the Buddha and was known as Cakkhupāla. 11 Thul
1 Papañcasūdani, I, pp. 59-60; B. C. Law, Śrāvastī in Indian Literature, M.A.S.I., No. 50, p. 19. ( 2 Visnuburãna, Chạp. 2, Amsa 4; cf. Bhagavatabama, 9th skandha, Chap. 6, śl. 21; Matsyapurāna, Chap. 21, śl. 30; Kūrmapurāna, Chap. 23, śl. 19; Lingapurāņa, Chap. 95.
3 Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, p. 290. 4 Carmichael Lectures, 1918, p. 51.
5 Jātaka, VI, p. 68. 6 Ibid., IV, p. 144; see also pp. 236-7. 7 Majjhima Nikāya, III, pp. 27off.; Anguttara Nikaya, I, pp. I93f. 8 Ibid. 0 Anguttara Nikāya, I, pp. 63ff., II8ff. 10 Ibid., pp. 215ff.; Digha Nikāya, I, pp. 204ff. 11 Dhammapada Comm., 1, pp. 3ff. 9B
